Companies Establish Guidelines for Use of Online Social Media

Guidelines are being drawn up at a number of companies, including UPM, Outokumpu, Rautaruukki, and Fortum. The energy company Fortum hopes to establish a new strategy by the new year.

“Social media includes many possibilities and many hazards, and with these guidelines we are trying to tell personnel nicely how they should use it,” says Ari Kurki, head of digital services at Fortum.

A round of calls to a number of listed companies in Finland showed that many companies see the social media as an opportunity.

“We certainly are not planning to tighten the access to the internet, we are reviewing them at the moment and I can say that we are giving the fresh look and looking quite positively social media,” says Richard Farkas, Manager of Digital Communications at the machine manufacturer Metso.

Fortum’s Ari Kurki says that the company is not planning to impose a ban on the use of social networking sites.

“Instead, we feel that there are opportunities, and we want to encourage people to be present in the right places.”

Elevator manufacturer Kone says that the company is not planning any additional restrictions, but it is following the situation, and giving more guidelines as needed.

At Nordea Bank, employees are advised to use only necessary and reliable websites. At the Sampo Group, the principle is that during working hours, the internet should be used primarily for work-related matters. However, access to Facebook, for instance, has not been blocked.

Advantages and Drawbacks in the Balance

Social media offers good opportunities for networking.

Richard Farkas of Metso says that one advantage of social media is that employees can develop their professional networks with different types of people.

On the other side, there are pitfalls – especially in data security.

“Attachment files involve a considerable hazard. They can bring malware to company computers that are very difficult to remove,” says Ari Kurki of Fortum.

“There are differing opinions on this. Data security people would like to put more restrictions on the use of social media, while marketing, customer service, and communications want more freedom. Now we are trying to strike a balance between the two,” Kurki says.