Facebook, Google Plus, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube: What are YOU on?

In last week’s webinar, we asked our 3,423 viewers a series of questions to see how you’re really using social media.

Here was our first question …

More than two-thirds (67%) now use a SM tool. That’s a slight dip from last quarter’s 71% (the highest ever in our quarterly index) but still up quite a bit over the previous quarter’s 58%.

That led to our next question …

This is where things got a little surprising. After reigning as the undisputed heavyweight SM champion in every one of our quarterly indices going back to the beginning of time, Facebook (26%) appears to have suddenly stumbled to fall behind LinkedIn (51%) as the go-to tool in the business world.

Also interesting was the fact that in only two months on the Index, Google Plus has jumped from nothing to a fairly substantial 18%. Much of that appears to have come at the expense of Facebook. (As you’ve probably noticed, there’s quite a bit of anti-Facebook backlash percolating in the SM universe. The news this morning that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg could reap as much as $28 billion in Facebook’s IPO could fan the flames even more.)

Almost no one uses anything other than three as their primary tool. YouTube and Twitter are both hovering around 2%.

So, how much time are you spending on SM? Here’s what you said …

The results were rather surprising (at least to me):

• One-third of you spend a grand total of zero minutes each week using SM @ work.
• The most popular answer was 1-30 minutes, capturing another third or so.
• Less than one-fifth spend more than an hour a week on SM.
• Approximately one-tenth spend 3 or more hours on SM, with 1% spending more than 10 hours. Yikes.

Social Media Freaking You Out?

In our pre-webinar survey, confusion over social media rules was repeatedly named as a top concern. For all the latest legal developments in that area, check out our webinar replay and our handy 2012 Employment Law Tool Box, which includes a sample social media policy courtesy of the fine folks at McGuire Woods LLP.

As always, thanks for your participation. Stay tuned for more on the latest trends affecting the wonderful world of workplace law.

Working between the holidays? You’re not alone.

According to a new study, 64% of employees will work the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day. But 39% say that basically zilch will get done.

Some other factoids:

• 56% will actually come into the office that week
• 58% say the time will be used to catch up on what should have been done during the previous 51 weeks
• 68% of small company employees will work that week (versus only 49% of large company employees)

I tend to side with the sentiments expressed by the 39% noted above. Based on that scientific and statistically significant data, I have concluded that it would be prudent for the Blawg to take the next week-and-a-half off.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS EVERYONE!
SEE YOU IN THE NEW YEAR!

In case you haven’t noticed, the holiday season is upon us.

Every year, we get questions about what employers should (and shouldn’t) do when it comes to holiday parties to avoid winding up in court (or jail). Let’s start with some interesting statistics:

Party On. 58% of employers are having a holiday celebration this year — an increase over last year’s rather humbug-ish 52%. However, only 36% of employees say they’ll attend the company party.

Who, Where & When? 60% of employers are having employee-only parties (i.e., no spouses or significant others). 70% of parties will be off company premises. 55% will be during the workday.

Less Booze. Only 49% will serve alcohol. That number has declined steadily in recent years — dropping 25% since 2008.

Less Grinchy Gifts. 40% of employers will give employees a holiday bonus — up from 33% last year. 30% plan to give employees gifts, up a tad over last year’s 29%. 32% of employees plan to give gifts to co-workers, with 79% spending $25 or less per gift, 38% spending less than $10 per gift and 12% spending $5 or less.

Top 5 Tips

So, what are the latest and greatest tips for avoiding legal liability without being too much of a Scrooge? Ask and you will receive:

1. Have a party. Lots of employees are working harder than ever. They need a little celebratin’.
2. Set expectations. Tell employees in advance what will and won’t be allowed. Remind managers to act like managers and to be on the lookout for potential misconduct.
3. Invite spouses. Doing so can help discourage bad behavior and has the side benefit of boosting good feelings about the company on the home front (unless the party’s a total dud).
4. Dump the booze. It’s risky and costly. If you don’t: (a) use tickets or some other system to limit the number of drinks; (b) use professional bartenders — not managers — to serve drinks, check IDs and monitor consumption; (c) offer lots of non-alcoholic beverages; and (d) provide taxis, hotel rooms and/or designated drivers for employees who over-indulge.
5. Watch The Office. Rent Season 2 and watch the episode entitled “Christmas Party.” Then tune in to NBC this Thursday for a special episode entitled “Christmas Wishes.” Then do the exact opposite of everything you see.

Enjoy!

(Sources: Challenger, Gray & Christmas; Careerbuilder)

How much time will your employees spend shopping online at work this holiday season?

The Facts

Here are some interesting stats from the Information Systems and Audit Control Association (ISACA).

• 32% of employees plan to shop more online this year using company-supplied and BYOD devices.
• The average employee plans to spend a whopping 18 hours shopping online using such devices.
• 49% click on shopping links in emails.
• 34% click on shopping links on social media sites (nearly double last year).
• 29% click on a “daily deal” (e.g., Groupon, Livingsocial, etc.)
• 22% give their employer’s address to online shopping outlets.
• 20% have no idea if their company policy bans any or all of the above.

What’s the Big Deal?

In addition to lost productivity, failure to address the above activity can result in viruses, spam, phishing and other horrible things that can cripple a company’s IT infrastructure.

What Should Employers Do?

Almost all companies have implemented computer usage policies to deal with these issues. But many of them are overbroad and inconsistently enforced, which can result in morale issues, discrimination lawsuits and even unfair labor practice charges from the NLRB.

So, what should you do?

1. Implement a reasonable policy and consistently enforce it. (Here’s a handy model policy from the fine folks at McGuire Woods.)
2. Train employees on appropriate computer usage before the holidays and follow up with reminders.
3. Implement basic security measures such as spam filters, patches, firewalls and intrusion detection systems and update them regularly.
4. Monitor networks for suspicious activity, respond quickly to threats and remind employees to notify management of potential problems.
5. Conduct periodic risk assessments and update the usage policy and security measures accordingly.

ISACA has loads of helpful tips on this topic. For more, click here.

Our most recent Question of the Week — based on the very latest hot-off-the-presses research — asked:

What % of employers predict that litigation will either rise or stay the same in 2012?

We gave you 5 choices:

1. 112%
2. 92%
3. 72%
4. 52%
5. 32%
6. 12%

The votes are in. Your most popular choice was 72% (with 40% of the votes). Next was 92% (27% of the votes), followed by 52% (16% of the votes), 32% (8% of the votes) and then 12% (6% of the votes). A rather surprising 4% of you chose 112% which … um … is mathematically impossible.

The correct answer? You were close. A whopping 92% of employers say they expect litigation to either increase or stay the same in 2012. That’s more than ten times the 8% that expect litigation to decrease.

This data is from the brand-new and always-fascinating (at least to me) Annual Litigation Trends Survey Report, available for free from the fine folks at Fulbright & Jaworski here.

We’ll discuss some of the report’s other highlights tomorrow. Stay tuned.

We recently surveyed more than 1,000 HR and business professionals and asked them this question:

If you could wave a magic wand and make one change in the employment law universe, what would it be?

We received a rather astonishing variety of thoughtful, creative and eye-opening answers.  Here’s a mere sampling:

• Require more consistency from state-to-state and state-to-federal
• Increase coordination among overlapping laws, like ADA, FMLA, state leave laws and WC
• Simplify, simplify, simplify
• Ban loopholes and legalese
• Reduce reporting requirements
• Require the loser to pay litigation costs to deter frivolous claims
• Make whining illegal
• Make lawyers illegal
• Require the government be more consultative rather than punitive
• Make the employment relationship pure at-will on both sides
• Create a federal Q&A bank with easy, clear answers
• Consolidate all government employment agencies into a one-stop-shop with one set of rules
• Create more small business exceptions to compliance
• Require CEOs to listen to HR at all times
• Let Mark make all the rules

Very interesting perspectives (although you might want to talk to my kids before waving your wand on that last one).

As always, thanks for all the feedback and participation. It’ll be extremely helpful as we craft future Blawg and webinar content. Also, I’ll be sure to pass these suggestions along as I meet with various thought leaders who are helping to shape the future world of workplace law. Who knows — together we just might change the world.

Thanks again!