workplace social media Archives

Workplace Harassment and Social Media

For decades, instances of sexual harassment have been brushed under the rug and business have only reacted when it’s “really bad” or “high profile.” But a staggering 1 in 5 Americans reports being sexually harassed at work and 75% of those who report their abuser experienced retaliation for speaking up.

Thanks to social media and the #MeToo movement, as well as the general movement to become better human beings, sexual harassment is no longer being tolerated.

So what can business owners and human resources managers do to make work a better place?

The first step is for business owners to educate themselves about sexual harassment, including the basics of harassment, discrimination, retaliation and workplace bullying. All managers should know their responsibilities and liability, as well as their duty to prevent harassment and abuse. It’s up to owners to lead the way in the workplace’s professional and respectful behavior. You should know how to receive and respond to a complaint and be familiar with confidentiality guidelines and the rights of all people involved.
Business owners must implement workplace strategies to prevent occurrences of harassment. Establish boundaries and policies regarding harassment and make sure all new and existing employees are trained in those areas and are taught how to file a complaint.
Business owners must enforce the company’s policies and practices. Offenders must be disciplined according to the severity of their behavior. Penalties could include one-on-one sensitivity training, suspension with or without pay, or possible termination. When policies and procedures are enforced, it demonstrates a no tolerance stance to employees and will further discourage workplace harassment.

Don’t ignore your employees when they say they’re being harassed. It can be isolating, humiliating, and stressful for an employee to come forward about an abuser, particularly if that person has corporate power over them or is well-liked by peers.
Last, look for indicators of abusive behavior before hiring. You’re probably asking yourself how can you possibly spot a harasser before hiring them? Check social media! This is a far better method than standard or criminal background checks used widely in business today. Social media screening can identify potential harassers by flagging material that willingly and publicly disparages women or minorities online, or that blatantly promotes sex or violence.
Sexual harassment is a complex issue and as difficult as it may be, the effort to prevent workplace harassment matters. Aside from the distress caused by workplace harassment, discrimination and retaliation, the behavior is illegal. Anyone that commits these acts is a tremendous liability. Addressing harassment proactively instead of reactively avoids personal, business and legal problems.

It’s also important to provide resources for anyone experiencing abuse, and make sure your HR team knows what to do when harassment is reported. If an employee does not feel safe reporting the problem, they probably won’t, and this means the problem will only grow as an attacker feels trapped by silence. That spells disaster for employee morale as well as for your business’s reputation if you’re caught with a harassment scandal you did nothing to prevent.

Social Media and Insurance Crimes

Ever have a claim that’s just a little “off”? Something about it just doesn’t sit right. If you need to get to the bottom of it, you might end up hiring a private investigator to track down possible insurance fraud. One of the best places to start is in social media for insurance crimes!

Joseph Jones is one such investigator. The Californian PI and vice president of Bosco Legal Services solves cases through a mixture of extensive online searches and surveillance. The 30-year-old holds degrees in social and behavioral sciences and psychology, plus multiple certifications in open source and cyber intelligence.

“What we’re able to provide in the way of evidence, it’s so good. It started with your typical workers’ comp issue, where someone claims they have neck and back problems and they really don’t, or your car accidents. That’s like the bread and butter – those are the cases that come constantly.”

The firm gets deep into social media, spending hours trawling for information on a person, often through friends’ and acquaintances’ pages – searching for comments, pictures or videos that might incriminate the claimant.

Jones finds that social media users will post information for their friends that contradicts what they’re trying to claim from their insurers, including: vacations, physical fitness, social events, hobbies, employment, and potentially incriminating places they frequently visit.

Jones said 10-20 hours of targeted online investigations can often yield more than a week’s worth of surveillance. But when social media fails, there are always the private eye fall-backs, like tailing, watching, interviewing and doorknocking.

Need a clearer picture? Let’s start with a story. There was a young lady who slipped and fell in a retail store. She alleged multiple injuries, including permanently disabling back issues. Her lawsuit claimed that her life would never be the same, and she sought damages of more than $100,000 from the store.

With access to multiple media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, the social media investigator learned that the “horribly injured plaintiff” was a college cheerleader, softball player and highly engaged in her sorority – all current activities. Targeted surveillance was ordered which produced a comprehensive video of the individual’s activities, in full color and including a smiling, very active and very healthy plaintiff.

When the investigation was shared with the judge, the suit was dismissed. The case ultimately closed for $2,500 in paid medical expenses.

Sadly, there are thousands of stories like this. The Coalition Against Insurance Fraud in North America estimated $80 billion per year in insurance fraud in 2016. 2017 surveys by Insurance Research Council revealed that 24% of Americans believe it’s “ok to pad an insurance claim.”

Although insurance fraud is not going away anytime soon, today’s technology makes fraud detection and prevention a much greater reality, and social media investigations play a large role in that.

There are over 200 well-known social media websites with the top four being Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter. 300 hours of video is uploaded to YouTube every minute of the day, with 400 million photos uploaded to Snapchat daily. Amazingly, people using these sites have no concerns about the content or what the content can reveal about their activities. And it’s all public information, there for the world to see.

When a Facebook post shows a claimant with a supposed knee injury in a bowling league, complete with pictures of scorecards, including dates and times, it’s not difficult to have an investigator at the bowling alley on league night, video camera in hand to confirm the activities. That’s the kind of material people post on social media. It’s an open book!

Social media investigations are an evolving tool in the fight against insurance fraud. Professional investigators are best equipped to handle this – they have the technology and the expertise that adjusters simply don’t have, along with the contractual obligation to defend clients in case of mistakes. This type of investigation is proving to be a valuable tool in the claim handling process.

Cyber Bullying – First School, Now At Work Too?

We are all too familiar with accounts of cyber bullying among school students, but there is emerging data showing that cyber bullying is also becoming an issue in the workplace. Hard to imagine? Possibly.

I guess kids aren’t the only ones prone to turning to social media for ulterior purposes though. While bullying in the workplace has been around for some time, taking it to social media is emerging, and it’s important for HR departments and managers to be aware of and monitor.

Consider the recent news about the firefighter who committed suicide recently; while the investigation is not complete, there is speculation that workplace bullying that had gone to the internet was at least partially to blame. The video below talks about it in more detail:

How can managers and HR departments work to be aware of issues as they arise? There are some steps that can be taken to identify potential cyber bullying in the workplace:

Create a solid social media policy – ensure that harassment and bullying is clearly outlined, most notably including online/social media communication. The policy that you enforce should also spell out what constitutes cyber bullying; do not limit it to “social media” as that does not encompass all online activities, such as message board and forum participation, for example.

Create an anonymous forum or method of communication – this may be trickier, because it’s not always easy for victims to come forward if they feel they are being harassed or threatened. However, often times coworkers may be aware of what is going on in the workplace. Encourage employees to speak up in a completely anonymous fashion – create an online feedback system that is truly anonymous for employees to share any concerns or things they see/hear about among coworkers.

Monitor social media – while you can’t know where your employees are online, and you may not be aware of screen names (especially when they use pseudonyms online), it’s important to monitor online conversations around your company and employees, and even expand monitoring efforts to focus on location based content. Using the right tools, you can monitor public social content that is posted from within the workplace by creating a “geofence” around your building. The location based monitoring software will be able to collect and capture any social content being posted from the area.

While not foolproof, being aware of what’s happening in the workplace can help prevent or at least decrease the instances of workplace bullying, online and off. Keeping the lines of communication open, reiterating that this type of behavior will not be tolerated.