I hate to cherry-pick another guy's blog (OK, that's not exactly true, low-hanging fruit is often delicious), but I was intrigued by Celent's Mike Fitzgerald's blog post on a new service called Social Intelligence, which monitors social networking sites.
Monitoring social networking sites is hardly a new tactic for HR departments, particularly with the abundance of information people are putting out on the Web for the world to consume.
Fitzgerald cites another column from Datamation's Mike Elgan that brings up some interesting points that insurers are going to have to deal with, particularly the monitoring of current employees and their off-duty activities.
Elgan writes:
"Two aspects of this are worth noting. First, company spokespeople emphasize liability. What happens if one of your employees freaks out, comes to work, and starts threatening coworkers with a samurai sword? You'll be held responsible because all of the signs of such behavior were clear for all to see on public Facebook pages. That's why you should scan every prospective hire and run continued scans on every existing employee.
In other words, they make the case that now that people use social networks, companies will be expected (by shareholders, etc.) to monitor those services and protect the company from lawsuits, damage to reputation, and other harm. And they're probably right.
Second, the company provides reporting that deemphasizes specific actions and emphasizes character. It's less about 'what did the employee do' and more about 'what kind of person is this employee?'
Because, again, the goal isn't punishment for past behavior but protection of the company from future behavior."
It's an interesting and scary concept. Will insurers deny extremely expensive claims because a company didn't perform due diligence on its employees? I think we all know the answer to that one. But how far must companies go to remain in compliance with what their insurer can reasonably expect from a policyholder?
Every time we think we are getting close to the edge of what technology can do for our business, another opportunity jumps out at us. I'm sure carriers will be looking closely at the prospect such monitoring provides, as well as the issue of how off-duty activities relate to job performance.
Millions of people volunteer each day to surrender a piece of their privacy. Will that openness be something that employers–and insurance companies–punish them for?
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