Social Media Policy is a Top Challenge for 2013

HR professionals reported that social media policy will be the most formidable challenge for organizations in 2013, noting that social media policies will also be the most likely candidates for updating by the turn of the new year. The BLR survey found that 47.1 percent of respondents identified social media as the biggest challenge, followed by policies addressing cell phone use and distracted driving (21.6 percent), attendance and punctuality policies (17.4 percent) and computer and Internet policies and FMLA policies (both at 15.9 percent).

Half of respondents plan to update social media policies by January 2013 with the above mentioned policies also considered top candidates for New Year overhauls; 30.8 percent of respondents plan to update their attendance and punctuality policies followed by cell phone and paid-time-off policies (30 percent), and computer/Internet policies (29.5 percent). As far as update frequency goes, most HR professionals, 49.5 percent, reported performing HR policy updates on an as-needed basis. About 28 percent update at least once annually, 12.9 percent update once every 2 to 5 years, 4.5 percent update once at intervals greater than 5 years, and 0.8 percent said they never update their policies at all.

Access the BLR Policy Survey (free account required) here.