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CORPORATE POLICY City of Waterloo logo
Policy Title:
Employee Social Media Policy
Policy Category:
Administration Policy
Policy No.:
A-002
Department:
Corporate Services
Approval Date:
Dec. 12, 2011
Revision Date:
July 13, 2015
Author:
Brandon Currie
Attachments:
Related Documents/Legislation: Employee Code of Conduct and Ethics Policy, Code of
Conduct for Members of Council, Respectful Behaviour Policy
Key Word(s): Twitter, Facebook, social media, code of conduct, employee use of social
media
POLICY STATEMENT:
Both the City of Waterloo and its employees use social media in a variety of ways: to
share information publicly and privately, to participate in communities of interest, and to
engage others in online conversations. At the corporate level, social media is a strategic
component of business plans developed by the communications and marketing division.
Personal social media usage by employees and elected officials is also encouraged to
help these individuals connect and develop relationships with constituents and other
community stakeholders.
PURPOSE:
This policy governs the public use of social media networks by city employees and
elected officials. It aims to:
- Outline corporate social media governance;
- Provide employees and elected officials with public usage guidelines;
- Protect the city's reputation.
DEFINITIONS:
Social media: social media are defined by the City of Waterloo as online
communication channels in which the objective is to publicly share information and
create dynamic interaction between two parties (ie, the corporation and a citizen, or a
councillor and a constituent). These channels can include Twitter, Facebook, Instagram,
Mandatory Policy, Municipal Act: No
Policy Administration Team, Review Date: June 11, 2015
Corporate Management Team, Review Date: June 17, 2015
POLICY NUMBER: A-002
Page 2
and LinkedIn, as well as blogs, mobile applications, websites, photo boards, discussion
boards or any other online location where commentary is publicly shared and attributed
to an employee or elected official.
Corporate and personal accounts: corporate accounts are defined as any social
media networks bearing official corporate branding (i.e., a visual identity or other
insignia) and identified as representing the corporation or one of its divisions.
Personal accounts are social media networks created and maintained by individual
employees or elected officials, and can be identified as such through profile photos, bios
(which mention corporate affiliation) or implicit association (i.e., an employee who is
known to the public, but does not have his/her city affiliation in a bio).
SCOPE:
This policy applies to all City of Waterloo employees, including permanent, part-time,
temporary, casual, contract, and co-op students, as well as elected officials, who use
social media networks and/or websites to post commentary available to the public. The
codes of conduct mentioned in this policy refer to the Employee Code of Conduct and
Ethics Policy, and Code of Conduct for Members of Council.
POLICY COMMUNICATION:
The policy will be communicated internally via the corporate intranet, posted on the
corporate website, and reviewed with staff on an ongoing basis as part of new
employee and new councillor orientation sessions.
POLICY:
Social media governance
Corporate social media accounts are created and maintained by the division
responsible for communications and marketing. This division holds credentials to all
corporate social media accounts, provides access and training to those from other
divisions using city networks, and monitors all content in accordance with its internal
social media guidelines. No employee may use a corporate social media network
without the consent of the director of the division responsible for communications and
marketing.
This policy governs the use of social media by city employees in both corporate and
personal settings. It is reviewed by the communications and marketing division on a
biannual basis.
Usage guidelines for employees and elected officials
1. In all forms of social media usage, employees and elected officials should
assume the same representative standards as in other public meetings and
POLICY NUMBER: A-002
Page 3
consultations. Even if not identified with an explicit city affiliation, employees and
elected officials implicitly represent the corporation and will be held to the same
expectations.
2. Maintaining the public trust and city's reputation, as per the applicable codes of
conduct, is a requirement of all social media use. Employees and elected officials
should also strive to demonstrate the corporation's guiding principals of service
excellence, personal leadership, effective communications, fiscal responsibility,
and healthy workplace, especially when publicly commenting on city business or
municipal affairs.
3. When an employee or elected official is using social media as part of his/her job
function, s/he should operate with the expectation of a respectful workplace as
per the Respectful Behaviour Policy (A-009) and the Code of Conduct for
Members of Council.
4. Senior staff and elected officials must be particularly aware of their commentary
surrounding issues currently before them in council so as to not prejudice the
public process.
5. While common disclaimers such as "retweets don't imply endorsement" or "all
views are my own" may help clarify the context of personal social media
messages, they do not absolve the responsibility of the individual to uphold the
code of conduct policy.
6. Inappropriate content posted by city employees will be brought to the attention of
the director of communications and marketing, and the relevant member(s) of the
operational leadership team (OLT) to determine an appropriate course of action.
COMPLIANCE:
In cases of policy violation, the City may investigate and determine appropriate
corrective action.