Social media at work: a new form of employee voice

In the workplace of the twenty-first century, social media cuts two ways. Increasingly there is evidence of the ways in which employers use it as a recruitment tool and use it as part of the process of selecting employees. However, employees can use it to discuss issues at work out of the control of management. Specifically, increasingly savvy employers are building internal social media sites to connect with the immediacy and focus of employee voices on emerging workplace issues. The other major use of social media is where this breakdown in trust between employer and employee which often leads to employees to vent their anger through public social media channels which, in turn, can damage brand image and reputation.