Social networking is here to stay, and Western New York companies know it.

Better have your employee handbook up to speed with policies that clearly outline management's expectations regarding social media, said attorney Scott Horton of Jaeckle Fleischmann & Mugel LLP. He is an associate in the labor and employment department, Buffalo.

"It's not a situation now where there's much direct law or regulation out there on how social media affects the workplace. It's more the same (human resources) issues, just with new formats and platforms for the same problems to arise and then some special concerns related to the way the media operates," he said.

Technology changes quickly, and companies of all sizes are finding that they must keep up to protect themselves and their work force from issues related to harassment, decreased productivity, invasion of privacy and more.

Said Horton: "The bottom line is there are all sorts of things employees can do with computers nowadays, and with their cell phones and smart phones and BlackBerrys, that could reflect back negatively on the company in some way, shape or form - regardless of whether they're doing these things on company time, with or without company equipment or with or without authorization from the company."

Updates to employee handbooks, which these days often are electronic versions, should be ongoing. Management should be carefully monitoring changes in employment law, as well as what's going on in the workplace.

"I have some clients that will supplement their formal handbook with ad hoc policy changes on an as-needed basis. That can be triggered by some legal development or by something that has happened within their workplace," he said. "An incident occurs and they realize they don't have that type of policy that will respond to it."

Social media present new opportunities in terms of marketing and outreach but also bring new challenges, thanks to the immediacy, the wide reach and the permanence of things written on Facebook, MySpace and other popular social networking sites.

Employers can and should put guidelines in place, according to Norton.

"This is an issue that for organizations is still developing on a daily basis, and it is still going to depend somewhat on the organization," he said. "If anybody these days is asking me to either draft an employee handbook for them or review the handbook that they did a couple years ago or six months ago, I will suggest to them that they need to consider how they want to treat social media used by their employees going forward.

"At the bare minimum, in almost all workplaces, I would recommend that they have some sort of policy telling employees what they're not allowed to do and what could result in consequences and disciplinary action."

That's the goal at Rich Products Corp., according to Amy Herstek, corporate counsel. She said the company faces the "difficult task" of setting clear expectations on permissible online conduct without limiting employees' right to free speech.

In addition, she said, the state's privacy laws prevent employers from monitoring the online conduct of employees without consent, yet employers can be liable for an employee's online comments.

"At Rich's, we address social media generally in our Standards of Business Conduct, and we are drafting a stand-alone policy on social media," Herstek said. "We support the creative use of social media as a means for both self-expression and as an innovative way to promote our products. Our corporate policy on social media is intended to set parameters for professional and personal use, address corporate liability, intellectual property and confidentiality issues, and remind associates that the old rules still apply to ‘new' media.

"We need to be clear with associates that our (HR) policies on defamation, anti-discrimination and harassment extend into online activity. Whether employees are online at work or at home, the social media policy will provide associates with a framework on ways to serve customers and work alongside their colleagues at Rich's with integrity and respect."