Social Media and the Workplace: Does Everyone Get to Be a Health Expert?

Background: Social media is gaining momentum in the employer space as a means of communication. This venue allows greater transparency and accessibility to subject matter experts while equally allowing visibility to a wide array of opinions. Assuming participants follow conduct guidelines established by the employer, contravening opinions, often with no support, get an equal venue.  Without adept handling of unsubstantiated claims, readers are left to sort out fact from fiction, perhaps to their detriment.  As it relates to health matters, employer based social media can be tricky when navigating the balance between an evidenced based approach to health recommendations and the plethora of remedies people swear by. If the employer has a global workforce, the complexity of health related social communication is multiplied by cultural differences in health care as well as the state of being ill. The question arises then, does everyone get to be a health care expert in the social media domain.

Program background: In this talk, I will share the IBM experience developing an employee directed social media program for health, safety and health promotions staff to educate, communicate and facilitate understanding about various issues. I will talk about methods for creating material that encourages reader interaction as well as techniques for managing various types of comments. I will discuss the challenges of creating material that is culturally relevant but also speaks to the need for evidence in shaping employer driven health messaging.

Evaluation Methods and Results: The evaluation method used is observational. The results are derived from direct experience developing a social medial environment. As part of a business that has communication expertise, I have been able to leverage a degree of expertise from communications colleagues in my work.

Conclusions: Delivering employer driven health information in an interactive environment is a new domain. The writer/monitor of such communications must first write the piece to generate questions or comments they want from the respondent. They need to be familiar with social media and business conduct guidelines that cover public communications in their workplace. Careful analysis of employees’ responses is needed to understand the subtext or tone that might exist, given cultural differences, employee relations or even an employee safety concern. With all this in mind, social media venues in the workplace are an outstanding way to deliver not only the health message you intend to deliver but also to manage the health message you want to change.

Implications for research and/or practice: Social media is an opportunity for education and communication that can further understanding and compliance with health information. Handled properly, it can be an effective and efficient way to manage information.