CBA's Facebook face-off

A night out with new friends could become very expensive for Commonwealth Bank staff. A draconian new social media policy document – obtained by Business Spectator – suggests follow-up communication on Facebook could get you fired.

It's ironic – when CBA hired former US music and television industry executive Niki Epstein as its social marketing manager in February last year analysts praised the bank for catching up with its global peers.

Sure, the traditional marketers might have felt a little threatened, but within the bank there was a realisation that ignoring social media, now in frequent and almost obsessive use by millions of Australians, was not going to be an effective long-term strategy.

A year on and Epstein is in the hot seat as the bank seeks to apply old-world etiquette to a medium that by its very nature cannot be controlled.

The two-page, seven-section policy document is mostly benign, defining social media channels and explaining to the bank's 44,000 staff the public nature of social networks and why it's important not to discuss bank related matters in these environments.

But a clause on material posted by others oversteps the bounds of most other policies, and places the onus on staff to notify their manager when friends, or anyone for that matter, post negative comments about the bank on a social media page.

The policy has raised the ire of the Finance Sector Union, which labelled it discriminatory and argues it severely restricts employees' freedom of expression.

The FSU's national director of policy and communications, Rod Masson, questions if the bank really has the capacity to implement and enforce the rules contained within it. "I'm not sure they know what they're trying to achieve,” he says.

Though the bank says the policy doesn't form part of its employment contracts, it does say failure to comply with the directive is a serious disciplinary matter, which may result in action "including termination of your employment”.

Digital strategist Kate Carruthers, who has followed the development of social media policies around the world, says trying to connect negative comments posted by friends of employees with disciplinary action is "crazy”.

"They're asking people to be in control of something they have no control over.”

The policy itself reads like it was written by lawyers, says Carruthers, and would do little to help other bank divisions that are increasingly using social media for business purposes.

For example, she says: "The HR team is doing everything it can to attract and retain high-quality talent and this is essentially saying 'We don't trust you, this is a command and control environment, and not only do we not trust you, but we don't trust your friends and you have to police your friends'."

The policy comes as the bank steps up its social media activities, serving customers via Twitter, and last week launching its own official Facebook page.

A spokesman for the bank says it's appropriate to have a social media policy in place, and that the bank will open a dialogue with the FSU to discuss their concerns.

If the bank is considering recasting its policy, it could start by reviewing this database of more than 150 social media policies from companies and government organisations around the world. Most rules are common sense and, more importantly, suggest ways employees can constructively contribute to social media conversations that may involve the company they work for. But this is something noticeably absent from CBA's policy, which seems more concerned with telling staff what they must not do. It's as if the bank is determined to take the social out of social media.