Employers must keep up with new forms of communication, says Acas chief conciliator
Employers risk losing control of the flow of information to staff if they do not keep up with modern forms of communication, according to the the chief conciliator at the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (Acas).
Social media – such as Facebook and Twitter – have influenced several recent, high profile industrial disputes. Earlier in 2010, the location of negotiations between British Airways and Unite were revealed by then joint head of the union, John Simpson, via Twitter, prompting an occupation of the meeting that was organised in part via Facebook.
Addressing the Acas' joint conference with employment researchers Income Data Services (IDS), chief conciliator and head of profession, Peter Harwood, said that by neglecting modern and popular means of communication, employers may lose valuable opportunities to deliver their messages.
"If you lose the communication you lose the control to deliver information in a certain way in a certain time to a certain group," Harwood said. "What you'll have instead is an informal, different source of communication such as a facebook group of your employees.
"There things can get out of hand. It's really a kind of enhanced grapevine and people will often listen to the grapevine rather than official information."
