Last week a client of mine had an issue and it got me thinking about how we control out social media beyond an organisation.  This is an issue which I believe is unique to recruitment.

My client recruits temporary workers. They do a great job of it. So much so that the temporary worker feels part of the organisation. In effect they see the business as their employer. So far so good.

Fast forward to last week when an irate client calls demanding to know why one of their employees has posted homophobic comments in an internet chat room.

You can see where I am going with this…. The temporary worker has been listing my client as their employer and then making inappropriate contributions online.

Getting the thing down was nigh on impossible and trying to explain the intricacies of the UK temporary recruitment space to some officious and faceless helpdesk assistant in a remote part of the world was frustrating to say the least.

As marketers we strive to control messaging. We empower our people to be social, but what we don’t do is consider how temporary workers will represent our brand to the wider world.  We offer them no guidance and probably set no expectations.

A review online shows that there are countless instances of temporary workers and contractors at all levels (although it tends to be more at the junior, lower skill level than at a contractor consultant level) passing themselves off as employees of the company.

How we manage that as marketers is the challenge we now face.