Who owns your LinkedIn profile?
The answer is… that it depends, unless you’ve got a policy in place, employers will struggle to establish “ownership” of, or a right to control an employee’s (personal) LinkedIn profile and content.
However, there is scope to manage employee use of LinkedIn and other professional networking apps by taking steps like
- Creating a policy in conjunction with your team
- Give employees a dedicated LinkedIn account during their employment, to be used only for the business’s purposes
- Consider whether to include a non-solicitation restraint of trade – including explicit prohibitions on the use of clients contacts collected in a LinkedIn account
Given the risks associated with professional networking sites, we recommend that you explore this option. If you think you need to know more give us a call.