LinkedIn Profiles and Ex-Employees

November 07, 2016, by HR à la carte |

Imagine the following scenario.  You let one of your employees go due to performance issues, yet 6 months later you happen upon their LinkedIn profile and they still have your organization listed as their current employer.  What do you do?

You have two options, you can either ignore it, or you can ask them to correct their profile.  LinkedIn is tantamount to an online resume and your ex-employee is not being truthful about their employment history by leading potential employers to believe that he is still currently employed by your company.  Another important aspect is the protection of your company’s brand and reputation in the marketplace.  If this person is a poor performer, do you want them to still be associated with your company?

So how can you avoid this situation in the first place?  Here are a few tips for ensuring a smooth transition with any employee who is leaving your company:

• Ensure your company has a Social Media Policy and that it includes the use of LinkedIn.

• Add a sentence in your termination clause that outlines that employees have a certain deadline (for example 1 week from their termination date) to update their LinkedIn profiles.(NOTE:For those employees that have been laid off and are on salary continuance for the duration of their notice, the termination date would be the date they come off of your company’s payroll.)

• Ensure your termination letter reminds the employee of their responsibility with regard to updating their LinkedIn profile and the timeframe in which this needs to happen.

• Add this item to your Off-boarding or Termination Checklist so that someone in the company is responsible for checking LinkedIn to ensure the ex-employee complied with the request and following up with them as needed.

If you do have an ex-employee who continues to refuse to update his or her LinkedIn profile, you can opt to seek injunctive relief via your employment lawyer.