Who really owns your LinkedIn contacts?
Paul Handleigh
Boardroom Advisor | Mentor | Campaigner | Founder of youTalk-insurance (exited)
I was at an insurance breakfast do a while back on the subject of Social Media. The first presenter asked the 100 or so delegates assembled…
‘Can I have a show of hands please, how many people in the audience are on LinkedIn?’
All hands duly shot up skyward.
This unanimous show of support for LinkedIn certainly chimes with wider research that my company youTalk-insurance has completed, that points to the fact that LinkedIn has become ubiquitous amongst UK insurance professionals. Indeed many insurance professionals are increasingly harnessing the networking power of the channel to help them win, retain and grow new client accounts.
But what happens when an employee decides to move on and leaves the business to go to work for a competitor?
Does this mean that the LinkedIn contacts, or for the want of a better word ‘data’ that an employee has amassed during the course of their employment simply walks out of the door with them when they leave? Well the short the answer is potentially NO.
As long ago as June 2008 an individual was ordered by a UK court to hand over their list of LinkedIn contacts to their ex-employer (Hays vs. Ions), who successfully argued in court that they had a right to the data that their employee had built up whilst in their employment. Given the highly competitive nature of the insurance market, I understand that disputes between employers and employees in connection with LinkedIn data ownership are on the rise.
This ruling however, doesn’t make the situation completely black and white. Individual circumstances, as always will be key in determining where ownership lays. Notwithstanding this, this is something that all employers and their employee’s working in the sector should be aware of.
From an employers’ perspective you could have invested heavily in an individual and paid for a premium LinkedIn account for your employees to use for the sole purpose of helping them to foster business relationships and attract new clients.
On the other hand an employee may argue that their account was held in their personal name and that all of the contact information was publically available information and by dint of this, was open for others to see on LinkedIn (so therefore not terribly proprietary).
To help the situation, the best advice coming from employment experts seems to be, don’t wait until there is a problem. Companies should be seeking to address this issue now for the benefit of themselves and their employees. Perhaps the easiest way of addressing this issue is for employers to codify their approach to Social Media employee usage, by having a robust Social Media policy. I suppose this begs another question – how many insurance organisations have a Social Media policy that picks this issue up?
With the increasing use of and development of new technologies that invariably overlap and cross personal and work boundaries (just consider the highly topical BYOD debate) issues surrounding the ownership of data are unquestionably going to come to the fore again and again and against this backdrop it’s probably better to be safe than sorry. It’s a risk business after all.
Experienced broker in the London and global insurance market, specialising in healthcare liability risks. I deliver value, insight, and innovation in risk management and insurance acquisition.
10yThanks for sharing your note Paul - topical issue and you may want to look at: http://www.balfour-manson.co.uk/news-plus-events/comments/employment-law-who-owns-our-social-media-contacts/
Where Marketing Magic Happens 🔥 Leading Digital Marketing Expert and Creator of Compelling Digital Marketing Strategies and Campaigns
10yVery interesting article. Thanks for writing Paul. I have discussed this topic at length. While a clear cause of concern across many industries, it does strike me that the only reason it's news is because it's relatively new. At least when compared to the everyday or analogue methods of record keeping. The list held in LinkedIn is fundamentally no different to the list likely to be held in a spreadsheet or written down in an address book. A company set for success in this area will empower their people, give them the support they need to become “the” connection everyone wants. Offering them progression and helping them to celebrate their successes. If the only thing a business can focus on when reviewing the opportunity offered by LinkedIn is people leaving and taking customers with them, then there is a more fundamental problem within the business that it's probably not ready to address or admit.
Risk Management Consultant, Experience NED, Charity Chair
10yI don't think this issue is limited to the insurance industry?
Providing a forum for directors from UK insurance to meet, benchmark and discuss technology and claims strategy.
10yI'd say companies who want to 'own' this data need to have it on their own systems - ideally a CRM system, but as we are talking about insurance, just as likely a spreadsheet :-) If staff are not recording their biz dev activity on company systems I think you have a problem - what happens when they leave? Does their pipeline go with them? Surely you'd want what they have been working on with who on record so that whoever takes over can progress those leads? If a company isn't requiring people to record activity and store prospect contact details on company systems then I'd say they are surrendering their right to that data. I'd also saying they are asking to lose more business than necessary when people move on.
Marketing Manager UK at QBE Europe
10yThought-provoking... Thanks Paul.