When a PR disaster strikes, an external crisis management plan is essential. But what about communicating internally. Just how do you engage staff when your organisation is public enemy number one? Jon Barker reports

Blood on their hands” screamed the frontpage of The Sun, pointing the finger of blame at Haringey Council after the death of Baby P. “Accused” said The Mirror after Goldman Sachs was charged with defrauding investors. “Chaos” declared the Independent of Eurostar’s pre-Christmas breakdowns that left angry passengers stranded in the channel tunnel.

The ire of the public can hit hard. So how does the internal communicator counteract the negative messages coming from outside the organisation? How hard is it to keep up employee morale when the employer is the media’s bête noire or the public’s whipping boy? How should internal communicators make sure their version of events gets heard, in the face of negative reporting?

Firstly, organisations need to reassure employees with strong leadership. “Getting buy-in from senior management, but also from your employees, is essential to efficiently align all channels of communication,” says Sheila Parry, founder and managing director of internal communications agency theblueballroom. “It’s important that your employees are engaged with the organisation behind a common goal, a shared vision. Explaining these goals in the context of the business world and the industry in which the organisation operates will create real meaning for your employees. If you’ve achieved that, you should be able to weather most crises and, in the end, it could actually be work out to be something positive for the organisation.”

Sometimes strong leadership calls for tough love. Depending on who’s responsible for the public slating, management may have to act decisively to reinforce the behaviours and values that are expected from staff.

Part of the problem in Goldman Sachs’ recent case with the Securities and Exchange Commission – which filed a civil fraud complaint against the bank and one of its employees, Fabrice Tourre – was an inability to explain complicated financial products to a wider public, creating negative perceptions. Internally, it can’t have helped that Tourre had once boasted in e-mails that he was selling complex financial products to “widows and orphans”. Goldman has stood by its man, but was it right to?

“Not necessarily,” says Joanna Lund, founder and director at Reputation Matters. “You can’t always defend your staff. Think of the way Richard Branson dealt with the sacking of 13 Virgin staff members in 2008. They had participated in a discussion on the networking site Facebook and insulted some of its passengers. You cannot defend the indefensible.”

During Haringey Council’s Baby P case in 2008, the initial statement by director of children’s services, Sharon Shoesmith, said: “You can’t stop people from killing their children.” To further inflame the situation, the press conference - held in a four-star hotel - was delivered with cold, hard facts via graphs and charts. Naturally, Haringey’s response was slammed for the lack of a human voice in what was a very human crisis.

But, inside the bubble, employees want human communication rather than management rhetoric. Haringey Council could have instead explained the tough task that their social workers face and how we should be thankful there are people prepared to do so much for so little. This could have galvanised support from wider Council members and shown staff, very publicly, how they are perceived and often revered.

“Employees need to know that the challenging and difficult work they do on a daily basis and which never reaches the public domain, is not only highly valued by the management team, but is what really defines the organisation,” agrees Pat Sherrington-Blane, editorial director at Summersault Communications.

Naturally, the IC must believe in the value and credibility of leadership. Richard Branson’s swift and dignified handling of the Cumbria train crash in 2007 is often cited as a best practice example. Having cut short a family holiday to attend the scene of the accident and visit the hospitals treating the injured, Branson restored employee morale by taking the story away from being an institutional and public disaster and making it one about the heroism of the train driver.

More recently, consider the oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico – a rig owned by international oil company, BP Global, and several investors. BP waited three days to issue a news release with a statement from the CEO, Tony Hayward. But commendably, the statement said that employees were the first priority and that they were cooperating fully with the relevant parties to insure everything possible was being done for them and their families.

Keeping its internal constituency informed is priority number one for Eurostar. In December, it felt the wrath of public vitriol when hundreds of its passengers were trapped on stranded trains. Today, it appreciates the vital importance of engaging its internal stakeholders during a period of criticism.

“In a crisis, just like any other time, your people on the front line must know what they need to do,” says Mary Walsh, director of corporate communications at Eurostar. “For us, that includes the train drivers and staff, anyone dealing with the public; our customers. You must be very clear with your employees and understand that you have to equip them with as many of the facts as possible. You must be honest with yourself and with them, and you must explain what you have to do.

“For an organisation like ours, communicating in real time is crucial. You must convey the issues your having to face quickly and efficiently, responding where the facts have been incorrectly reported on and providing your people with the information and reassurance - the ammunition - necessary. Since Christmas, we’ve really understood the power of social media to convey information at high speed, so both our people and our customers are first to know what’s going on. There is no quicker way to get key messages across.

“When the crisis ends, it’s vital to get first-hand feedback directly from your staff, then decide and communicate how you are going to improve. A programme of action is needed to demonstrate to employees how their company will respond to feedback. It’s an iterative process, necessary to rebuild confidence in the organisation and its people. After all, there’s nothing more de-motivating than the same problem happening six months down the line.”

Of course, some leaders are better than others at speaking clearly and directly to their staff. Take Sun Microsystems’ chief executive, Jonathan Schwartz, whose knack for making the company appear human have given his blog a respectable ‘authority level’ – the number of other blogs linking to your blog – without compromising the company’s image.

Many CEOs are driven, enigmatic and persuasive so it makes sense to capture them on film and make them more accessible – being able to peer into the whites of a CEO’s eyes, the internal audience can make up its own mind whether he or she is credible.

Take British Airways (BA). Earlier this year, amid a very public wrestle, it posted a video presented by chief executive Willie Walsh on YouTube, in response to the proposed crew strike action. It was the first time BA had done this as part of its crisis management plans: the aim was to engage with internal as well as external audiences early with clear information directly from the top, in order to lessen bad feeling towards the company.

But it’s not just a case of lifting spirits and staving off a slump in morale. When a public crisis hits and misinformation is rife, it’s essential that employees are kept informed of the facts. When Southern Water’s new management team discovered that the company had historically defrauded customers, leading to a record £20 million fine by regulator Ofwat, it decided that honesty was truly the best policy.

Employees were alerted about the fine via the intranet, while field staff received text messages. A detailed supplement in the staff newspaper, which revealed improvements since the discovery of the crime, plus a DVD of an apologetic chief executive being interviewed by Jeremy Paxman on Newsnight were posted to employees’ homes. The chief executive also held a series of face-to-face briefings with staff – a ‘warts and all’ approach that was roundly applauded.

“You must be very clear with your employees and equip them with as many of the facts as possible. You must be honest with yourself and with them”

What of a firm on the size and scale of Price Waterhouse Coopers (PwC)? Since the Enron scandal in 2000, auditors have faced increased public scrutiny. So how does it communicate with staff?

“Internal communications has an important role to play in helping to reassure and re-focus employees in times of crisis,” says Martin Caddick, leader of risk and business continuity services at PwC. “In all major incidents, a message is recorded on the ‘PwC National Emergency Number’ and published on the business continuity website that can be accessed by PwC people wherever they are.

“PwC has an established framework with effective channels of communication, but in a crisis there is always a need to adapt the approach to the situation,” says Martin. “When it’s business as usual we use a variety of communication channels to keep our people informed and engaged about the firm – the key is making sure the messages are consistent, whichever channel people are engaging with.

“Of course, there’s often a conflict with what you want internally versus what’s needed externally, but it’s vital to tell the real story, with all the facts, then provide support and take the right action.

” Employees are ambassadors for the brand, so they must be briefed. The worst case scenario is if there are no lines of communication. You must be listening to and engaging with them long before crisis comes along.

Internal communicators now have more engagement tools at their disposal than ever, from live video streaming to blogs to conference calls, alongside traditional email and face-to-face. Innovative closed corporate networking tools like Yammer, for example, allow colleagues to connect with each other via a website, pop-up desktop application and mobile app. Like an internal Twitter, it allows messages to be targeted specifically to employees and their networks.

Toyota is one organisation that’s recent external messaging has been as faulty as the brakes on its recalled production line. Miscommunication - or not telling the whole truth - means employees, like customers, quickly lose faith.

“If the external criticism has arisen through poor practice or processes it is important to involve employees where possible in developing the solution and that should be communicated across the whole team,” says Pat Sherrington-Blane. “When nothing is communicated it is human nature to create our own stories and theories about the situation. Myth becomes fact and this, in turn, leads to bad feeling and doubt about the board’s ability to not only manage, but also to control the situation.”

But ultimately, at the eye of the storm, organisations need to have a strong base to operate from. The speed and ferocity of an online crisis demands joined-up thinking to properly handle the unravelling internal comms situation.

Getting the right team in place with people who can react dynamically to an evolving situation could make or break your internal response.

“To be truly effective, internal communicators must become an essential member of that crisis communications team,” says James Bennett, managing online editor at internal communications research and training company Melcrum Publishing. “And if your team is to provide consistent information to all constituencies, it should include representatives from across your communication, public affairs and human resource functions.”  

United front

Melcrum’s 10-point guide to effective employee

communication during a company crisis

1 Plan ahead and be prepared

2 Maintain ongoing dialogue

3 Talk to employees first

4 Eradicate uncertainty

5 Tackle employees’ questions

6 Create communication allies

7 Be consistent in messaging

8 Convince leaders on feedback

9 Involve senior management

10 Consider external help