Let’s talk about corporate reputation management. Wait, isn’t that the job of the PR department? Well, you’re not wrong, but it’s your department’s responsibility as well. While the PR team will majorly take care of external messaging, the HR team needs to look inward and manage the communication with the internal stakeholders. To understand how to manage corporate reputation during crises, first, let’s see what corporate reputation is and why it’s important to keep it in a good light.
What Is Corporate Reputation?
A company’s reputation is its opinion among the people. The “people” here are the employees of the company, the stakeholders, the investors, and lastly, the public. It’s crucial to keep a good corporate reputation to gain the trust of the public and keep the employees happy. This will ultimately lead to a rise in stock prices and revenue. But, a bad reputation can damage the company significantly, in terms of productivity and financially.
For example, in 2016, Wells Fargo’s employees, to meet unrealistic sales targets, created millions of fake accounts without consumers’ consent. This led to severe reputational damage, billions paid in fines, removal of top executives, and loss of public trust. HRs played a role in strengthening the company’s compliance and ethics programs, as well as improving transparency and accountability.
HR’s Role in Crisis Management
Preparing a crisis management plan, training employees on how to handle such situations, and coordinating communications across departments become your responsibility. It also includes helping employees and ensuring that it’s business as usual to recover as soon as possible. You’ll need to work in tandem with the PR department to ensure that the communication is consistent with both internal and external stakeholders.
Take the example of car manufacturing giant, Volkswagen, which got in trouble for cheating on emission tests. This severely damaged the company’s reputation and eroded employee trust. To rebuild trust, the HR department played a crucial role by prioritizing honest communication. They ensured that all employees were informed about the situation and the company’s recovery plan.
Employees were encouraged to share their concerns and feelings, and the management had a direct word with the employees about the situation. The HR team helped restore the workplace morale and reputation by involving employees in the recovery process and taking their feedback seriously.
Communication Strategy
Your communication strategy during a crisis should be to communicate new developments and decisions clearly to the people within the organization. Then you have to help the PR team manage the public’s perception. The messaging should be such that the employees get guidance and support, and feel reassured by it. Effective communication during a crisis should be done by keeping three principles in mind: keep everything clear and transparent, be empathetic, and try to build trust.
You are also responsible for coordinating and facilitating responses between employees, departments, and other branches. For such messaging, it’s better to have a centralized communication system across the company. HRMS software, like greytHR, can help disseminate a common response or stand of the company to every employee. You can send messages in bulk via emails or SMS using this software.
Employee Advocacy and Support
One of the best ways to maintain the company’s reputation during a crisis is by using your employees as brand ambassadors. These employees will provide positive feedback to your company and build trust in your brand in their social circles. This way, you’ll also reach out to new customers and increase your brand awareness.
Employee Morale and Engagement
During times of crisis, employees can feel pressured by uncertainty, job insecurity, and increased workload. This can make them feel stressed and demotivated. But, engaged employees typically feel motivated and resilient during such times. One of the effective ways to keep them engaged is by involving them in decision-making.
According to Harvard Business Review, out of the surveyed employees, 15% appreciated leaders who “sought out and acted upon their input” during crises. By taking feedback from them and encouraging them to ask questions, companies can make employees feel satisfied with their jobs. Company-wide feedback forms and polls can be created instantly and effectively with HR software, like greytHR. The results can be used to improve the company rules and regulations, bring positive changes to the company culture, and so on.
Train Your Employees
By keeping your employees trained for crises, you increase the chances of protecting your corporate reputation. Several companies have faced backlash because they failed to handle crises like data breaches, scrutiny from regulatory bodies, and so on. You need to organize discussions and events where employees are taught what needs to be done during such situations to minimize damage.
Let’s say a company faces a major data breach that affects many of its customers and leads to widespread criticism of its security practices. This is where HR can help the other departments in fighting the fire. If the HRs had previously arranged events where employees were trained about data breaches, then this is the time to use that learning. This could mean things like not posting anything about the company online and not talking to anyone from the media. It can help in reducing further damage to the company’s reputation.
Recovery Phase
Once the crisis is taken care of, your job is to focus on the recovery plan. You need to get the normal functioning of the organization back in place. Assess the impact of the crisis and hold debriefing sessions to improve the response time. Support your employees by suggesting ways to cope with the situation. You can assess the sentiment of employees by measuring their performance, before and after the crisis. Update your policies accordingly and focus on rebuilding your brand.
Summing Up
It’s a given fact that a crisis can’t be predicted. However, as an HR, the best you can do is be prepared for such situations. By implementing a successful communication strategy, you can ensure that the messaging remains consistent throughout. Keeping your employees engaged and making them your ambassadors could do wonders for your company's reputation. And lastly, keep your employees trained for such scenarios to minimize the damage during crises.
FAQs
What Is HR’s Role in Managing Company Reputation?
The main role of HR in crisis management is to be ready and communicate with internal stakeholders during the crisis. Making emergency plans, providing support, and communicating with employees is also HR’s responsibility.
How Can HR Prepare for a Crisis?
HR can prepare for a crisis by assessing potential risks, creating detailed emergency response plans, training employees on crisis procedures, and setting up clear communication channels. It’s also important to conduct regular drills and keep the crisis management plan updated.
What Are the Key Responsibilities of HR During a Crisis?
During a crisis, HR is responsible for executing the emergency response plan, keeping clear communication with employees, offering support and resources, coordinating with other departments, and ensuring that critical business operations continue with minimal interruption.
