The risk of not communicating internally during a crisis

Many humanitarian organisations came under the spotlight in 2020, following the Black Lives Matter movement. The current and past employees of these companies started speaking to the media about the racial discrimination they faced inside the office. This is a classic case study of an externally driven issue creating havoc for organisations internally.

If you have failed to build trust among your employees or have no clear internal communications strategy in place, you are most likely at higher risk of reputation damage. Take the example of the Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In February this year, when Russia invaded Ukraine, the Head of BCG’s Moscow office sent an email to its Ukrainian alumni calling the invasion a “tragedy.” The Managing Director went on to say that “they feel the highest responsibility for their teams in Russia” and have always abided by BCG purpose and values, applied “diligently” in Russia.

The message was widely called out by BCG’s employees in Ukraine as ‘tone-deaf’ and ‘insensitive.’ The statement represented utter disregard for its colleagues in Ukraine and the ongoing crisis. Let alone a basic apology, the content lacked empathy and awareness about the then state of affairs. As a result, a Ukrainian alumnus posted the email publicly on LinkedIn, bringing widespread attention to a poorly drafted statement.

It is not just BCG, almost all international companies with operations worldwide were faced with this challenge. The attempt to ensure both the safety and security of employees along with trying to maintain business in a conflict-ridden nation resulted in poor or no statements.

Given their size and scale, these organisations can easily afford the best communications advisors, strategists and consultants. Was there no one to advise the head of the Moscow office on how to manage employee communications? Why didn’t the crisis communications professionals point this out to the senior management team? What was the internal communications department doing? Did they even have a seat at the table? Were they ready with a strategy to deal with such a crisis which was not very difficult to anticipate?

These are some important questions organisations must ask themselves when developing an internal communications plan during a crisis.

Let’s take a look at the key internal communications issues which companies must pay attention to during a crisis.

Not having a well-developed internal communications function

Many organisations make little investment in establishing their internal communications function. The charitable sector, especially, due to budget constraints never focus on recruiting a specialist to handle internal communications. In the worst-case scenario, the media/public relations officer or the social media team end up doing internal communications on an ad-hoc basis. There is little training or expertise involved in such cases.

As a result, there is no proper strategy on how to communicate with colleagues during a crisis. Not to forget the burden you put on your employees which leads to shoddy work and crisis fatigue. Even while preparing a crisis plan or external communications strategy, the objectives hardly focus on how to engage with teams internally. Just like external stakeholders, you would have little goodwill to bank on if you aren’t communicating regularly and efficiently with your employees.

The last thing you want during a crisis is for your office colleagues to start criticising you when the public already is. Andrew Griffin’s four-category model to identify reputation risks is beneficial for internal communications professionals. As mentioned by Griffin, reputation risks either come from incidents or issues and both of these could be either external or internal.

Not involving the head of internal communications in crisis training or C-Suite meetings

Organisations that understand the importance of preventing a crisis before it develops, conduct many workshops and mock-drills for its staff. Having attended a few of these myself, I have never seen teams focusing on the internal communication aspect of a crisis. What do your employees feel about the decisions you take? Has someone spoken to them about crisis fatigue? Are they aware of the different well-being options available to them?

Does the CEO or Managing Director sit with the Internal Communications Manager to discuss the messaging? Internal communications teams are often dictated the core messaging rather than being the creators of the message.

Lack of coordination between headquarters and field staff

Big corporations tend to have a crisis team both at the headquarters and at the field level. This is especially true for humanitarian organisations which deal with crises day-in, day-out.

It is the locals or the staff on-ground who have a finger on the pulse of all events. They have deep connections with the native community, command over local language and are at the fore front of the crisis response. It is the job of the management team to make sure that the talking points, fact sheets, list of spokespeople or any other crisis related information come from staff in the field. It should definitely be proof-read and signed off by HQ but the head office should refrain from dominating the narrative. Difference of opinion and friction is quite common in such circumstances but should be handled well to avoid bad press. Any organisation wouldn’t want to lose control of the situation just because their HQ and local staff couldn’t see eye-to-eye.

British MPs in June released a report calling on international aid organisations and the FCDO which finances some of them, to shift decision making power and resources to the communities they work with. During a mega crisis such as a conflict, war or a terror attack, many organisations are understaffed and dependent on expats to fill the vacuum. Once the situation settles, lack of trust and parity among expats and local employees can lead to hostility, a series of resignations or poor work culture that can hamper a company’s recovery in the long run.

Balancing internal information needs during a crisis

The go-to platform for any enterprise to communicate with its employees is the intranet.  Teams conduct all-staff meetings, operational update meetings, send daily or even hourly updates. During a crisis, it is quite common for the senior management to feel that they aren’t communicating enough, both internally and externally. Therefore, they tend to over-communicate. Internal communications managers have often shared this pain. There is an overflow of information from all sides which leads to ambiguity, boredom and fatigue. Teams should strive to make sessions more interactive – creating polls and Q&A sessions to make colleagues feel welcome in the crisis response process without repeating messages.

Wellbeing and safety of employees

For humanitarian organisations working in war-zones, developing trust and confidence among employees is very crucial. If, for example, you have offices in both Russia and Ukraine and have decided to speak out against the former, then ensuring the safety and security of your staff in that country is the first step. Or if you have decided to continue a project in Afghanistan then assuring families of the well-being of your team should be a part of the internal communications plan. Managing expectations on both sides of the border can get tricky but with the right strategy and expertise, issues can be dealt with safely.

Many prominent NGOs have been in situations where their staff were taken hostage due to political instabilities. Any mental health and public wellbeing issue coming out of such a situation should be taken care of in a sensitive manner. Anxious and worried family members giving news bites to the media about the lack of support from the NGO will only exacerbate the crisis.

Internal communications is rapidly evolving and has many arms at present- employee communications, operational communications, organisation communication to name a few. Every organisation needs to do a thorough assessment of the potential risks it faces, as well as its needs and devise an internal communications strategy accordingly.

Kriti Gupta is a strategic communications professional with media and journalism experience spanning private, governmental and non-profit organisations. She is also a member of the CIPR Crisis Communications Network Committee.

Read original post.

 Image by designer491 on iStock