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From the book The Crisis Counselor by Jeffrey R. Caponigro, Copyright 2000. Published by Contemporary Books, a division of NTC/Contemporary Publishing Group, Inc.

The hospital’s president and CEO had earned the trust and confidence of her employees since she became the chief executive five years ago. She was known best for her knowledge of the health-care business, her outstanding judgment, and particularly the warmth and sensitivity she showed all hospital employees.

She established three employee advisory panels from which she sought suggestions, and she would often walk the hospital floors to ask how things were going with the employees and medical staff. Her staff memos and email messages were extremely popular because of their candor, honesty, and humor.

Unfortunately, the president’s assistant had difficulty meeting the CEO’s high standards and eventually was terminated. The disgruntled employee contacted the local daily newspaper and accused the CEO of embezzlement, harassment, and discrimination. A campaign was conducted by the disgruntled employee to seek the termination of the CEO through community and board action.

The CEO took a temporary leave of absence while an investigation was conducted by the board of directors. In the meantime, a group of first-shift employees met after work to plan its own campaign to register its strong support for the CEO. More than 80 percent of the employees and medical staff signed a “show of support” form for the CEO and a rally was held in the parking lot.

The hospital’s executive vice president and COO, who was named the interim CEO during the investigation, kept employees and medical staff informed about the situation through memos and email messages. Employees were self-motivated to write letters to the editor of the local newspaper and sought additional support from local political officials.

The investigation soon ended. The CEO was reinstated, and the community gained a better appreciation of the strong support she had earned as the CEO. She is now in great demand as a speaker on management, leadership, and employee communication and is widely recruited for other CEO positions within the health-care industry.

Three Lessons to Learn
We can learn the following three lessons about healthy businesses from the hospital’s crisis:

• Work hard to establish goodwill with your employees before a crisis occurs. The hospital’s president and CEO survived the false accusations and potential damage by previously establishing a high level of goodwill with her employees. The most important factor in surviving a crisis is, as we’ve discussed, the level of goodwill you’ve earned with your key publics before the crisis occurs. If the CEO hadn’t previously earned her strong base of support, she would likely have been terminated by the hospital’s board.


• All businesses are vulnerable to negative actions by current and former employees. Every business shares the same vulnerability — the potential that some current or former employees will become disgruntled, frustrated, and dangerous. Therefore, all businesses should plan for this eventuality so that they can anticipate and react to these problems before they turn into crises.


• Communicate openly and honestly with employees during a crisis. The hospital’s executive vice president and COO, who was named interim CEO during the investigation, kept employees and medical staff informed through memos and email messages. The hospital didn’t attempt to sweep the problem under the rug, hoping people would forget about it and keep doing their jobs. The communications even helped encourage some employees to take it upon themselves to organize an effective letter-writing campaign, which showed board members that the hospital CEO had plenty of support.

The floodwaters were rising at an unexpectedly rapid pace. The fifty-person law firm, in its Victorian mansion setting next to the lake’s edge, saw its front porch quickly immersed in water, and the first-floor carpeting soon became soggy and smelly.

Evacuation likely would be necessary within the next few hours, as the forecast called for inch-an-hour rains for the next ten hours.

Employee morale has been poor at the firm for the past three years. The managing partner is unpopular because of his puffing on cigars in the office, with little concern for others, and his generous use of four-letter words in even the most serene discussions.

Employees complain of never being informed about important issues at the firm and often feel they are being “used” by the partners. Employee benefits were reduced last year after the firm lost four major clients, and rumors of impending across-the-board salary cuts have circulated the past few weeks.

Now the firm really needs employee participation and teamwork. The partners are concerned that client work won’t get completed during the flood. Depositions can’t be rescheduled, and court dates are as inflexible as some of the judges they will face. They need a small group of employees to weather the flood by slopping through the first floor to work on the second and third floors. They have obtained temporary office space forty-five minutes away, so the remaining employees can continue working there.

The managing partner sent a cold, forceful memo to the staff informing them as to which people have been assigned to each station. He said, “Due to client demands, no flexibility will be considered.”

The partners were surprised when five people said they felt ill and were leaving early. And only fifteen of the fifty staff members came in the next day to fill their respective roles. The others either called to say they were sick or simply didn’t show up.

The managing partner said: “What the hell is wrong with them? After all we’ve done for our employees, they can’t manage to do us a favor when we need them most?”

Three Lessons to Learn
The firm, and its obstinate managing partner, could have benefited from respecting these three laws of crisis management:

• Employees have long memories. Just as the hospital’s employees in the previous example were supportive of their CEO because they were treated well, the behavior of the law firm’s employees was greatly affected by the treatment they received from the managing partner. Unfortunately for the law firm, its employees had only animosity and negative feelings toward their heartless boss. In any business, a time will come when you will need your employees’ help. Start working today to enhance your goodwill with them.


• In a crisis, you should ask for assistance — don’t just expect it. Have you ever stubbornly declined to help someone simply on the grounds that you felt that your contribution was taken for granted arid wouldn’t be appreciated? It is important to remember that your business will sorely need the support and cooperation of your employees in a crisis. When a crisis does occur, don’t take their assistance for granted.
  
  Ask them for help, inform them why it is so important, and thank them for their teamwork. When the crisis is over and things are back to normal, consider holding a thank-you party or doing something else to express your gratitude to them. After all, as the law firm found out, employees may not always be there when you need them most.


• Choose the best vehicle to deliver the message. The law firm made a mistake when the managing partner sent a cold, forceful memo to the staff informing them which people had been assigned to each station: “Due to client demands, no flexibility will be considered.” An impersonal memo was simply the wrong communication vehicle to use in a situation like this.
  
  He would have improved his chances for cooperation by meeting personally with the employees, either in a staff meeting or in smaller groups. And of course, he would try to explain with sincerity why their help was greatly needed and how much he appreciated their teamwork and dedication during this difficult time. Perhaps not everyone would have stepped up to the plate, but he surely would have had greater participation using this communications approach.

The privately owned automotive supplier has just been notified that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is conducting an investigation that has the potential of escalating to a full recall of more than 400,000 of its battery cables.

It seems that more than 300 complaints have been filed from car owners, who said the cables are overheating the battery and — on occasion — have caused engine fires. The problem stems from an inferior installation process that the company used to attach the copper to the tubing during a two-year period four years ago. All 300 complaints are on automobiles produced during this two-year period. No complaints have been reported on the new product.

Since the company has an immaculate record devoid of serious quality problems in its entire fifty-year history, its leadership feels it should notify employees about the investigation before they read about it in next week’s automotive trade publications or the local newspaper. After considerable discussion, managers have decided to inform employees about the situation and to use the opportunity to reinforce the company’s high-quality standards.

The VP-corporate communications, with the assistance of the company’s public relations firm, developed a plan to notify the employees through letters to their homes as well as bulletin-board notices in office rooms. In addition, the company newsletter will discuss quality processes, reinforce the success of the new manufacturing process, and include answers to possible questions on the minds of employees.

A special insert will be included in the next paycheck envelope the employees receive, and small-group meetings with key executives will be held at the individual plant and office sites. A toll-free phone line has been established so that employees can call to ask any questions related to the investigation.

As the investigation evolves and new information becomes available, the company plans to keep employees informed about the situation — which will include answers to questions being asked on the toll-free phone line.

Three Lessons to Learn
The example of the automotive supplier offers three important lessons in conducting your own crisis management:

• Don’t hide the bad news from employees. Most companies are pretty good about telling employees about positive news. It often becomes a more difficult decision when bad news has struck. The automotive supplier informed its employees about the NHTSA investigation before they read or heard about it elsewhere, and used the opportunity to reiterate the company’s high-quality standards. Your credibility and trust will be enhanced with employees if you’re forthright and honest about the company’s blemishes as well as its accolades.


• Use a variety of communications vehicles to reach employees. The company recognized the benefits of communicating with employees in a variety of ways. It notified employees through letters to their homes and bulletin-board notices in coffee rooms.
  
  The company newsletter discussed quality processes, touted the established success of the new manufacturing process, and included answers to possible questions on the minds of employees. A special insert was included in employee paycheck envelopes, and small-group meetings with key executives were held at the individual plant and office sites. And a toll-free phone line was established so employees could call to ask questions related to the investigation. Some people prefer receiving information in writing, while others like to be told in person. Use a variety of vehicles to ensure that you reach everyone, and reinforce your core messages through repetition in the process.


• Keep employees informed and updated on the crisis. The automotive supplier knew it should continue to keep its employees updated and informed about the situation. The company realized that some employees will worry about the problem, others will question how the company is handling it, while others may fear that it will cause irreparable damage to the business — perhaps even leading toward bankruptcy.
  
  It’s important to keep employees current through a regular stream of communications, which can be done by a staff memo, letters sent to the home, newsletter articles, an employee video, staff or group meetings, and special voice mail or email messages.

From the book The Crisis Counselor by Jeffrey R. Caponigro, Copyright 2000. Published by Contemporary Books, a division of NTC/Contemporary Publishing Group, Inc.

Too many businesses take their employees for granted.

It’s easy to assume that they re well-informed, loyal, and positively motivated to help the business succeed in any way possible. This is often true, but many times it’s not.

Employees are often the most complex and sensitive of all publics. They believe they have earned the right — through hard work and loyalty — to be communicated with on a regular and ongoing basis. They have developed a strong sense of “ownership” by working at the business, and therefore, they feel that they have the right to be particularly critical of all decisions made (which, by the way, they can almost always make better than their bosses).

Employees also look at everything as it relates to them personally. They worry about job security. They are concerned about morale and teamwork. They fear staff layoffs and pay reductions. And most of all, they think about how all of these could affect their careers, quality of life, paychecks, and family obligations.

Almost all of these are communications issues — managing expectations, keeping employees focused, allaying fears and concerns, and maintaining a sense of excitement and confidence in an organization. You see, employees can be an organization’s strongest allies or its greatest opponents. And communications can play a major role in which way they will go.

Here are some issues to sort through when cultivating your employees as company ambassadors rather than town critics.

Why is it important to communicate with my employees during a crisis? Wouldn’t they already know what’s occurring?
The effective crisis counselor recognizes that employees should be a company’s first line of communication in a crisis. They can be your most credible allies or most damaging antagonists.

Depending on the situation, you may sense that your employees are aware of the problem at hand and conclude that you therefore don’t need to communicate with them. This would be a mistake, because even without specific communication, employees typically know just enough about a crisis situation to be potentially damaging to the company without guidance and clarification.

Wouldn’t employees be the most likely group to be supportive of the organization in a crisis?
You might think support is a given, but employees also can be the most critical and negative of any of your publics. They are like family members who often don’t appreciate their parents and are bothered by the smallest faults of their brothers or sisters. Like children in a family, employees need to feel as if you care about them and appreciate their contribution to the group. Failure to meet their expectations for this type of reinforcement during a crisis almost always leads to employee morale problems and an increase in complexity and difficulty m managing events.

How can communications make employees “helpful” to our company in a crisis?
Employees who have sufficient information and feel that the company has met their level of expectation in communicating with them are more likely to:

• Support the company’s position. Employees who feel that they are treated well are more likely to be strong supporters of the business. A sense of family loyalty is established in supportive businesses, and employees m those organizations are like the big brothers protecting their kid sisters. But they won’t be loyal unless strong support is first given to them — most of which is built on communication.


• Avoid spreading rumors about the situation. Supportive employees, who feel they are communicated with effectively, are less likely to spread damaging rumors about the business or its problem. They will avoid doing anything that they believe might hurt the company, particularly while the business is in a vulnerable state during a crisis.


• Believe that the company’s senior executives are managing the situation as effectively as possible. When morale slips in a business, it is often because employees have lost confidence in the leaders of the organization. Sometimes this occurs based on decisions made by senior management; other times it’s simply because employees don’t like the way they’re being treated. You need employees to feel confident in their organization’s leadership during a crisis. They’re most likely to be supportive if the level and manner of communications meet their expectations.


• Reinforce your core messages to fellow employees and other publics. You need the cooperation of employees to understand and help communicate the organization’s core messages during a crisis. Those who are supportive are more likely to do so.


• Maintain focus on their day-to-day responsibilities. Informed employees are less likely to be distracted and overwhelmed by the crisis — speculating about the company’s future plans and second-guessing management decisions.


• Keep a positive attitude with customers, suppliers, and other employees. You will need your workforce more than ever during a crisis to be your company’s goodwill ambassadors. If they are supportive, they are most likely to project a positive attitude that can help persuade customers, suppliers, and other employees to feel the same.

What are the keys to communicating effectively with employees?
The following principles can guide you in communicating with employees during a crisis:

• Communicate to employees quickly after a crisis has occurred. Employees believe that they have earned, through hard work and loyalty, the right to be told about anything affecting the business before they learn about it elsewhere. This is among the most important factors in a well-managed crisis. Anticipate employee questions, and communicate with all employees openly and honestly about the situation.


• Clearly state your core messages and reinforce them. Make it clear to the employees what messages will be communicated by the organization. Ask for their help in communicating them.


• Maintain a regular level of communication. By maintaining a regular pace of’ communication, you’ll reinforce to employees their importance to the business and improve the likelihood of keeping their support. This policy also helps confirm their assessment that you have control over the situation and are competently managing the crisis.


• Tell them as much as you believe is appropriate to communicate. It’s important to convey to employees that they are trusted and important to the business. They want to know as much as possible and are more likely to be supportive if they feel that they’re getting the whole picture in an honest, non-manipulative manner.


• If you think that employees want to know something that you consider being confidential, explain why it can’t be discussed. If an area exists in which you simply can’t level with employees, explain to them why you are unable to talk about the subject at this time. They will likely appreciate the honesty and the fact that you’ve considered their interest.


• Convey some factors that led to any major decision. One of the biggest mistakes most companies make is simply telling employees what was decided, without amplification or explanation. Employees are more discerning and judgmental than that. They want to hear not only about the decision made but also about the determinants involved. Give them a feel for the rationale and thought processes that were used m arriving at the decision.


• If you are announcing a difficult decision, such as employee downsizing or plant closings, do so in a fair and compassionate manner. In these type o cases, the employees often remember more about how they were treated than what they were told. Be extra careful to communicate m a fair and compassionate way.


• Provide more than one opportunity for employees to ask questions, offer feedback, make suggestions, and express concerns. Employees need opportunities during and after a crisis to ask questions, vent frustrations, and work through issues with supervisors and others. Give them opportunities to do so through ways such as one-on-one, department, group, and company-wide meetings; employee town-hall meetings; special employee phone lines; intranet bulletin boards; e-mail messages; and employee surveys.


• Treat them the way you would want to be treated. This is a good guiding principle to follow in all of your communications. Put yourself in their shoes and determine what, if you were they, you’d like to know. What would you feel the company should be obligated to tell you? In what ways would you want to receive information? How often would you want to know?


• Make certain all employees are informed about important news at approximately the same time. Releasing news to all employees at one time keeps the message consistent and reduces the chances of someone first hearing about it from another party. This controlled release is easy to do in a smaller organization, but coordination gets increasingly complex in large companies operating over several time zones or in different shifts throughout the day.


• Communicate with them in an appropriate manner. Consider whether the most effective vehicle is a staff meeting, one-on-one meetings, an employee memo, a letter sent to the home, a mention in an employee newsletter, or some other means. The mode depends on the message to be communicated and whether everyone in the business is hearing the same thing. For instance, if ten employees are being terminated because their product line has been eliminated, they will probably be informed in a group meeting — followed by subsequent one-on-one meetings. Other employees may be told in a staff meeting or through a memorandum-perhaps with an accompanying question-and-answer document to give them more details.


• Use an appropriate and effective spokesperson. Give thought to what is being communicated and who, in the business, is the most appropriate and effective person to communicate it. Should the news come from the CEO, or is it more appropriate for it to emanate from someone more directly involved in the decision? Who is the most credible person to make the announcement? Who will likely be the most effective spokesperson? Should there be more than one spokesperson?


• Inform employees that you will continue to update them as events dictate and follow through with your promise. It is important to remind your employees that they will receive communications as new information is available and as events change. Reinforce to them the fact that they are a top priority and then make sure you follow through to prove it to them.


• Give them a “call to action.” Employees want to be clear on what you’re asking them to do. Encourage them to do something. In a crisis, the action might be to help communicate your core messages, remain focused on their jobs, maintain confidence in the company; and refrain from spreading rumors.

In what ways can we communicate with our employees during a crisis?
Many avenues exist to communicate with employees. Here is an overview of some you may want to take, along with suggestions on when each might be most appropriate:

• Staff meetings. A staff meeting usually works best when the company’s number of employees is small enough to get everyone in the same room or at multiple sites via video teleconference. This format is practical when the announcement will greatly impact the organization, and everyone needs to hear the same messages communicated by the same person at the same time. Plenty of time should be left to answer employee questions and listen to their comments and suggestions.


• Departmental meetings. Meetings at the departmental level are most appropriate when the announcement is less critical or when the company is too large to conduct a meeting with the entire staff. Departmental meetings work best when the information affects some departments or functions in a company more than others. After being briefed by the CEO or other senior officials, managers of each department can put the announcement in perspective for their specific areas, and convey their support and confidence in the company’s actions. As in the staff meetings, it is important to leave sufficient time for answering questions and listening to employee concerns and comments.


• One-on-one meetings. Individual meetings are most effective when an announcement affects only a few employees, and it is important that they understand the decision and its particular impact on them. One-on-one meetings should be held when especially sensitive and serious information is being communicated. This would include notification of layoffs and terminations, government or company investigations, quality problems, and lawsuits affecting the employee.


• Memo to employees at work. A memo can be in the form of either electronic mail or an actual paper copy (or both). Employee memos can help underscore key points after staff or department meetings or provide information that doesn’t warrant separate meetings.


• Letter to employees at home. Letters are an option when an announcement is of sufficient importance that spouses and significant others will be greatly interested m learning about the company’s official position on the matter.


• Q&A document. As mentioned previously, it is more effective to anticipate employee questions and answer them before you’re put on the defensive. A document with answers to likely questions could accompany the memos or letters. The Q&A provides opportunities to restate your key messages as well as suggest ways to answer similar questions when they are addressed to the employees.


• Telephone calls. Phone calls should be considered when you’re communicating news that dictates fast dissemination but isn’t so personal that the employee will be offended by being told in that way. Although it sounds ridiculous, in some antiquated organizations, employees are notified of their terminations by telephone. Phone calls work best when only a few people must be informed, and the notification doesn’t require the coordination and timing of several managers contacting multiple employees simultaneously. An audio-only teleconference involving several people, however, can be an effective tool when groups of employees from different sites need to be informed about news quickly and given opportunities to ask questions and offer feedback.


• Toll-free phone line. A toll-flee phone line can be useful when employees total into the thousands and are dispersed among several geographic areas. The phone line can be used to provide answers to employee questions, or relay, questions that can be answered through some other vehicle such as E-mail, voice mail, or a company newsletter. The most effective phone lines are those that use real people — not machines — to answer the calls, if the phone attendants are trained properly’.


• Employee newsletter or special bulletin. Newsletters can be handy vehicles to reinforce key messages and remind employees about company information and actions. However, most company newsletters are published on a monthly or quarterly basis and, because of that, are of limited benefit during a crisis. Many organizations produce a special-edition, bulletin-type newsletter to help communicate more timely information — but in a less formal manner than an employee memo or letter.


• Bulletin-board notice. Most companies provide bulletin boards in or near employee-gathering locations in the office where notices and memos are displayed. These outlets are useful in maintaining a longer life for important information, but they shouldn’t be treated as the sole means of informing employees about critical, sensitive items. Many organizations have electronic bulletin boards that can be accessed online or through the system’s local area network.


• Paycheck stuffers. Key messages can be repeated in memo or notice form and placed inside employee payroll envelopes, This can be a good way to reinforce previously communicated messages but shouldn’t be used to convey important news about policies or decisions that have never before been communicated to employees.


• Videotape presentation. A video backgrounder can be useful when the information to be presented involves seeing or touring something that is impractical for all employees to view in person. The video medium can be used to deliver a “personal” message from the CEO to employees, with copies of the tape distributed to each department or sent to employee homes. This format can be adopted to help illustrate and emphasize key points, to explain something complex, and to convey from the CEO a sense of’ concern and empathy.


• An intranet. Many large corporations have intranets for communications. These are internal Web sites on the Internet that are accessible only through previously approved company servers and/or by using confidential domain names or specific passwords known only by employees. The internal Web site is used to update employees about important information, provide details on new pricing and policies, disseminate Q&A interviews, and seek input and questions from employees. This source is another effective way to reinforce key messages and to convey a strong sense of proactive communication; however, its effectiveness is limited because employees must access the information themselves.

Do you have any other advice about the various ways to communicate with employees?
Yes, here are a few more words of advice for maximizing your communications with your workforce:

• Segment your employees, and determine the key messages for each group and who would be the most appropriate contact with them. Many types of employees may work at the same company, and distinctions among the classes can justify the use of differing communications approaches, core messages, and even spokespersons, Classifications might include senior management, plant workers, union membership, corporate-headquarters staff, and branch employees.


• Recognize that sometimes even internal documents get into the wrong hands. Write everything intended for internal distribution with the sensitivity and care you would use if it were going to appear on the front page of your daily newspaper. This caveat includes not only letters and memos distributed to employees, but also e-mail notes that can inadvertently be sent to the wrong address (or be forwarded to several people with little effort).


• Don’t be flippant, sarcastic, or cute — someone will surely misinterpret what you’ve said. If you’re communicating about something as serious as a crisis, avoid the temptation to be funny or sarcastic. These ill-advised attitudes almost always will be misinterpreted by someone and may make the situation worse.


• Reinforce your core messages; as the old saying goes, “Tell them what you’re going to tell them … tell them … and tell them what you’ve told them.” Clarity and repetition are the keys to effective communications. Keep your core messages simple, and deliver them in a clear and easy-to-understand manner.


• Provide sufficient opportunities to listen to employees, seek their suggestions, and answer their questions. Give all workers opportunities to share their ideas and vent any frustrations. Consider the suggestions, and use them where appropriate.


• And remember the best advice of all: “Communicate with employees the way you would want to be treated if you were in their shoes.” You will almost always do well if you follow this guiding principle.

• Ensure that your employees are told about your crisis from the company before they learn about it elsewhere.


• Communicate specific key messages to employees, and ask them to help communicate them as appropriate.


• Treat employees the way you would want to be treated if you were in their shoes.


• Explain how you arrived at a difficult or controversial decision.


• Keep employees up-to-date on any changing situations.


• Provide opportunities for employees to ask questions.


• Thank employees for their support. Don’t take it for granted.