Crafting the Crisis Communication Message

In the shock wave of a catastrophe such as the September 11 terrorist attacks,companies find themselves having to react to events moving at disorienting speed.There’s little time to neatly tailor the message for the various constituenciesto which management must speak — not just the employees and their families, butalso investors and customers. And according to some corporate communications experts,it may be better to not even try. Instead, the secret of crisis communicationsmay be to speak to the diverse stakeholders with one clear, focused, timely message.

    “I’m a big believer in the idea that internal and external communicationsneed to be strongly linked,” says Linda Grosso, a veteran corporate communicationsspecialist with Watson Wyatt Worldwide, a New York-based consulting firm.

    “But it’s all the more acute in a crisis, when the interests of all thesedifferent people tend to blend together. Once you get the question of whetherpeople are safe from harm, you get into other questions — what does this meanfrom an economic standpoint for the company, and for me? The employee is wondering,’Is my job safe? Can I go back to work, and when?’ The investor is worryingabout whether the company is going to be able to do business. And the customeris worried about whether he’s going to get the things he needs to buy. So alot of the messages you would send to them are the same as what you’re tryingto send to the employees.” Additionally, there’s a good chance that investorsand customers will see whatever messages a company puts out to employees –especially if they’re distributed through the company’s Web site, the latesttrend in crisis communications.

    The most critical challenge in speaking to all these audiences, Grosso says,is establishing a sense of trust. To that end, it’s vital for management notto blow its credibility by putting out incorrect or confusing information. “Untilyou understand the scope of a situation, you don’t want to do a lot of detailedcommunication,” Grosso explains. “You should get the first-stage messageout as quickly as possible, but it should be brief. Basically, you say thatyou’re on top of the situation, that you’re concerned about employees’ safetyand welfare. You’re doing everything possible to get more information, and you’llshare more as soon as it’s available.”

    Once the company has compiled and provided a list of survivors and casualties,the emphasis should quickly shift. “You have to get the double messageout that ‘we’re here for you,’ and at the same time that ‘we’re all going forward.’One of the things I’ve seen companies communicate effectively to people who’velost coworkers, or lost their homes, or whatever, is that they’re sensitiveto their needs, and flexible, and that they’re going to help. At the same time,they were also putting out the message that they’re going to get people backto work as soon as possible. Those two things actually fit together — you haveto address people’s needs so they can focus on their work, and getting backto one’s routine can be very healing, in itself.” That dual message speakspositively to investors and customers as well, even if it’s not directly addressedto them. Says Grosso: “The key thing is to get people to feel that thecompany has a plan to take care of them.”

    The final phase of crisis communication, says Grosso, is to provide some closure.”One company I know of is thinking about eventually putting out a specialinternal magazine, highlighting what employees have done to cope with the crisis,and recognizing their contribution. I think that’s a really nice idea. It acknowledgesthe fact that they’ve all been through this terrible event that we’ll neverbe able to forget. But also that it’s time for us all to move on.”

Workforce, November 2001, p. 34 — Subscribe Now!