Adele Cehrs, President, Epic PR Group

Training Part II Monster.ca

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Before a Crisis Strikes

• Anticipate Crisis

• Create a Response Team

• Conduct an Internal Communications Audit

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Bad News is Big News.

•74% of surveyed employees say it’s easy to damage a company’s reputation on social media, however, only 22% of companies surveyed have formal social media policies.

•Organizations prepared for a crisis recover two to three times faster, with significantly less financial and human cost, than unprepared ones.

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Before a Crisis

• It’s nearly impossible to respond well without an established, workable plan.

• Crisis planning takes time.

• 49 percent of business decision-makers across the globe believe digital communications has made their company more vulnerable to a crisis and 79% expect to experience a crisis

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Before a Crisis

•Know what can happen to you or your industry and what you can do about it.

•An Institute of Crisis Management study showed that 68% of business crises are created by management and only 19% by employees.

•That 68% means there’s a tremendous opportunity to avert problems.

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Crisis Scenario #1

The internal employee culture at Monster Canada resembles that of many of the technology giants like Google and Facebook. Monster has created an internal work environment that serves as an innovative model for other businesses to follow. But like every other business, Monster is not immune from employee and HR issues. One morning, due to internal personal conflict and productivity concerns, Monster decides to fire an employee, effectively immediately. The employee does not take the news well and turns to online channels to express his/her discontent.

Further, on the way out of the building the employee uses a smart phone to post an opening for his/her position on the Monster.com website (this person had access to publish job posts). The job description includes disparaging comments about the company, executives and fellow employees.

• Monster took down the job posting as soon as they were aware of it, 30 minutes after it as originally posted and original screen shots are popping up all over blogs. What do you do?

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Before Crisis

• Keep in mind that top management, by definition, is the least-informed group in the company when it comes to bad news.

• Once you’ve done a thorough investigation of your company, you need to determine what issues should be addressed

• Create steps to move forward with a strategic crisis management plan.

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Questions

• What are the potential threats to your company?

• Can you plan for every eventuality?

• What is your plan trying to protect?

• Do you need a plan, or just good preparation?

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Predicting the Crisis

• Should Intel have suspected that its chips had a flaw?

• Should NASA have been prepared for a failure in one of its missions?

• Why would one of the largest restaurant chains, Denny’s, ignore the possibility of charges of discrimination?

• Was it a surprise that Exxon had an oil spill, or that Jack-in-the-Box had cases of food poisoning, or that Union Carbide had an explosion?

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Who is responsible?

• Notifying the employees? Who is the backup?

• Who is responsible for notifying the media? Who is the backup?

• Your customer service team is your first line of defense.

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Crisis Scenario #2

Monster Canada partnered with the Canadian Forces to host a career fair for young, returning veterans. A portion of proceeds from the ticket sales will be given to a non-profit that assists wounded members of the military and their families. The event was a great success and Monster was praised for their military support. Due to an accounting mix-up, Monster Canada never cuts a check to the non-profit and it’s now three months after the event. Due to a large endowment that no longer exists, the non-profit is in financial unrest and will need to lay off at least one employee.

While the employee has not yet been laid off, rumors are spreading internally at the non-profit. One employee, threatened to lose his or her job tweets about Monster not coming through with the check, saying it will now cost an employee their job. “Monster is not creating jobs, they are taking them away.”

•Media outlets in Canada and the United States are now calling Monster to comment. What do you do?

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What are you trying to accomplish with this crisis strategy?

• What are you doing?

• What are you trying to accomplish?

• Do you have all the information?

• What are the benefits?

• What are the alternatives?

• How will your decision be perceived?

• What could go wrong?

• What could really, really go wrong?

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Reacting to a Crisis

• Key strategies and rules for maintaining and rebuilding trust:

• Show concern

• Take responsibility

• Pledge cooperation

• If wrong, apologize

• Focus on victims as well as the cause

• Communicate

• Provide ongoing updates

• Be positive. Expect to succeed

• Have a sense of humor

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Reacting to a Crisis

• Designate a single spokesperson

• It’s fine to choose a well-known spokesperson, but don’t let him or her upstage your message.

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Reacting to a Crisis

• Bring in devil’s advocates – and listen to them!

• Tell what you’re doing about the problem.

• Ramifications of a crisis are increased when the subject compounds the problem by lying or trying to minimize its importance.

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Reacting to a Crisis

• Keep your own people informed.

• NOTE: Conflicting or half-informed comments, though well-meant, can seriously hurt your effort.

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Reacting to a Crisis

• Bad news can’t be hidden.

• Stay calm.

• Finger-pointing diminishes stature.

• A company should not give in to pressure if it has not done anything wrong.

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Reacting to a Crisis

• Create and draw from a reservoir of goodwill. Be well-positioned before the crisis.

• Heed warning signals.

• One of the most critical aspects of crisis management is timing.

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Seven Deadly Sins of Crisis Management

• Pretending there won’t be any trouble.

• Attempting to stay insulated and disengaged during a crisis.

• Ignoring the human damage a company causes.

• Not taking responsibility for a problem in a timely manner.

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Seven Deadly Sins of Crisis Management

• Refusal to talk to the press during a crisis is the best way to compound a problem.

• Overlooking the internal aspects of a company.

• Making executive decisions rashly, without carefully considering the possible consequences.

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In Conclusion

• Prepare a Proactive Team, that decides what could have been done before the crisis to prevent or defuse it;

• Create a Reactive Team, that reacts to the crisis when it breaks;

• Choose a Follow-Up Team, that puts lessons learned into place.

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In Conclusion

• Prepare for potential crisis

• Create a crisis response team

• Monitor online and off for red flags

• Decide on a response strategy

• Provide positive digital content

• Story-mine for positive experiences

• Get content leaders involved

• Be transparent

• Remain calm

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WE KNOW PEOPLE

The Promotional Cocktail

Adele R. CehrsPresident Epic PR Group703-299-3404

105 N Washington St, Suite 202Alexandria, VA 22314www.epicprgroup.comFacebook: Epic PR Group