Module 3
Corporate Communication and Public Relations
Introduction
Media Relations involves working with the media for the purpose of informing the general public of an organization’s objectives, policies practices in a consistent, positive and credible way. The primary goal of establishing media relations is to maximize positive coverage of an organization through mass media without paying for it directly through advertising.
Generally, people believe that public relations and media relations are interchangeable but that is not the case. Media relations typically describe the relationship an organization creates and maintains with journalists or media institutions, whereas public relations extend that relationship beyond the media to the general public. Businesses often compile what is knowns as a media list, or possible media outlets. This media list can encompass thousands of magazines, journals, news channels, articles, blogs, radio stations etc. it is crucial for a public relation representative to read all the current affairs and accordingly help the organization to get the positive coverage about businesses.
Media relations generally include the transfer of the following information:
- Launch of new products/service
- Initiation of new factories/offices
- Financial results
- Organization sponsored events or awards
- Launch of organization promotional campaigns
- Recent disasters, strikes or organizational closures
- Awards/accolades for the company
- Visits from company dignitaries/celebrities
- Involvement in local/community activities
- Community engagement
Importance of Media Relations
Media relations stress third-party endorsements of a product, service, firm or a particular individual and then use the third part to disseminate the information to the target audiences.
Paul Argenti, a public relations expert had said, “the media is both a constituency and a conduit through which investors, suppliers, retailers, and consumers receive information about and develop images of the organization”.
Howes and Sallot assert that public relations practitioners are motivated by the “endorsement effect” for developing communication strategies.
Below is the reason why good media relations are important:
- Positive news coverage offers higher credibility as compared to paid advertising.
2. The cost of coverage in media is lower in comparison to the advertising cost.
3. A third-party endorsement is a good idea to establish the reputation of an organization.
4. It allows the press to give business coverage so that the audiences get to know about the company’s products, services. It also helps companies in building their brand presence using media.
5. Businesses need it to maintain long-term relationships with the media professionals so that they are able to bag advantages in the future.
6. When a company maintains a good relationship with the journalist, it becomes easy to pitch them for coverage.
7. One of the essential aspects of getting press coverage via robust media relations campaigns is that you are able to build more control and reinforce the brand image that you are aiming to create through advertising and marketing.
Sources of Media Information
Press Relations
The newspaper is the most accessible and widely used channel of media which is used by people. Companies use newspaper as an instrument to persuade the masses or to formulate their opinions about an incident, policies, reputation etc. Today, all businesses go for a press release to reach a wider audience.
Therefore, it is a duty of PR representative to use this tool of media information wisely. PR practitionersmust provide accurate facts and help the organization to get the right publicity to reach their target audience. They should be smart enough to release accurate facts in media so that the organizations motives are not doubted and its credentials are not questioned.
The PR representative should maintain good relations with the press consisting of editors, columnist, and publishers. In large organizations, the PR department has a separate press office managed by a separate press officer.
The Press Office consist the following functions:
- Issuing news and initiating articles, features, and reports
- Answering press inquiries and providing a comprehensive service
- Monitoring the press radio and television and evaluating the results taking steps appropriate to correct misstatements or to initiate counter – publicity.
- It is not a policy-making body. Their duty is to submit key information to the press. They should manage to get the coverage based on the speed and accuracy of facts.
The Press Officer
The press officer's duty is to assess the press and do proper reporting. The press officer makes sure that information about an organization which will help the company in acquiring a positive reputation should be reached on time to press. The press officer makes sure that the information about company reaches on time and entertains wider distribution.
The press officer job is dynamic and full of responsibilities. He is not expected to take any other responsibility in an organization. The main objective to hire a press officer in an organization is making sure that the press can receive prompt attention as needed.
Press Release
A good press release must be brief, written in simple language, newsworthy, factually accurate, suitable for publication, and answer to five “‘W” s – Why, Where, When, What and Who?
It is also important for an organization,while publishing a press release, to make the material concise, clear, readable, and revised.
For different sources of media, different writing information is to be done. A successful PR practitioner knows what is needed in the news and makes the news appealing and convincing enough to their target audience.
Building Effective Media Relations
When describing the PR concept, Christophe Penn explains that the goal is “to create as much of a relationship and value with media contacts up front.”
Andrew Grossman, Senior account executive at Lewis PR has listed the following tips for effective media relations.
Before the Pitch: Research Your Angle
Research is a key to acquire all relevant information. The PR practitioner should conduct proper research concerning with the information and facts before forwarding to various media sources. They need to be familiar with the public perspective as well. It is not possible for PR representatives to bring in new ideas every time they have to do a press release, but they can present the information with fresh insights so as to have mass appeal.
- Find the white space:
A PR practitioner should conduct research on the information which has been uncovered and can affect the brand identity of an organization.
2. Show media that you’ve read their news and tailor your information accordingly:
People want stories with which they connect to emotionally. A PR practitioner should build up stories with certain backgrounds which have mass connections. However, there is no need to mould the truth. A factual and emotional connect with audience is better at selling information.
3. Create a perfect story:
The “perfect story” sometimes isn’t good enough to get covered these days, especially when it’s soft news. Find trusted third-party data points, trends and other insights you can weave into your pitch to make it easier and more compelling to cover you.
Before the Pitch: Anticipate Needs
A quick list of things to sort out before pitching:
Visuals. Does your reporter often use images? Video? In that case, pull some great visuals together to save your media from having to hunt for images in addition to writing about your news.
Spokes person availability. What if your story is going to be slated for tomorrow? Are you prepared to get your spokesperson on the phone? It is imperative to not let email or phone delays for pulling availability, be the thing that keeps you from getting an interview.
Quotes and press materials. Some media sources may write around a press release, or they’ll just want a simple quote from your team. Get your press materials prepared and approved beforehand, so you know what you have to offer and can click send right away.
Timelines. Your media may ask you about timelines and plans related to your news. If you’re so focused on the current announcement that you’ve lost track of what you can speak to in the future, you might get yourself into a jumble.
Third-party experts. Most media will find third-party experts if needed, but if you can offer recommended partners who can flesh out your storyline along with interviews of your own team, you’re cutting out work for media, being helpful and having greater control of the message you’re conveying.
Questions and answers. It’s always good to take a step back from your news and think critically about the types of questions someone might ask. Prepare your Q&A beforehand, if possible, so that you’re ready to respond as soon as possible should question arise.
Pitch: Introductions and Contacting Media
Introductions. If this is the first time you’re reaching out to media, be sure to take a moment to introduce yourself and the brand you’re representing. Make it clear to the contact you’re pitching what kind of news you intend to share in the future, how you can help them and the resources you have at your disposal.
Ask questions. Take the opportunity to ask if there’s anything that reporter is hoping to hear about specifically from you already and if they’re open to discussing editorial interests. They may already have an idea of what they want from you. No need to blindly pitch if they’re willing to tell you what they’re looking for.
Expressing your intentions. Take a moment to state that you have an interest in sharing relevant, helpful information, can go a long way toward building a great relationship with media. Remember, there are good and bad PR pros. You want to make it clear that you’re one of the best and you’re not here to waste time.
Connect on a personal level. Don’t spend so much time on work that you forget to treat your media relations like humans. It’s okay to wish someone a nice day, ask them how they’re doing and learn about them as people. Try to build a personal relationship with your sources. These kinds of genuine relationships extend beyond the criteria that your reporter is assigned to and can help both of you in your careers down the line.
Social media. Most major media is told to amplify their digital news via social media. Help your media relations by sharing their news, reading it, commenting on it, etc. Take advantage of the opportunity to connect via platforms like Twitter, where it’s expected and even encouraged to interact with the wider public, not just close-knit friends. This can help you stand out in a crowded inbox.
Ask yourself what’s vital vs. What’s interesting. When deciding what to include in your pitch, ask yourself if there’s anything you can save for follow-up. If something isn’t critical, you risk it standing in the way of the information you absolutely need to convey to media. Be a little sceptical about your writing and get a second opinion if you need to.
Maintenance: Practice Good Habits and Earn Favour
Reporters and editors, don’t need to work with PR representatives. At every turn, do your best to make sure it’s clear that the relationship is mutually beneficial. Do favours, be genuine and be helpful. Below are some things to keep in mind:
Honour timelines or beat them. Work with your media to get them the information they need in advance of their deadlines, not right before them. Think about their schedule. Time is a fantastic gift — the more you give it, the better reputation you’ll have for coming through in a pinch and making their jobs easy.
Offer and honour exclusives. An exclusive piece of news that’s perfect for one of your media targets can really make a reporter look good with their team, but be careful not to offer anything you can’t deliver on later.
Amplify news. If you’ve received coverage from media — again — the job isn’t done! Show your appreciation by sharing across social networks, in email newsletters, and in the newsroom. Feel free to send a note of thanks. Do what you can to bring readers to that piece of news. Media are tracking engagement with online news, as well as traffic. If they see your news is getting great numbers, that’s a signal to keep covering it.
Read and engage with news that’s not about you. Make it clear you’re interested in your contact’s news and that you’re following their beat. In the long term, you might find this kind of effort and understanding leads to opportunities for your clients to be quoted as a source. It also keeps you savvy for pitch writing.
Bring your reporter in as an expert. Media are some of the most current and savvy when it comes to their beat. They receive pitches all day long about the latest in the industry. If you have an opportunity to conduct a roundtable, you’re participating in a webinar, you’re commissioning an e-book, etc. that fits in their space, look for chances to invite them into the fold and pull from their expertise.
Stay in touch. Don’t just pitch once and drop off the map. Share relevant news and information about your clients as an FYI to reporters and continue to think of proactive story angles. Your goal is to build a reputation as a fantastic resource for that contact. There are lots of ways and reasons to stay in touch. So, keep track of your budding relationships and nurture them!
Principles of Good Media Relations
The following approach can increase your chances of placing stories in print and electronic media and building stronger ties with reporters and editors. Thus, below are the fundamental principles of establishing good media relations:
1) Target Select Media: Good media relations begin with selecting appropriate outlets. Research local and regional outlets to see what types of stories are covered and areas served. Once you’ve identified prospects, get details — deadlines, names of reporters/editors, contact information, etc. Create a one-page spreadsheet or Word document with all data for easy access.
2) Develop Relationships: Placing stories consistently requires building good relationships with reporters. Find out which reporter(s) cover your topic area and call them. Introduce yourself and your agency, emphasize you can be a good source of news for their readers/viewers, and invite them to visit your Web site. Also determine their preference for receiving news releases — fax, e-mail attachment, the body of an e-mail — and their deadlines.
3) Understand How Reporters Work: Reporters are often swamped with stacks of news releases. While you believe your story is important, good reporters, when deciding on potential news, adhere to journalistic standards: a) Would it interest readers or viewers? b) Is it new, different, or unique in some way? c) Did we report on a similar item recently? d) Are good visuals available? e) Is it timely — can it be connected with a larger issue currently in the news? Knowing this, you can better understand why your story may not have received coverage.
4) Making the Pitch: Armed with this information, send your news release 3-5 days before an event or print deadline. Follow up a few days later with a brief call explaining why you believe the story has news value to readers or viewers and request coverage. Demonstrating you understand their needs establishes you as a credible source. Contrary to what some may believe, obtaining coverage isn’t about the great things you do. Rather, it’s about meeting reporters’ needs for credible, newsworthy information on deadline.
5) Don’t Complain: If you don’t receive coverage, don’t complain. This is a sure-fire way to lose the respect of reporters. If you want free publicity (who doesn’t?) you have to work on the media’s terms. Continue submitting story ideas in a professional manner — respecting reporters’ constraints —and you’ll get your share of publicity. In fact, reporters may eventually seek you out when they need information on a topic your organization deals with.
Introduction
An employee is an individual who also helped a company to get the right consumers and facilitates the completion of work on defined timelines. Their involvement in an organizational structure must present opportunities for growth of the employees in an organization and create a win-win situation for both the corporate and its employees. Employees are the people who actually share the responsibility with a company and help it fulfil its objectives and goals.
Employee communication, or internal communication, is the discipline and practice of communicating effectively with employees in an organization. A public relations representative must always be informed regarding the needs, objectives, and problems of his employees. They have to make sure that they communicate in all four layers of employees within the organization including managerial levels teammate, project mate as well internal corporate communication.
According to Redfield (communication in management), whether an organization aims at service, production or distribution, it consists of individuals and groups of
People. Their work is related to the work of other groups and individuals as well as the organization.
Deetz (2001) describes two ways of seeing and defining internal or employee communications. The most common approach focuses on internal communication as a “phenomenon that exists in organizations”. In this view, the organization acts as a container of sorts in which communication occurs. A different approach sees internal communication as “a way to describe and explain organizations”. Here, communication is the central process through which employees share information, create relationships, unravel meaning and “construct” organizational culture and values. This process is a combination of people, messages, meaning, practices, and purpose and it is the foundation of modern organizations.
Sources of Employee Communication
There are two major sources of employee communication in an organization: Formal sources and informal sources
Formal Sources
- Involvement of human resource management department of an organization: They are the people who actually conduct all the communication with employees and convey messages to them regarding company policies, structures, growth, their job roles, compensations, resolving of any disputes, suggestions and bring changes accordingly. In short, they are the face of an organization to manage communication internally.
2. Public Relations Department (PR): Generally, in a big organization, there is a PR department which helps an organization in managing their relationship with media. The PR department has the capacity to project a specific company image and emotional tone through their advertised messages. The public relations officers, through their emotional appeals, play a major role in building the employee’s perception of the organization’s business policies and social values.
Informal Sources
- Create a culture and schedule an informal communication meeting: Human Resources consultant Rick Galbreath, Bloomington, Illinois, says, "Your employees know you make more money than they do. What they don’t understand is that you take more risk. They won’t be able to understand the risk until they understand the business.” Galbreath further states that it is essential for a supervisor to schedule at least 15 mins meetings with co-workers or key people to check on their progress and identify problems. It helps them to connect better to an organization. This can be done one to one or group to group depending on the necessity. Sometimes, a social gathering with family gives a feeling to employees as if he is an irreplaceable part of the organization and helps them to perform better.
It is true that people do not work for institutions, they work for people, therefore, the head of company/co-workers should create a mechanism to deal with their problems and perceptions effectively and create a culture so that their performance level goes up. They should influence co-workers.
2. Listening to your employees: It is important for an organization to know that their employees are heard properly otherwise they might create negative impressions about an organization to a prospective employee. Therefore, organization should create a formal feedback mechanism: hear their suggestions or complaints, reward feedback and check management attitude and be the representative of an employee if they correct. Many companies failed because of their arrogant and unhealthy attitudes towards their employees. Though an employee in an organization works for a salary, they do need recognition, rewards, appreciation and an environment where they can work hard and get the best from an organization.
Organizing Employee Communication
In a corporate structure, internal communication follows a hierarchical organization.Data can stream in four ways in an association: downward, upward, horizontally, and diagonally. The size, nature, and structure of the organization decide how and in which direction the information will flow. In more settled and conventional organizations, a great part of the correspondence streams in a vertical—downward and upward—heading. In informal firms, generally the information will flow horizontally and diagonally. This, obviously, is an element of the practically flat hierarchical progressive system.
Informal correspondences, for example, those conveyed in the organizational grapevine, show up in the both kinds of organizations.
Downward Communication Flows
Downward correspondence is when organization's managers and administrators share information with lower-level employees. In most cases the information transferred in a downward direction does not require a response. An instance might be a declaration of another CEO or notice of a merger with a different firm. Different types of higher-level downward communication incorporate speeches, web journals, digital broadcasts, and recordings. The most widely recognized ways of downward communication are daily mandates of office managers or line administrators to employees. These can even be in the form of instruction manuals or organization handbooks.
Downward correspondence conveys information that assists with notifying the workforce about key authoritative changes, new objectives, or procedures; give performance feedback at the hierarchical level; organize activities; present an official policy; or improve employee morale of consumer relations.
Upward Communication Flows
Data moving from lower-level employees to elevated level representatives is upward communication (also known as vertical communication). For instance, upward communication happens when employees report to an administrator or when team leaders report to an office manager. Things commonly conveyed upward incorporate progress reports, proposals for new projects, spending evaluations, complaints and grievances, proposals for upgrades, and scheduling concerns. In some cases a downward communication prompts a response form a higher level in the hierarchical structure, for example, when an administrator requests a suggestion for a new part or to gauge when an unfinished project will be finished.
A significant objective of managers in organisations today is to energize unconstrained or wilful upward communication from employees without the need to ask first. A few organizations go as far as to organize competitions and give prizes to the most inventive and innovative solutions and recommendations. Before employees are able to provide innovative solutions however, they must be able to trust the management that it would now hijack or sabotage their contributions. A few associations have even introduced "informant" hotlines that will let representatives report perilous, unethical, or criminal operations namelessly to maintain a strategic distance from conceivable counter by higher-ups in the organization.
Horizontal Communication Flows
Horizontal correspondence includes the trading of data across divisions at a similar level in an association (i.e., peer to peer communication). The reason for most horizontal communication is to co-ordinate events and activities and request assistance. Individuals at a similar level in the association can cooperate to deal with issues or issues in a informal and casual basis. The manager of the production division can work with the purchase administrator to quicken or postpone the shipment of materials. The fund supervisor and stock administrators can be circled in with the goal that the association can achieve the maximum profit by the coordination. Communication between two workers who report to the same supervisor is additionally a case of horizontal communication. A few issues with horizontal communication can emerge on the off chance that one manager is reluctant or unmotivated to share data, or considers endeavours to be work commonly as compromising his position (regional conduct). For a situation like that, the administrator at the next level of the hierarchy should convey downward to fortify the organization's value of co-operation.
Diagonal Communication Flows
Diagonal communication is the exchange of data among the various departments of the organisation. For instance, if the VP of sales sends an email to the VP of manufacturing asking when an item will be accessible for delivery, this is a case of horizontal communication. But if a sales representative communicates with the director of manufacturing that would be an example of diagonal communication. At whatever point correspondence moves between different departments division, the sender's manager ought to be made a part of the loop. An administrator might be placed in a humiliating position and seem awkward in the event that he doesn't know about everything occurring in his department. Trust might be lost and careers harmed if key communication protocols are not followed properly.
External Communication Flows
Communication doesn't always begin and stop inside the association. External communication is the communication conducted outside of the association. For Example, the public relation departments with the help of senior management often deals with the image of the company in public eye. First-level and center level administration for the most part handle operational business interchanges, for example, buying, recruiting, and advertising. When communicating outside the association (paying little heed to the level), it is significant for representatives to carry on expertly and not to make commitments outside of their extent of power.
Benefits of Good Employee Communication
A 2016 Internal Communication Survey found that Internal Communication budgets are more likely to be growing than shrinking in the years to come. In fact, 87% of the participants expect that budgets will either remain at present levels or increase. With the hierarchical top-down structure slowly unravelling and younger generations moving in, internal communication and employee engagement are two topics that are here to stay and should be at the top of every company’s list of priorities.
Effective Employee Communication provides the following benefits to companies and employees:
Benefits to Employees
Clarity to purpose: An employee knows what his role is and what he needs to contribute.
Employee motivation: Clear vision, defined job responsibility, structured growth path motivate an employee to perform well in his life and contribute productively to the growth of an organization.
Team building: Creating/ Building effective teams actually means how those team members interact and interact with each other. By using effective strategies to increase communication you will go a long way in building effective teams. This, in turn, will improve the morale and satisfaction of employees.
Gives everyone a voice: As mentioned above, employees' satisfaction can depend a great deal on whether they have a voice and are listened to, whether it depends on the mood they have or about the complaint they need to make. Well-designed communication lines should be able to afford everyone, regardless of size, ability to communicate freely with their peers, colleagues, and managers.
Innovation: When employees are empowered to communicate publicly without fear of ridicule or refund, they are more likely to bring their own ideas to the table. Innovation relies heavily on this and for an organization that promotes communication to be innovative.
Benefits to the Organization
Growth: Communication can be viewed internally and externally. By being internally integrated and having strong lines of communication you make sure the message you send out is consistent. Any growth activity relies on strong communication with all stakeholders, whether internal or external, and at the same wavelength.
Strong Management: The more managers communicate, the better able they are to manage their teams. Assignment, conflict management, promotion and relationship building (all the responsibilities of any manager) are all very easy if you are a strong speaker. Strong communication is not just the ability to talk to people but to empower them to talk to one another - to make communication channels stronger.
Productive staff input: As employees perform well the services or products offered to the consumers retain their quality and thus the clientele of the organization benefits.
Demonstrate integrity: The standard ethics and culture of an organization unanimously create a positive mindset and demonstrate a sense of integrity and honesty in consumer minds and help them to form perceptions accordingly.
Goodwill and Customer Service: Clearly-communicated goals, well-trained and informed staff, and happy faces will significantly improve a customer’sencounter with the brand and, consequently, increase revenue.
Steps in Implementing an Effective Employee Communication Programme
Creating a well-executed internal communications strategy could seem a bit daunting, but essentially, it only takes some steps to reinforce employee communications within a corporation.
Below are the steps in implementing an effective employee/internal communication programme:
1. Assess your current strategy
It’s very likely that most organizations already have some sort of internal communications strategy in place. And even if you don’t have, take a little time to analyse how and where your organization reaches out to employees, like the points of contact and engagement (events, tools, frequency, etc.).
The internal research will help set the stage for subsequent steps of the strategy, including what section your internal communication needs the most focus. Here are some questions to ask at this stage:
- How is the current plan performing?
- What are the most significant weaknesses?
- Who’s involved?
- What tools are you using?
During this stage, it may even be useful to conduct a survey to guage how happy employees are and how they think employee communications could improve.
2. Planning your new strategy
Just like most other business processes, a decent strategy needs clearly defined goals, timeline, and metrics. Conducting an internal research will shed some light on which areas need improvement. For example, are there issues in workflow communication? Is the relationship between management and employees strong? Are employees actively using the intranet? Above all, keep the characteristics of a basic communication strategy in mind!
First, define your goals and actionable objectives. The whole team needs to have a clear vision of what needs to be improved and how.
Secondly, lay out a timeline. What’s the realistic amount of time it will take for the new process to be implemented?
Finally, define your key metrics. Some suggestions for metrics are social shares of company updates, employee engagement metrics including how often do they read internal content, share company content on social media, etc., amount of employee referrals, intranet usage, and also the number of project management issues.
3. Define your audience
Once you have defined your strategy, it’s time to understand who you are targeting and involving. You need to adapt the content of your strategy to the audience. Also, mostthinkthat great employee communications strategies should deliver messages to everyone. However, it’s just as important to segment the audience and provide the right message to the right employees.
For example, your sales team may not need to know every marketing update, and therefore, it might be beneficial to have two different areas to deliver messages to those teams.
4. Approval from all teams
Planning a successful employee communications strategy is both daunting and unimaginable without including other teams of the organization. Here are some questions to ask about how the rest of the company can contribute to shaping a successful strategy:
- How can each team contribute to structuring the communication process?
- Which team is responsible for which part of the strategy?
- Is every team happy with the current strategy?
- How does each department feel about the metrics that measure success?
Internal communication is a two-way process that should include every employee n the organization.
5. Choose and define tools
Many different channels are accustomed to push internal content, such as social media channels, online communities, newsletters, email, briefings and even IM platforms like Slack. Each tool has advantages and disadvantages regarding the encouraging employee engagement and interest.
The best approach to selecting your tools is to list all the tools and determine how and why the corporate uses them. Are there too many tools? Is there one to disseminate plans? How about meaningful two-way communication?
6. Evaluation
The metrics that were defined in phase two should be employed track progress, and you optimize your strategy. Has engagement increased? Have the project management issues you defined been solved? Formulate a monthly evaluation of your strategy and communicate regularly with stakeholders. For example, reflect on employee communications during every company meeting. Some questions you can ask are:
- Does communication need to be increased?
- How well are we communicating within the organization?
- What prevents you from better communications?
- What can we improve on the most?
In the end, your internal communication strategy should provide employees with the data they require to succeed both personally and professionally.
Role of Management in Employee Communications
It is important for an organization to systematically organize employee communication not only to deal with specific issues but for the long-term well-being of the organization. The role of management is extremely crucial in conveying their interest and their expectations towards their employees. They also need to follow the systematic steps for its implementation.
Giving them a close look at the organization: People want appreciation and belongingness in an organization where they spend maximum hours. Therefore, management should them to set up their goals, help them to make a systematic plan for getting over there. It should also empower them and make them feel confident about the value of their contribution toward those plans.
The younger generation of employees look for instant gratification and feedback. They get frustrated and require frequent interaction and feedback of their performance. They are in the digital era and they want constant information about their organization’s success and current levels. Therefore, a good organization value their employees, their trends and set the goals together to increase the feeling of teamwork and progress.
Management should create great goals that are SMART: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-Bound. As per a global survey conducted by LinkedIn, a social networking website for professionals found that 73% of its participants want a career in which they feel that their job matters. Therefore, it is proved that a well-functioning internal communication system can motivate employees to work toward a common goal. A company can shift their focus from “Why” to “What”.
Communicate: The management should use a possible channel of communication to communicate with their employees the reality of an organization instead of letting them hear it from external means. Two main ingredients are needed to ensure that information comes from the right source, they are time required for the information to reach employees and the distribution of the information to all employees.
It is important for the management to establish a fast, interactive and reliable channel to reach all employees. They also need to create trust and transparency in their approach. This will enable corporates to remain in control of the messages they send, instead of leaving information susceptible to individual interpretations.
Empower and Support Middle Management: It is crucial for internal communication to make the chain of communication hierarchy most effective. It is not possible for top level authorities such as the board of directors to intervene and sort out trivial concerns. Hence, it is the responsibility of the middle level management get involved with their staff and provide smooth functioning of official work. For this purpose, they should be allowed to make certain decisions with less intervention.
A goal-oriented, specific and clear communication with people within the organization improves their productivity and creates better managers. It is a responsibility of management to guide employees and help them function effectively.
Good internal communication helps an organization to gain a good image also before their customers. It helps customers to get the best from the organization. In a large distributed organization with thousands of employees, communication happens through management employees.
Limit Rumours and Enhance Transparency: Informal communication has its advantages and disadvantages. Grapevine word-of-mouth can sometimes help employees to interpret managerial information; it often reaches those who might have otherwise missed the original transmission, and it’s more flexible than formal communication. In addition, the grapevine helps to improve relationships between employees and it spreads knowledge and tips that can make work more effective. Providing both—a rumour-free environment and transparency—is central to a generation of employees (and customers) who are sceptical to the core.
Introduction
Crisis Communication may be described as “the collection, processing, and dissemination of information required for addressing a crisis situation”. (Coombs and Holladay)
Another definition of crisis communication may be “the flow of information during a crisis among an organization, its employees, the media, the government, law enforcement and the general public. (Roos).
Crisis communication, typically, is a process of information by a crisis management team for decision-making purposes. It can be divided into three categories:
Pre – Crisis communication involves an organization to communicate with audiences in advance before the crisis occurs to create a positive image and credibility. It is important for an organization to accept honestly if, in the near future, they understand that there is a crisis that might occur and affect consumers. Rather than defending their position, they should come upfront and communicate to the audiences regarding their challenges.
In-Crisis – When a business is in the state of a crisis, the key crisis management team, should consistently get in touch with their audience and try to repair their brand image.
Post-Crisis – After a crisis has been dealt with, it is again important for an organization to focus more on building a positive relationship and accordingly start initiating the relationship with key officials of different departments.
Impact of Crisis
Crisis communication is a critical organizational function. Failure can impact on company reputation, revenue and the organization's future drastically. Although most modern corporates have a crisis management department, public relations practitioners are an integral part of crisis management teams. There are many research articles on crisis management by both practitioners and researchers from many different disciplines making it a simpler to synthesize what we know about crisis communication.
A crisis not only affects a system as a whole but also has a threatening effect on its basic assumptions, its subjective sense of self, and its existential core.
Human and Social:
Employees who are involved in a crisis may suffer trauma, stress, depression, withdrawal and severe other health-related issues. The ability to deal with stressful situation varies from person to person. The emotional consequences of crisis can appear at any time during the crisis and may have an impact post-crisis as well.
Financial:
When a business faces a crisis, there is always a threat for them to manage their financial assets. Finance is a very sensitive aspect of any organization and if any finance related issues emerge, the first ones to get affected by them are the organization's employees. Many times, due to dire crisis situations, employees find their wages being reduced and they have to work under unimaginable pressure. Besides this, the promotion also dims.
Tarnishing of corporate reputation:
A crisis threatens the image and reputation of an organization. Recent scams of leading businessmen have not only demolished their own image but the reputation of their companies as well. Therefore, it is extremely imperative for the representative of an organization to be sensible enough to take the right decisions and not to fall under any unethical considerations. The head of the organization must understand that they are the ones on whom many employees, investors, shareholders and trustees rely. Therefore, they should take the responsibility to for building the lost company reputation back up from the ground.
Role of Communication in Crisis
Communication is foundational to crisis management. It provides clarity and direction for employees, customers and partners in an otherwise uncertain and confusing time. The key role of strategic communication during a crisis is to stabilize and advance the organization by inspiring confidence, earning trust and engaging stakeholders. Clear, consistent communication is vital to successfully maintain business continuity and recover.
Organizations can leverage the power of communication to successfully emerge from a crisis.
Ready
The role of strategic communication in the Ready phase is to lay the groundwork necessary for organizations to respond effectively and sustain trust. This phase happens before a crisis when a company proactively identifies high-likelihood crisis scenarios and develops plans for managing them. How well an organization prepares its crisis communication strategies impacts how well it can navigate an actual crisis.
The crisis management plan created during this phase should define the dedicated response teams with clear roles and communication responsibilities. It should include an internal and external stakeholder inventory with each audience’s preferred communication channels. Creating templated communication materials for these channels allows organizations to quickly customize and deploy communications if a crisis strikes. Leaders should receive communication coaching during this phase to learn how to respond clearly, authentically and transparently to future crises.
Respond
Organizations move to the Respond phase of crisis management when a crisis strikes. The role of strategic communication during this phase is to provide timely, credible information that keeps stakeholders informed. Communication also serves as a tool for building trust. Organizations that share authentic, transparent and consistent messages are more likely to gain trust, maintain their brand perception and retain loyal customers, employees and partners.
Strategic communication in a crisis creates a connection between businesses and their stakeholders. Organizations that use a feedback loop during crisis management can better understand how their key audiences are feeling and demonstrate empathy for what they’re experiencing. Acting with empathy and delivering simple and factual information across various channels helps organizations dispel confusion and worry. Taking control of the crisis narrative and meeting stakeholders where they’re at helps businesses stabilize and manage the immediate crisis.
Recover
Businesses enter the Recovery phase when they start to experience stability. Use strategic communication during this phase to assess new opportunities and provide clarity to stakeholders on how the future might look. Even if it starts to feel repetitive, proactive and consistent communication is vital during this phase because stakeholders may still feel uncertain, even as the organization begins to stabilize and recover. Leaders can use communication to define and articulate the company’s future vision while keeping people informed about the company’s improved stability.
Internal messages during this phase might focus on motivating employees to think and act differently because of the crisis. Externally, the company may still address the crisis but start preparing customers for what the future holds. Learn where stakeholders are at and how their expectations have changed by leveraging monitoring and listening tools and engaging stakeholders in two-way communication. These insights help the organization identify what adjustments might be necessary as the business recovers. Change is common during this phase, and incorporating change management communication strategies into the business plan can help effectively propel the organization forward.
Restore
The role of strategic communication in the Restore phase is to move the business forward with confidence for sustained growth. It’s an opportunity for an organization to re-align its communication to its purpose, mission and values and provide rationale for any changes made as a result of the crisis. This communication helps the company establish meaningful connections with stakeholders that will positively differentiate its brand and culture.
Organizations in the Restore phase begin shifting messages from crisis-focused to future-focused. Leaders play a critical communication role during this phase by inspiring and motivating employees. It’s also an important time to express gratitude to internal and external stakeholders who supported the business through the crisis.
Organizations that use communication effectively during a crisis to authentically connect with stakeholders have the best opportunity for long-term success. Companies build trust when they communicate with authenticity, transparency and clarity. People who trust organizations are more likely to support and advocate for the brand. Strategic communication in a crisis gives organizations the confidence to advance business plans and re-enter the market to serve their stakeholders in meaningful ways.
Guidelines for Handling Crisis
Below are the basic guidelines for handling a crisis situation in an organization:
- Respect the Role of Media:
A strong public relations team helps in establishing good media relations. The PR representative must always strive to share the right information with company backgrounds so that media should support them in the situation of crisis.
Tips for handling media in crisis (Do's and Don’ts)
Do: Prepare for interview
Don't: Speculate about circumstances or facts. Tell the reporter everything and disclose information which might harm the organization reputation.
Do: Develop key messages and steps taken so far.
Don't: Repeat loaded words like Crisis or devastating
Do: Anticipate journalist questions and keep answers ready accordingly.
Don't: Make off the record statements.
Do: Be positive and show empathy. Comment on something you do not understand.
Don't: Use jargon
Do: Correct misinformation.
Don't: Lose your temper.
Do: Make yourself accessible.
Don't: Try to stop journalists from writing a story
2. Communicate, communicate, and communicate
The most fundamental way to manage a crisis is effective communication. When a crisis occurs, it is essential to give detailed information of all WH-type questions (where, what, why, how, etc.) to the employees and the general public. It is always better if the masses get the information regarding crisis from the respective organization which helps them to not to form any negative perceptions about said organization.
3. Take Responsibility
A company should always take the responsibility of a crisis promptly whether it be due to a specific department or an employee. Taking responsibility means communicating what an organization is doing to do in order to rectify the situation which the media and the public have determined regarding the organization’s involvement.
4. Centralize Information
All flow of external information must be centralized to the public relations department and they must be solely responsible for disseminating information about the organization in the general public and media.
5. Establish a crisis team
A small team of senior executives should be identified to serve as the organization’s Crisis Management Team. Ideally, the organization’s CEO must lead the team, with the firm’s top public relations executive and legal counsel as his or her chief advisers.
6. Establish notification and monitoring systems
Because of the advent of technology, pieces of information about the company or the crisis itself might end up on social media. Therefore, to regulate and monitor this information, a smart PR team must of tech savvy individuals who are well aware of all the technology-related advancements and systems must be employed to manage all external communication effectively.
7. Develop holding statements
Holding statements are messages designed for use immediately after a crisis breaks, they should be developed in advance to be used for a wide variety of scenarios to which the organization is perceived to be vulnerable. An instance of holding statements by a hotel chain with assets that were hit by a natural disaster, before the organization’s headquarters has any hard-factual information, may be:
- “We have implemented our crisis response plan, which places the highest priority on the health and safety of our guests and staff.”
- “Our thoughts are with those who were in harm’s way, and we hope that they are well.”
- “We will be supplying additional information when it is available and posting it on our website.”
Any corporate's Crisis Communications Team should regularly review holding statements to determine if they require revision and/or whether statements for other scenarios should be developed.
Trust Building
The Role of Trust in Crisis Communication
Employees often misinterpret messages from managers during communication in times of crisis (Mazzei &Ravazzani, 2011). Trust among employees during times of crisis is important (James &Woten, 2005). Companies must make employees feel safe, be reliable for their customers and clients, and encourage organizational partners to work together. In times of change, companies should foster trust-based communication to improve the relationship between management and employees.
Strategies to For Trust-BuildingDuring aCrises
Below are some fundamental strategies for trust building in a crisis situation:
Create and share a clear message. Communicate all changes in expectations clearly. Develop and distribute a document among employees and volunteers that clearly explains what changes they should make in their work due to the crisis.
Shoot for accuracy and transparency. Share your sources for gathering information on the crisis. Only share facts related to the crisis.
Make communication consistent. If you are sending out multiple messaging documents, or having multiple employees send out messaging documents, ensure everyone is referring to and using language clearly stated in the original message document.
Ensure employees and volunteers feel secure. If their jobs or roles are not at stake, clearly and quickly communicate this. Thank employees and volunteers for their efforts, and note the importance of their work in challenging times.
Ensure clients feel secure. Ensure clients understand the quality of your service will not decrease due to the crisis. However, also explain it will be different. Inform clients about what measures your organization is taking to address the crisis. Thank them for their business and support.
Encourage collaboration. Seek advice and helpful resources from your organizational partners. Observe how they handle communication related to the crisis. Offer to assist, within reason, with their crisis communication plan if needed.
Make yourself available to answer questions and listen to concerns among employees and volunteers. Set aside time in your calendar for volunteers and employees to listen to their concerns and address them, within reason.
Foster a sense of community. At group meetings, ask employees and volunteers to share updates about their lives. Lead teambuilding activities or ice-breakers. Remind your team that you are all in this together.
Introduction
Financial communication is an essential tool that allows a company to manage its external relations by the means of financial and accounting information, thus succeeding in the creation of an interconnection with the external environment by providing the information requested by interested stakeholders; so it is not surprising that finding the means of effective communication with the stakeholders is among the priorities of corporate governance and, in turn, a very important role is played by the communication with investors.
Financial communication occurs as a part of public relations and is aimed at present and potential shareholders and investors. The purpose of this form of communication is to support and above all to strengthen the company's stock market value and prospects, but also its credibility to shareholders and investors. From this approach, financial communication is a competitive confrontation field, where the company convinces investors to buy its shares rather than those of its competitors. It gets integrated with some difficulty in the overall communication of an organization due to its rigorous character, which is conferred by the presentation and explanation of the financial situation of the company.
One of the problems that arise in the field of financial communication concerns the minimum of information to be included in the synthesis documents, taking into account that any form of communication is characterized by a message and a
Code and the recipient must have the capacity of decoding the received message. Regular disclosure of financial reports by listed companies has been and is more than necessary. Currently, not only listed companies are disseminating financial data and information. A good image, from this point of view, helps the entity obtain easier a bank loan and other various funding, attract investors and eventually determine the entity's shares to be sold at the highest price. All this is achieved through a good communication of the entity with the environment in which it operates.
The financial public/audience are that public who are:
- The registered shareholders
- Investing community including potential shareholders
- Direct financial institutions consisting of banks and finance related firms
- Employees and audiences that are directly connected with the organization
- Press including newspapers, trade journals, and other publications that create interest in economics and finance.
Function of Financial Communication Expert:
Liaison with executive management: – A financial communication expert typically deals with – Board of Directors, Executive and Finance committee, key officials and department heads, directors of public relations, industrial relations and investor relations.
Financial publicity: Uncovering and developing news as per the interest of stockholders, developing relations with financial editors, creating a financial press release, annual reports, and information about mergers, interviewing media financial reporters to determine their needs.
Conducting stockholder surveys and preparation of stockholder publications: quarterly earnings statements, folders interpreting company policies, preparing biographical digests of executive officers’ members of the board of directors.
Financial and Educational Advertising: Preparing institutional advertising, including annual reports, advertisements, the announcement of acquisitions, opening and closing of manufacturing units and more.
Planning the annual & regional meeting of the stockholders: Organizing programs, selecting places of meetings, preparing for answers to questions and criticisms, offering gift packages of company products.
Working with security analysts: Questioning analysts to determine the extent of their knowledge of the company and attitudes towards the company, arranging analyst meetings with company’s executives and tours of plants and research facilities, preparing and distributing informational materials to analysts.
Tracing the Growth of Financial Communication in India
After independence, India had adopted a mixed economy model. The focus after independence was solely on agriculture and industrialization. Many companies established their business and got the funds through financial institutions to fulfil the government’s private sector investment targets.
But, that was the time when India also needed to work in capital markets to acquire the required support and channels to meet investment priorities. The Indian government and RBI acknowledged that India needs to work in this area of finance. Even today, people get conscious while investing in capital markets to support investment in infrastructure, business growth, and other development opportunities. Financial services businesses could do way more to develop investor confidence to make up capital market investment.
After the 1990s, suggested economic reforms have brought India into the mainstream of financial communication. The concept of LPG i.e. Liberalization, Privatization and Globalization had given a major push to corporates and connected India with global markets with less interference. It has brought significant changes in India’s economy and brought changes in demographics - social and behavioural, and also in technology. Today, India is the 3rd largest economy in Purchasing Power Index. The rank of India has also increased within the index of “Ease of Doing Business”. Today, India constantly cites its financial performances, major changes within the economy, boost in the area of employment and opportunities among masses so that investors gain confidence to invest their businesses the Indian economy. Successful financial communication experts know how to promote financial inclusion. But, for that, it is essential for them to use the technology and greater financial literacy.
Financial PR specialist Andy Berry defines that financial public relations and communication involves," Dealing with both the financial media and the financial community more widely, such as investment bank analysts. The main focus is on communicating a company’s financial performance to these groups. Working with listed companies involves a great deal of what's called calendar work like communicating quarterly and annual results. This is very intensive, involving managing media and analyst expectations in the run-up to the formal announcement and helping clients to formulate a positive story around their financial results. The other big area of work is around transactions including
Mergers and acquisitions or stock exchange flotations. This can be very high-profile, working not just with clients but also banks and lawyers.”
In conclusion, the economic liberalization of 1990s brought in the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into many sectors including the financial sector. Liberalization brought about an unexpected media growth. Today in India there are about half a dozen of exclusive business channels. The numbers of financial newspapers and magazines have also increased tremendously.
Audiences for Financial Communication
The key audience for financial communication specialists are those who have the power and ability to make financial decisions. They include:
Financial Analysts:
Financial analysts are typically employed in banks, pension funds, insurance companies, and other financial institutions. Financial analysts provide guidance to businesses and individuals making investment decisions. They assess the performance of stocks, bonds, and other forms of investments. Therefore, it is important to have responsive, regular and open communications with them.
Individual stockholders:
Individual stockholders that trade in company shares but hold it for better profits are an important audience for financial communication. They can be influenced in the following ways:
- Giving them importance as primary customers or irreplaceable customers.
- Communicating in simple readable and non-technical language.
- Learning about stock markets.
- Welcoming new stockholders and expressing regret when they face losses.
- Prompt response to stockholder queries and effective correspondence with them, will give them a sense of belongingness.
- Developing a newsletter which has readable content which is easy to understand.
- A company should hold annual meetings and through PR in finance, they need to explain their actions, accomplishments, and improvement in the suggestions made by their clients in the area of financial decisions.
Journalists and Media
A company often needs to relate its financial position with the general public. This is where financial communication with various journalists and media comes into play. Newspapers, blogs, online articles, websites, television channels etc. are all sources with which a financial communication representative converses with in order to establish their financial position to the public.
Financial Advertising
Financial advertising is done by financial Institutions, such as public Ltd. Companies, banks, insurance companies etc. in order to try to get the public to subscribe to the shares and debentures. These institutions have also to provide project details, details of an issue, closing date etc. in the advertisements. Agencies like Pressman, Saubhagaya focus on financial and public equity issue advertising. The investing public is motivated to invest by a suitable body copy, a slogan and a promise of dividends/returns. For example, the advertisements by UTI and ICICI (Financial Institutions).
Oglivy and Mother, a famous PR and advertising firm which has created many advertisements in the field of financial advertising, has listed following 12 points to draft a powerful financial advertising:
The most important decision: How must you position your financial products or services? For e.g. Merill Lynch is positioned as a total financial services centre, not just as a stockbroker. It is important for a company to first decide their position before advertisement. They should conduct thorough research before taking a leap.
Build trust: In financial advertising, it is important to build trust by demonstrating the company’s stability Identify a spokesperson and train the person accordingly, honest in offers, show them the face which is handling their money and don’t be whimsical while doing financial advertising.
Offer a novel benefit and advertise it: American Express for instance, is the only brand of traveller’s cheque which guarantees an emergency refund within 24 hours per day. Their advertisement never fails to state this fact anywhere in the continental US.
Simplify your offer: The aforementioned advertisement of UTI banks have simplified their offers which helps an audience to know their products better.
Go on Television: The visibility of televised advertisements is faster than any other source or channel in sharing the information because if offers a visual medium and diverse audience.
Find a unique symbol: A distinctive and memorable visual symbol can give advertisements a hook that will catch a prospect mind. E.g. The Merill Lynch Bull symbolizes the company’s confidence in the long-term strength of the American economy.
Go first class: Have a good advertisement. The advertisement should not look cheap and shabby as it is supposed to reinforce the brand identity of a company.
Unify your advertising: Even though a corporation offers different services to different groups of individuals, they must unify it based on a common theme toward a consumer cause.
Talk in your customer’s language: Use the language which your customer understands and avoid jargon.
Make sure that people know that you really need their business: – it's important for financial institutions to make sure that they reach to their audience through right communication and be sure that their intention is, to be honest, and requirement of businesses.
Make the most of news: When there are any finance related announcements, make certain that you act fast and it should be hassle-free. It mustn't occur that individuals face problems as a result of undue pressure which may build wrong impressions about the business in the minds of the general public.
Don’t ‘be afraid of a long copy: Financial commitment is intensely interesting to the people who read it. Be sure to give your prospects plenty of information. One of the most effective coupon advertisements for Merill Lynch contained over 1,415 words: – “The more you tell, the more you sell.”
