What to do when news breaks that no one wants to hear

Virgin Atlantic posted profits this week, but things aren't looking quite so rosy for their rivals, British Airways. In fact, the situation has got so bad that bosses have asked 30,000 employees to work for nothing for up to a month to avoid bankruptcy.

According to reports on the BBC, this request was communicated via email and the internal magazine. But no doubt managers were bombarded with questions from concerned employees. So how can you prepare managers to deliver difficult news?

Author of Melcrum's special report Communicating During Economic Downturn, Aniko Czinege says preparation is key.

"You cannot have managers who are not prepared as it only needs a few managers communicating inconsistently to start rumors," says Czinege.

"Some managers will want to tell employees "not to worry" or "we will be okay" to help make them feel better. You may get the opposite with a manager who is
concerned and worries employees without just cause."

Keep reading for more advice from Czinege about how to coach managers to deal with difficult situations.

Managers should be encouraged to spend more time out of their offices by
walking around, lunching with employees and having coffee.

If employees are used to seeing their manager in more informal settings, they're more likely to engage in conversation and raise their concerns openly. Low morale will thrive where there's secrecy and managers avoid questions.

Try to foster an environment of "We'll keep things honest even though that
might be difficult to hear at times". If the employees feel involved and informed
you have a better chance of keeping them engaged. The employees should feel
that they are part of the solution and have a valuable contribution to make.

Employees will generally turn to their manager for interpretation and reassurance
so they will need to be prepared and confident. This can be achieved by doing the following:

• Do coach leaders on how to be more approachable and respond positively to questions.
• Do prepare the leadership to communicate consistent core messages.
• Do agree on a consistent leadership response to challenges and issues.
• Don't let leaders be over prepared. Why? It can be difficult for employees to feel comfortable opening up in a small event. They may not know the leader at all and could feel exposed and nervous (especially when there's uncertainty ahead). If a leader is overprepared the session may look contrived, as if he or she has all the answers but is only choosing to share some of them. If people feel that the leader is simply "ticking a box" rather than being genuinely interested in what employees have to say, they won't open up. It can actually work in the leader's favor if he or she doesn't know all the answers, and acknowledges that.
  They will seem more human and it will encourage employees to talk and ask questions. Of course, there's a fine balance and a leader totally unprepared will look unprofessional.
• Do work with leaders to try find the right balance.

Providing guidance

• Set up a monthly conference call or webcast with some of the senior team
  to brief managers on how the organization is doing, the market place and
  answer questions. After the call, send out a "crib sheet" on the key
  messages and the answers to challenging questions.
• Set up a system for sending out emergency communication-for example, if negative press coverage is given on the organization and you need to provide guidance on how to respond to employee concerns.
• Provide training using roleplays for managers on how to deal with
  challenging and difficult questions.
  
  

Confidence
Your managers may understand the context of a particular issue but do they have
the confidence to engage in a dialogue with their teams about it? A manager will
need to regularly connect with employees. Work on building their skills and
knowledge base so they can be sure of themselves as they relate to employees.

Before you can expect managers to feel confident in engaging in ongoing
dialogue with employees, you need to build the foundation. You'll find that your
managers will have very varied knowledge about the organization. To ensure that
your communication support will be effective, you'll need to get all managers to
approximately the same knowledge level. This also sets the expectation that they
will be expected to have ongoing dialogue with their people.

Until next time,

P.S. Melcrum's 8th UK Strategic Communication Management Summit is taking place in London from October 13th-15th. There's an exciting line up of international speakers so book your place online today and save up to £400!

Latest News

Leaders ignore internal comms advice during recession James Bennett, The Melcrum Blog, June 16, 2009 We all know we're in the middle of allegedly the worst global recession for 60 years (despite hundreds of bankers still driving around in Ferrari Diablos) and that times are tough for the majority of businesses across the world, but what are we as communicators doing about it? Read more...

Setting up an inhouse video "news magazine" Melcrum's Communicators' Network, Linked In, June 22, 2009 I work for a national veterinary charity, which employs a diverse workforce. Although we have an intranet, for the majority there is no PC access so I'm considering developing a regular video "news magazine" to be produced in-house and distributed by DVD. Does anyone have experience of this? Read more...

Communicators in Washington DC ask the hard questions Claire Leheny, The Melcrum Blog, June 18, 2009 "In today's job market, is it OK to accept a role with a lower salary and less prestigious title? Are you hurting your career by doing so?" That was the question posed to a panel of recruiters and employers at a recent Washington DC gathering. Here’s a summary of what the experts had to say. Read more...