Well, the coalition is well and truly settled at the heart of our democracy, the fate of the regional development agencies has been sealed and, like it or loathe it, Britain is heading for a new age of austerity. Sadly, but unavoidably, this will bring with it cost-cutting, pay freezes and employee rationalisation on a scale we have never seen before in the public or private sectors.
This is not a negative article, but I felt it was important to set the stage. Nobody, and especially not employees and HR professionals, should underestimate the challenges we face. It’s also true, however, that there are right and wrong ways to handle negative situations. The way you deal with them will affect your company, workforce and customers for a long time to come.
Here then, is Point Pleasant’s quick guide to concentrating on the positive:
- Keep your employees informed – Nothing breeds bad morale better than secrecy. If you try to cover up your company’s problems, efficiency and productivity will suffer.
- Don’t leave things until the last minute – If you’re having financial problems, your team will know about it, even if they don’t know the finer details. Don’t bury your head in the sand, a difficult decision taken early will benefit the business in the longer term.
- Consult and communicate – There are of course legal guidelines to making people redundant, but you can always do more. If you are making cuts, explain why and keep the process transparent. This will make it easier for those who go and those who stay.
- We’re all in this together – If pay freezes, bonus reductions or other cost-cutting measures are called for, communicate the reasons clearly and treat everyone, including senior management, the same. Also consider special measures to protect the lowest paid.
- Inspire a lasting commitment – Look for ways to keep your key employees loyal by offering long-term incentives in the form of a bonus scheme or share options. This will give them a focus beyond the current difficulties.
- Publicise the positive – Use eNewsletters, the intranet or staff newsletters to keep your staff informed of good news within the company. Good news helps to improve morale and commitment among your employees.
- Explain your decisions – If you’ve cancelled the Christmas party or cut your spend on CSR, explain the reasons why. Staff will be much less resentful if they know the background to a decision.
Explain’ and ‘Communicate’ are the key words to remember. Hard decisions can’t be avoided and things will probably get harder before they get better, but keep these simples suggestions in mind, and you’ll find the whole process a great deal less stressful for all involved. ‘Explain’ and ‘Communicate’ are the key words to remember.
Why the News of the World scandal is about so much more than phone tapping
September 7th, 2010Back in 2007, it seemed that the News of the World phone tapping scandal was over. The two journalists implicated were jailed for four months each, Andy Coulson resigned as editor and the world seemed to have moved on. If only.
It now seems clear that there was much more to this than meets the eye and the original revelations may be just the tip of the iceberg, with rampant illegal phone tapping activities going on right across the newsroom. This not only raises serious questions about standards in British journalism, it also had deeper implications as Mr Coulson is now head of communications for the Prime Minister, David Cameron. If it does emerge, as seems increasing likely, that Mr Coulson knew about these practices and permitted them to continue, it’s going to look bad for the Con-Dem administration as well.
What we have here is no more and no less than a major scandal that will affect everything from the direction of future privacy laws to the reputation of News of the World proprietor, Rupert Murdoch. Good journalism should not be about illegal phone tapping. We have a great tradition in this country of high quality investigative journalism, built over generations by legendary figures such as Roger Cook, which now risks being undermined by these underground tactics. The scurrilous methods used by the News of the World are closer to the criminal underworld than Fleet Street.
Then we need to look at what they are trying to find out. Can the private conversations of Prince Charles or a director of the FA really be described as being in the public interest, regardless of the legality of the methods used to obtain them? If the headlines are to be believed, we could be looking at hundreds of individuals in the public eye being violated by this scandal, with many more journalists from the News of the World facing a prison sentence. The fallout will be major and far-reaching, leading indirectly to the heart of government itself. Keen to stay whiter than whiter, David Cameron will not be pleased if Mr Coulson is implicated further, although it was always a risk to employ him in the first place.
The other key question is how this was allowed to happen. There is no doubt that the British have an insatiable appetite for the sort of stories delivered by the News of the World and there is a huge rivalry between the leading tabloids to deliver the next big scoop. As a Public Relations professional, I am always keen to distance myself and the profession from people like Max Clifford (A publicist, not a PR), who may be very good at what they do, but also play a key role in the dumbing down of the media. It’s quite possible that, once the technology for phone tapping was in place, News of the World journalists felt pressured into taking part in order to secure potential headline stories.
We should not forget that underhand methods do have their place. Few would argue for example that the leaking of parliamentary expenses to the Daily Telegraph was outside the public interest, even if we were all wholly sick of the story by the end of the first month, but it’s about setting boundaries and sticking to them. Even people who choose to live in the glare of publicity have the right to personal privacy and, if the scope of the phone tapping scandal is as great as we’re currently hearing, I hope that an example is made of everyone involved.
Tags: Coulson, david cameron, Max Clifford, News of the World, Phone tapping, pr, Publicist, Scandal
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