CEO and Founder of Red Fan Communications, a strategic communications and advisory firm for dynamic B2B tech brands.
Today’s employees want to be sure that companies uphold the highest standards—and that’s not a bad thing. It’s lovely to see engaged employees who want to work in companies that are fully invested in the experience of both employees and customers.
However, one thing I consistently see is employees in environments that are frankly not meeting their standards, with a problem they know others would be horrified to learn about as well. Maybe an employee has complained to management, hoping for change, and either nothing has happened or leadership has offered a small gesture. Some go as far as reaching out directly to the board when their concerns aren’t heard.
While waiting for action, they may return to their desk with a daily visual reminder of the problem and inaction. It eats away at their ability to function in their role and their faith in the company. This always leads to increased frustration. Employers don’t seem to understand that frustration is a festering wound, and such indifference chips away at trust or belief in management’s or the brand’s desire to uphold operational excellence and follow policies.
This is when employees may take out a camera and give everyone a close look at the problem. A picture tells a thousand words, and once that photo is out, a million excuses are made. And that image is now the reality for others to interpret. It’s on Instagram, and thousands of followers are commenting on how terrible it is for a company to allow such a lack of sanitary space, poor care of materials, what appears to be mold or a leak, or any number of other transgressions. Let’s not forget that Instagram can also capture words and responses.
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When all else fails, companies panic and call public relations firms because what was just an issue has escalated into a growing public crisis. Partners, funders, customers and even inspectors might call the company to learn what’s going on and what actions the company is taking to fix things. Everyone associated with the company wants their reputation to remain intact, and they feel confident that if they can point to an action plan, it will resolve concerns and put the company back on track.
A crisis is addressed, and companies often move on. However, a better plan would be creating a premortem process to prevent these situations from occurring in the first place. So how do you execute on a premortem versus a public company autopsy after a spectacular company is taken down over Instagram and elsewhere?
Gary Klein wrote about premortems in his 2007 article “Performing a Project Premortem” in Harvard Business Review. His premise was that too many people are reluctant to speak up about their reservations during the planning phase. By making it safe for dissenters, you can improve a project’s chance of success.
A premortem approach forces people to think through all the things that could go wrong before they do. It’s essentially what a company needs to do to establish a crisis plan for all employee and product issues. When you are able to consider everything that could go wrong and how the company and management will behave when it happens, you have a straw man plan for whom to call and what to do.
A premortem focused on employee life within your company assumes it has just failed to meet its values and standards for employees. Employees from HR, operations, management and marketing are brought into this meeting and asked to speak freely about where the company should do better and where there are high-risk areas. Leaders must recognize that if a company doesn’t have a means for escalating issues, those issues may leak out to the external world before anyone internally can get a handle on them. The idea is to dig in and put the proper structure in place so the company is functioning at its best and continuing to improve.
The following questions should be addressed:
• What standards are expected for operational excellence, and how are these checked regularly?
• Is there a regular third-party inspection that the board, head of operations and CEO can trust is actually happening?
• What have employees been told about company values and standards?
• Is there a twice-yearly, anonymous survey that the CEO, senior management and board review and act on to show that the company values employee input?
• What can an employee do if they complain to management and nothing happens? Is there a step they can take before taking it to the press or posting it on social media?
• How can an employee escalate concerns within the company to a few people at once so it can be addressed in a timely manner?
• What is the policy for informing the board, and how is the board actively ensuring that the company’s reputation is on track? How can they be sure to be fully informed and aware of concerns?
Every company needs an issues war room so it can map onto annual planning, ensure the issues management plan is updated, and make certain that possible new issues are vetted proactively with an action plan around critical concerns.
Company leadership should create and use a premortem template with the following outline:
• Identify all reasons by which the company could fail to meet employee expectations.
• Identify and rank the most critical areas to address and prioritize (risk assessment).
• Brainstorm solutions to prevent these risks and ensure that the company meets company values and exceeds employee expectations.
• Establish an action plan with a formalized agreement on responsibilities and timeline.
• Communicate to all employees that this is a priority and that a diverse group of managers and employees meets regularly to ensure that the company is upholding its promises. Allow for others to provide input through a valued channel from which this team will learn.
• Own up to shortcomings, demonstrate changes and consistently survey.
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Author: Kathleen Lucente, Forbes Councils Member