Imagine your organisation’s CEO receives an email from a journalist working at a well-respected international media outlet. The journalist states they are writing a story about serious mismanagement of funds and alleged fraud at your organisation. The journalist includes some details about the allegations and says they were shared by a whistleblower who claims to have complained to you about these issues in the past. They want a comment from you within 48 hours, after which the story will be published.
Do you know what to do?
For most leaders, that question produces a long pause. Not because they are necessarily guilty of anything, but because they have probably not spent more than a few minutes thinking about the answer. Likewise, there may not be any protocol or policy in place to turn to. Just a CEO, an inbox, and a ticking clock.
We sat down with Nikita Bernardi, Director of Reputation Management and Crisis PR at Adili Group, to walk us through this scenario and understand why it catches so many organisations off guard, and what steps leaders can take right now to protect their organisations before a moment like this arrives.
How often have you had to encounter this kind of issue?
Unfortunately, this kind of scenario has happened more times than I can count in the 10 years that I have been working in crisis communications and PR. Of course, this is just one iteration of it, and it often shows up as accusations of sexual harassment, labour rights abuses, racial or gender-based discrimination and so on. Similarly, while this is something that could befall any large organisation, we have seen it disproportionately affect organisations that employ large amounts of staff and have particularly high reporting standards, such as NGOs, healthcare institutions, and farms, etc.
What are some golden rules leaders should follow in this scenario?
While no two crises are the same, and we usually tailor-make crisis management policies for our clients, there are definitely a few of these “golden rules” to follow. The most important one is timeliness. Don’t wait until 1 hour before the deadline to interact with the journalist. Many crises have been avoided by simply engaging with the journalist and asking for more time to respond. This tactic is often more likely to work than just ignoring the request or sending a very defensive legal letter. Having a team like ours involved, with extensive media contacts, can really help ensure your voice is heard and the actions you are taking to resolve the issue, if it is real, are part of the story.
Which takes me to my second gold rule – accountability. If the evidence presented to you is irrefutable and indeed previous complaints have been dismissed, making up excuses and being defensive will not help you. It is much better for the public to see that you are willing to make changes to improve the situation than that you are in complete denial about it. PR can only get you so far, and after that, you actually need to fix the issue!
How can this type of situation be contained?
In this particular incident, we would recommend that an in-depth investigation be carried out immediately to get the full facts and to understand what went wrong and why whistleblower complaints were missed. We regularly work with our colleagues in Adili forensics and internal audit teams to ensure these investigations are of the highest quality.
Once an action has been taken, the PR machine comes into full effect to ensure the messaging and communications which are put out there to give you space to breathe and allow you to resolve the issue.
The aim of crisis communications is not to ensure that the public completely forgets what happened, but rather that they remember how well you dealt with it.
Are there ways to recover your reputation once the issue has passed?
Yes! But timing is everything. Trying to recover your reputation immediately after the crisis moment has subsided is the wrong approach. Take some time to consider what happened and what your organisation is committed to changing to ensure it does not happen again. Your best assurance of reputation recovery is the actions you took during the crisis moment, so if it was handled well, your reputation will recover much quicker!
Once a reasonable amount of time has passed, you can start working on fixing your public image through a sustained and creative strategic communications and PR campaign, which we are, of course, always happy to help with!
If you don’t have one already or think your existing one needs a refresh, we really recommend reaching out to discuss creating a formal crisis communications policy or framework to help your organisation be ready if one ever hits.
