Communicate tough decisions effectively – or risk reputational damage

Some crises begin with a catastrophic event: a natural disaster, an accident, a fire. Many more begin when a known issue ignites and escalates. In these tough economic times, closures and redundancies are being announced on a daily basis. The way in which communication of these announcements is planned and executed will influence the extent to which reputations are damaged.

Today, we feature three organisations making significant changes to their structures and workforce as they plan for the future. In two cases at least, the way in which they communicated turned a difficult announcement into a bigger issues management challenge:

Everything Everywhere (Orange/T-Mobile): mobile telecoms; criticism over redundancy communication based on “traffic light” system

Kraft: food manufacturer; continued uncertainty over the future of UK sites formerly owned by Cadbury

Sanofi: pharmaceuticals; announcement of 1,700 US job losses

Many organisations have been forced to make tough decisions over the last couple of years, and many more will do so over the next twelve months. Getting the communication right when announcing these decisions is essential to avoid turning a difficult day into a medium term issues management problem.