How to communicate in a crisis
Tuesday 8 June
The importance of good communication in hard times was the subject of a fascinating opener to the new season of Talk Tuesday.
Keith Bottomley, Head of UK Branch Divestment for the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), spoke about how internal communications helped the Corporate Banking Division to support its people and customers through the crisis and to start to rebuild employee engagement.
Some of his points included:
- Help leaders to say sorry, quickly and genuinely. Don’t wait. When things go wrong and people feel let down they want and expect to hear someone taking responsibility and saying sorry.
- Tap into the rich streams of insight that your strategy, research and media relations teams will be producing. Use them to produce quality content-led communication internally and, in the process, make sure that your external and internal messages are aligned and everything feels joined up.
- Get leaders out and about. Make them visible and make them accessible, particularly if they are new leaders who have replaced those who have left. Face-to-face listening events will be very well received. Put other channels in place so that people can write, phone and text in their views.
Download the session handout (PDF, 40kB).
Talk Tuesday is a free event for communicators to discover and discuss the latest trends in the industry. If you would like to be added to our mailing list please use the button below or email ian.samuels@redhouselane.com with Talk Tuesday in the subject line.
