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September 23, 2005
Role of employee bloggers in hurricane Rita coverage
I'm always looking for interesting examples of how employees who have their own blogs tie their personal perspectives into their professional perspectives. This is an interesting blog from Todd Watson, who is a developer at IBM: http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/blogs/dw_blog.jspa?blog=533. In his September 22 post, he talks about his experience of being located in Texas, where hurricane Rita is about to hit, and his work on a product at IBM that would allow local, state and federal communities to coordinate preparation to these kinds of natural disasters.
Posted by Christopher at 1:03 PM
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| TrackBackSeptember 21, 2005
Lessons for communicators from hurricane Katrina
As the next major hurricane approaches U.S. shores this week, I wanted to share some perspectives for communicators in what can be learned from the experience of hurricane Katrina, which hit areas of the US three weeks ago.
1. Create a central phone number for employees. This kind of hotline can serve for important information updates in times of crisis, as well as a place for employees in an impacted area to call and register the fact that they are OK or know of fellow coworkers who have been injured or killed. Make the phone number toll-free, include how to use it in new employee orientation and put the number on a sticker on the back of employee ID badges.
2. Plan in advance how long you will pay affected employees. Companies that were devasted by Katrina found themselves struggling to determine how long they should pay employees who no longer had a store or facility to work in. Some companies like UPS reversed initial decisions to pay just for a few days, extending it to weeks. We recommend most companies pay their employees full or at least reduced wages until they can be relocated to work in another location of the same company (if existant) or complete filing for unemployment. Not only will this save a company from bad PR, it's the right thing to do in a time of crisis.
3. Engage your employees in the recovery effort. After the disaster strikes and clean-up and recovery begins, keep the story alive internally. Things to consider include pooling and reporting on donations your employees are making (and the company is hopefully matching) to the striken area, encouraging employees on the ground in affected areas to blog about their experience in recovery, conduct drives among employees to support employees who have lost their homes or possessions and in general use the time as a way to reinforce what's important to your companies and leaders.
Posted by Christopher at 7:32 PM
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| TrackBackSeptember 13, 2005
Resources for HR-related hurricane Katrina questions
Companies affected by the recent hurricane in the United States have been dealing with a wide variety of issues related to taking care of their employees in the area. One of the best comprehensive resources I have found on the HR aspects of this tragedy is the Society for Human Resources Management at http://www.shrm.org/.
If you have found other resources that communicators and HR professionals might find interesting, please feel free to post them.
Posted by Christopher at 11:54 AM
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| TrackBackUS employees can donate vacation to assist Katrina victims
The US Treasury and Internal Revenue Service issued a very interesting program this week to help out victims of hurrican Katrina, which devasted parts of the southern in late August. Their announcement is below:
Treasury IRS Announce Special Relief to Encourage Leave-Donation Programs for Victims of Hurricane Katrina
Department of the Treasury and Internal Revenue Service officials announced today special relief intended to support leave-based donation programs to aid victims who have suffered from the extraordinary destruction caused by Hurricane Katrina.
Under these programs, employees donate their vacation, sick or personal leave in exchange for employer cash payments made to qualified tax-exempt organizations providing relief for the victims of Hurricane Katrina.
Under Notice 2005-68, employees can forgo leave in exchange for employer cash payments made before January 1, 2007, to qualified tax-exempt organizations providing relief for Hurricane Katrina victims. Employees do not have to include the donated leave in their income. Employers will be permitted to deduct the amount of the cash payment.
Posted by Christopher at 7:29 AM
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| TrackBackSeptember 12, 2005
Edelman releases white paper on employee blogging
Not only have I had a lot of fun blogging on my own since April, but my team and I have also been closely folling the trend as it impacts companies themselves -- particularly the role that employee bloggers can play in shaping corporate reputation. Our research and perspectives on this topics are now all in one place in a white paper called "Talking from the Inside Out: The Rise of Employee Bloggers."
We look at the impact employee bloggers have had (both good and bad), examples of each and how to make internal blogs work for your company. We cover CEO blogging as it relates to reaching internal audiences, and provide tips on how to go about forming your own blogging policy or guidelines.
To download the paper, click here: http://www.edelman.com/insights/all_insights.asp
I look forward to your comments on our findings, and to hearing about your own examples of employee bloggers and how organizations are dealing with them.
Posted by Christopher at 3:10 PM
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Congratulations Christopher ! you did a very good job, I spent a full hour on this survey, I have to say it' s of a very good quality. You've underlined interesting points, and although I consider myself as already quite well informed on the blogosphere rules, I really appreciated the way you've structured the survey and organize, gather the information. Definitely a survey to keep on one's desk and to keep as a reference !
Posted by: Guillaume du Gardier at September 15, 2005 10:30 AM
Christopher,
Another good white paper. And very refreshing to see you open enough to cite a competitor as an example of best practice.
Niall
Posted by: Niall Cook at September 20, 2005 3:09 AM
Thanks for the comments above -- really pleased to see that it was useful. Regarding my citation of H&K's employee blogging guidelines, I felt very comfortable doing that as I think they have great guidelines and a well-articulated platform to encourage it. Edelman of course has its own employee blogging policies as well, but I thought it would be a bit self-serving to include them.
Posted by: Christopher Hannegan at September 23, 2005 1:18 PM
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| TrackBackSeptember 6, 2005
Proof that employees can impact consumer decisions
One of the interesting trends that I've been playing close attention to over the last few years has been the rise in credibility of 'regular' employees of an organization. We already know from Edelman's most recent Trust Study that the credibility of 'people like me' outweigh those of CEOs by more than three-to-one. Some new data from the blog analytics firm Intelliseek (with whom we partner regularly) adds an interesting layer of data to this picture.
They found that consumers were greatly influenced (7.0 on a 10-point scale) to purchase a product or service if they heard a positive comment about that product or service by an employee of the company who offered it. Only three types of influence ranked above employee comments: "a negative word-of-mouth report from someone you knew personally"; "a positive word-of-mouth report from someone you knew personally"; and "a positive first-hand report from a credible professional source or expert."
What was last on the list of things that influence purchase decisions? Advertising in a newspaper or magazine and in television or radio all came in at 4.6 out of 10.
This latest data gives weight to a claim that I've been making for quite a while: companies need to invest in ensuring that employees are engaged, understand how to talk about their company's products or services and -- most importantly -- are equipped to defend their company in informal settings. One could certainly argue that even a fraction of the hundreds of millions of dollars spent on advertising should be redirected toward more impactful audiences -- such as a company's employees.
Posted by Christopher at 10:34 AM
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You make a very interesting point. I am about to graduate school (again! I already have a BA and professional experience as a journalist) and embark on a new corporate communications career with Rolls Royce. As their new Communications Manager, one of my duties will to enhance employee relations. How can I get my hands on the research presented in your blog?
Posted by: Rodger D. Johnson at September 10, 2005 5:58 PM
Thanks Rodger -- go to http://www.edelman.com/insights/all_insights.asp
to download the white paper. Good luck.
Posted by: Christopher Hannegan at September 12, 2005 3:25 PM