Employees want to hear from their employers when big news breaks

When a hot-button societal issue or news story breaks, employees are going to want to hear from their employers. It’s up to communicators to ensure that leaders and messaging are ready.

During Ragan’s Communications Boot Camp Virtual Conference, Karina Whitlock, senior manager of corporate communications and community engagement at GE Appliances, shared a comms framework for deciding how and when organizations should respond to outside news and topics. It begins with understanding how a given issue might impact employees and then preparing leaders to address that.

“Employees and customers are now looking to businesses and their employers to say, ‘What do you have to say about that?” Whitlock said. “Make sure that you tell me who you are by your actions and the words that you say.’ They want to make sure that what we say is relevant, that it’s tangible and that it’s not just the slogan.”

She added that before recommending a response, comms pros need to figure out how directly the issue affects employees and whether their response will conflict with previous lines of messaging from the company.

“Your actions must outweigh your claims,” she said.