Key takeaways:
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Internal vs. External Response: When addressing social issues, companies must determine whether to respond internally, externally, or both. Factors such as alignment with company values and the impact of the event on employees and stakeholders guide this decision-making process.
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Communication Channels: Effective communication is essential for conveying the company’s response to crises. Utilizing both internal and external channels, such as intranet websites, social media, and media outlets, ensures that messages reach employees, customers, and the wider community.
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Employee Involvement: Involving employees in messaging and decision-making processes fosters a sense of care and accountability. Providing platforms for employee resource groups and leveraging tools like Microsoft Teams facilitates internal communication and ensures that employees feel supported and informed.
Social issues and crises like the COVID-19 pandemic, Black Lives Matter movement, the overturn of Roe v. Wade, and the Uvalde shooting have pressured executives to step up and take action. In addition, customers, employees, and community members have called for companies to support their efforts.
While many events are not tied directly to the business, the pressure from stakeholders makes it necessary for senior leaders to make statements on how companies respond.
During the DEI Board’s panel discussion on developing a crisis management plan, heads of diversity, equity, and inclusion at the world’s largest companies provided insights on when executives should speak up and respond to social issues.
Here are some of the insights they shared that help them determine when their companies make statements on social issues and how they communicate the actions they’re taking as senior leaders to support their communities.
Determine If Your Crisis Response Needs to Be Internal or External
Making a statement as a company to social issues requires collaboration across all business units and strategic communications for how your company will take action to support employees and community members.
Randy Irving, Director of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion at Nutrien, said there are a couple of factors his team looks at before deciding if a statement needs to be made internally to employees, externally as a company, or both.
He explained how they first review if what they will say aligns with their mission and values as a company. Then they analyze the total impact of an event on and if it’s localized or impacts their team globally.
“From a mission and value standpoint, we ask the question of whether the topic aligns with the company and our history of speaking out about the issue and whether the company has supported that position through actions,” Randy said. “We ask if employees expect a response or, if other companies are speaking out, do external stakeholders expect a response. Based on that, we consider that internal response and if a possible escalation to external response is needed.”
“From a mission and value standpoint, we ask the question of whether the topic aligns with the company and our history of speaking out about the issue and whether the company has supported that position through action.”
Randy Irving, Director of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion at Nutrien
Once decided if an external response is needed, Randy stated they then look at the business implications of their statement and whether or not they can authentically take a lead to take action and support their teams.
Some of the questions he considers when making a public statement include: Are we clear from a business and legal perspective to commit to support that issue? Are we in a position where we can actually do something? Are we prepared from a policy standpoint to follow through on our commitment or our statement with tangible action? Can we lead with proactive commitment and amplify that voice?
Dr. Monica Curry, Associate Director of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging at Subaru, talked about how making sure employees are involved in messaging is critical in responding to social events.
“There may be times that we don’t speak out, but we speak up internally,” she explained. “We need to make sure that our employees know that I may not know them intimately and what their families look like, but we still care. Taking us back to our mission and our vision, we are the love promise organization, and that means we love and respect each other every interaction.”
“There is an expectation that there is an accountability that we have to them, that regardless how small people may think the incident may be, it may be very impactful.”
Darice Brown, Senior Director of DEI Strategic Partnerships, Community, and Brand Impact at ServiceNow
Darice Brown, Senior Director of DEI Strategic Partnerships, Community, and Brand Impact at ServiceNow, also explained how being mindful of the expectations from her team is important when making a public statement.
“There is an expectation that there is an accountability that we have to them, that regardless how small people may think the incident may be, it may be very impactful,” Darice said.
She also described their risk mitigation plan in place to help make decisions on when to make a statement on social issues, which also provided some of the best practices for using communication channels to relay information enterprise-wide.
Leverage Communication Channels to Make Your Message Heard
With so many employees located in different cities and countries, it may be difficult to communicate effectively how your company is taking action to support employees. It’s essential to have strategies for both internal and external communication on how your company is taking action when crises happen.
External Channels and Strategies
Darice shared how their risk mitigation plan helps her team at ServiceNow outline where to make a public statement.
“The normal forms of communication are leveraging our website, social media channels, as well as sometimes proactive outreach to media outlets that we have relationships with that will help to ensure that our voice is amplified,” Darice said.
She added how relationships with media outlets help create sentiment messaging where customers, future candidates, and existing employees do not feel disconnected from how their company is acting on crises.
Some of the external communication channels that Monica, Randy, and Darice said help include media outlets, which can include webcasts or interviews with their team members to understand how crises are affecting them in the workplace.
Internal Channels and Strategies
Internal communications play a critical role in communicating with employees and aligning the strategies that your company will take to support in the aftermath of a crisis.
“A lot of times, what I’ll say is, ‘Hey, send this out to all of your communities’. In most cases, we have 1,300, give or take, employees across the nation, so it’ll get out to them.”
Dr. Monica Curry, Associate Director of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging at Subaru
Monica shared some of the social channels her team at Subaru leverages to get their messages across their enterprise. She explained how messaging is critical to honor their employees and recognize how they are impacted by specific events globally. One of the tools she said helps is Microsoft Teams, which helps segment messaging in their organization.
“Each of our [employee resource groups] have a team’s channel that pushes out to out their communities,” Monica said. “A lot of times, what I’ll say is, ‘Hey, send this out to all of your communities’. In most cases, we have 1,300, give or take, employees across the nation, so it’ll get out to them.”
To help make efficient messages, Randy shared how his company supplies talking points for leaders to address social issues.
“We usually use our intranet website, we have what we call safety moment shares where we can put together talking points that leaders can cover,” he said. “Sometimes we either send global email communications to everyone or we may do an internal communication to our U.S. based team employees, or one just to our global employees based on the region or the area where the incident took place.”
Benchmark with Your Peers to Learn How They Strategize Communications in Crises
Monica Curry, Randy Irving, and Darice Brown are all DEI Board members and shared these insights during the DEI Board’s panel discussion where they discussed how DEI leaders can develop crisis management plans.
They also shared insights on deciding when your company should speak on DEI social issues, measuring the action taken at large companies, and leveraging business partners to address social/civic issues.
This DEI Board panel discussion was a great opportunity for leaders of DEI to share how they’re addressing ongoing crises. However, there is much more that happens in the community where members are able to benchmark with their peers in real time. Members are able to get insights every day to help make strategic decisions to advance their initiatives.
If you’re the head of DEI at a large organization, you have the opportunity to benchmark your strategies with your peers in the DEI Board.
