Archive for March, 2010

Show #025: Communications and Reputation Management

Published by Karen Wormwell on 9 March, 2010 in Communications and Reputation Management. 0 Comments

Having a good reputation is MISSION CRITICAL to a public sector organisation according to Andrew Fairburn, one of my guests this month. How well these organisations communicate with their internal and external audiences has never been more important. So this show explores what the challenges for public sector communicators are right now and how to make sure, that valuable reputation is protected.

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My first guest is Paul Masterman, who’s currently interim Head of Communications at Lancashire County Council. Paul has over 20 years communications and marketing experience in both the public and private sectors and he believes there are a number big issues facing communication teams in the public sector including:

  • THE NEED TO BECOME MORE STRATEGIC - fully aligning the communications strategy with the organisational business plan 

  • BUDGET RESTRAINTS - the need to slim down and doing better with less money

  • LOCAL GOVERNMENT FACES A HUGE REPUATION ISSUE - the job of explaining how important local government is to people, why it’s doing a good job and how it’s spending it’s money is a major concern

  • PLANNING COMMUNCATIONS MORE EFFECTIVELY - to deliver for our organisations and justify why communications are needed

  • LOOKING AT DIFFERENT WAYS TO DO THINGS - how to engage with local communities through modern technology

  • PROVE COMMUNICATIONS WORK - as a real business driver and not just a nice to have

  • PROVIDE LEADERSHIP - be less reactive and more challenging by ‘Speaking Truth to Power’

Paul feels that the same rules should apply to internal communications and any internal messages should also be well planned and more responsive to the needs of the business. His advice is:

  • COMMUNICATIONS AND HR MUST WORK TOGETHER - with a plan that identifies what needs to be done to motivate and engage staff, and how this is measured

  • RECOGINSE THAT YOU MIGHT HAVE TO POOL RESOURCES - to be much more effective

  • CONTINUE TO COMMUNICATE THROUGHOUT ANY DIFFICULT PROCESS - any change activity stands or falls by the quality of the communications

  • UNDERSTAND WHICH COMMUNICATIONS TO USE - you need to know how your staff will respond

  • INVOLVE STAFF IN THE PROCESS - to lock them into the change program

His final thoughts on how communications teams of the future will look are - smaller, central and more strategic.

Andrew Fairburn is Director at Regester Larkin and advises senior figures on how best to handle challenging political or reputational issues. His advice to public sector organisations is:

  • A PUBLIC SECTOR ORGANISATION’S RIGHT TO EXIST DEPENDS ON MAINTAINING PUBLIC GOOD WILL - so it’s not an add-on or nice to have, it’s mission critical and without it it will be hard to take your local community with you on difficult and challenging changes to services

  • ORGANISATIONS THAT DON’T DO THIS WELL WILL COME UNDER EVER INCREASING POLITICAL SCRUTINY - at both a local and national level, the auditors will take a closer look and it will harder to get done what they want to get done in their local area.

  • THE LEAD HAS TO COME FROM THE TOP - without this, it will be seen as an add-on, which is one of the shortest routes to an organisation developing a poor reputation

  • CONSIDER REPUTATION - at all stages and factor this in an the beginning of any policy making process

  • INTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS ARE ABSOLOUTELY VITAL TO MANAGING REPUTATION - you’re likely to be one of the biggest employers in the area so what your staff are saying about you in the pub, in the supermarket or at the school-gate and the impression they give and how they act as ambassadors, is probably going to have a bigger impact on your reputation in the community, than what’s on the front page of the local newspaper

Andrew believes that HR have a crucial role too. He feels that emails and newsletter are not sufficient alone and staff should be given the information they need to act as good micro ambassadors. In his view communications, i.e ‘are they enhancing the reputation of their authority’, should be on the job description of every single officer.

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