This guest piece in Forbes about the importance of culture and employee communications at the new United Airlines just hit my inbox. It’s true that the majority of mergers fail due to post merger integration problems. While experts often focus on systems and back office, the issue of culture should not be overlooked.

Airlines are particularly vulnerable to the impact of culture on reputation. In any given customer flight, there are a multitude of opportunities to muck it up – oversold seats, security lines, weather and air traffic delays, lost luggage – and none of these involved direct employee customer interaction yet. Add a surly flight attendant, a prickly gate agent or baggage handler who just doesn’t care that it takes forever for your bag to arrive, it seems miraculous that airlines – who live and die by their DOT statistics – ever have a good reputation. Let’s face it, they pack hundreds of humans into a flying tin can, with not enough personal space (unless you know which seat to pick or choose to buy more leg room!) and nothing to do but tweet from the tarmac.

Employees need to have a common goal, and a shared vision of how to reach that goal. And they need to understand HOW TO DO THEIR SPECIFIC JOB in order to contribute to that goal.

Continental Airlines has a great track record in building a culture to optimize performance. Some of my greatest years were spent working with them on that very project. United, by reputation, not so much.

It should be an interesting case to watch.

Bob Silver can be reached at bsilver@mww.com.

bsilver Employee Engagement, General Corporate Continental, Employee Engagement, integration, mergers, United

MSN Money’s best and worst companies for customer service rankings are out, and apparently the big banks are not too big to fail…their customers.

Of the ten companies on the list, half are financial service companies, and the other half are cable or communications providers. Ubiquitous, everybody has ‘em kinds of services, and apparently, everyone hates them. It might make you think that in certain businesses, there is just no pleasing your customers.
And that is all about the economy.

But think again.

Because among the best loved companies for customer service are supermarkets, airlines and consumer shipping and delivery services – where presumably your reputation is only as good as your worst hourly employee. Companies you also can’t live without, but who manage to keep you happy despite that fact.

Consider the following:

Food prices have skyrocketed, yet customers at Trader Joe’s aren’t holding a grudge. FedEx certainly lose packages on occasion, yet its customers still support it. Airline travel is costlier, slower and in general, more of a hassle in the post 9-11 world, yet Southwest still gets high marks. And the Nordstrom Way still seems to be working.

What do these companies know that seems to be eluding the media and banking giants?

It’s all about culture. When your practices and policies walk the “customer first” talk, and when leadership expends energy to educate, motivate and otherwise engage their team, good things happen.

It is a simple equation. It works in all businesses, and all economic cycles. When your employees understand end exemplify a culture of service….your customers will notice. And your reputation will benefit.

Carreen Winters can be reached at cwinters@mww.com.

cwinters Employee Engagement, General Corporate customer service, Leadership

One of the trends of 2009 that is sure to continue in 2010 is the emphasis on Corporate Social Responsibility as a critical element of success for organizations of all sizes. And while history has shown the tendency to seek a silver bullet – CSR = philanthropy, or more recently, CSR = “GREEN” (a topic for an entirely different post, I think) I am pleased to see more companies and more clients taking a substantive approach to CSR that is comprehensive, authentic and pardon the already over-used word, SUSTAINABLE.

People are taking notice of citizenship, on Main Street and in the media — Target’s commitment to education and its communities (full disclosure – an MWW Group client), Starbuck’s Shared Planet and Best Buy’s eco-responsibility platform come to mind. Recently, Chipotle’s support of the “real food” and “slow food” movements was enough to score them the holy grail of PR – an Oprah endorsement.

All great issues. All authentic to the brand and the business. Makes you feel good about spending your hard earned dollars there, doesn’t it? That’s the idea.

That’s why I am so disappointed that so few of the leaders in CSR talk about CSR as it related to workplace, culture and employees. Clearly, some of them are thinking about it, and even building their programs with employee input. A Fortune magazine article about Best Buy tells me that their entire platform was created because it was meaningful to employees – long before it was meaningful to customers. But it is more than that…

Citizenship and responsibility begin at home. You can’t be a good corporate citizen – no matter how well you treat the planet or support the arts – if you haven’t created a culture of citizenship within your organization….responsibility to and for your employees is key to the sustainability and authenticity of your “Citizenship Story” – and the ability to sustain communities is rooted first and foremost in the creation of good jobs for its residents. And in this era of high unemployment and mistrust, I thought I had found someone who “GETS IT” when I started reading about the Coca Cola Live Positively platform….defined as living positively for their people, their products and their planet. BINGO.

Except that PEOPLE is defined as the customers who buy and drink Coca Cola products…not the people who make them, sell them, deliver them or discover them. What a missed opportunity – to make this platform meaningful to the employees, who go to work every day in the face of public outcries against soda in schools and the big bad soda companies. And what a missed opportunity to engage and activate those employees to demonstrate and communicate the values of Coca Cola in their interactions with their colleagues, business relationships and in their communities.

If you want to be a “good citizen” what could be more important that your interaction with employees, and your inclusion of them in your external CSR story.

Citizenship isn’t just about the big external programs – it is about the careers you create, and the opportunity for people to sustain their own lives. It is about a reputation earned through the word of mouth in the community – which often begins with the words of your employees. Citizenship begins at home. Or it can’t be sustained for long.

Carreen Winters can be reached at cwinters@mww.com.

cwinters CSR, Employee Engagement citizenship, CSR, Employee Engagement

This weekend JetBlue successfully migrated over to the SABRE system in what can only be described as a magnificent feat of great planning and operations. For those of you who are industry buffs, you will recall that WestJet recently experienced difficulties in this migration, causing all kinds of airport delays and hassles for customers.

In the interest of full disclosure, MWW Group is JetBlue’s crisis communications agency…and in my opinion, this is an airline that continues to be unfairly burdened with the events of a certain winter snowstorm, despite pulling off major operational feats – like the opening of T5 at JFK and the migration to SABRE – without a hitch.

After some time working with them and observing them, it is clear that JetBlue practices some important things that so many other organizations seem to miss:

They operate under a common sense philosophy that empowers their “crew” (that’s employees to you and me) to use their own judgment to DO WHAT THEY THINK IS RIGHT FOR THE CUSTOMER. Not just in special situations, but every day.

They plan for the worst case scenario, pretty much all the time, and they are willing to sacrifice short term dollars for long term success. For the Sabre switch, that meant sacrificing ticket revenue to ensure a good customer experience – by reducing the schedule and the load factors on all of their flights this weekend.

JetBlue gives their people permission to make mistakes, and learn from them.

At JetBlue, knowledge is power –and not in the “keep it a secret so you have an edge over your colleague” kind of way. They talk about the good, the bad and the ugly. They acknowledge challenges, and provide guidance on how to manage through those challenges.

JetBlue entrusts their people with meaningful substantive information – not just what to expect, but what is expected of them. They don’t expect those solutions to be perfect, so when someone comes up with a better one, they share the knowledge.

So when they got through the airline version of an SAP conversion – something that sends shivers down the spines of corporate types everywhere – they got through it without a hitch.

For anyone that knows JetBlue or flies them regularly, this is no surprise.

Congratulations JetBlue! Looking forward to the next time you don’t need my services!

Carreen Winters can be reached at cwinters@mww.com.

cwinters Employee Engagement employee communication, JetBlue

Today is the first business day of the New Year, and while many of the personal resolutions to eat right, exercise more or otherwise improve yourself may have already gone by the wayside, today is the day for companies and executives to begin with their proverbial clean slate.

While 2009 was by all accounts and all measures a difficult year, at least for today, 2010 is full of promise. My New Year’s wish is that we learn from the mistakes of the past, and resolve to make 2010 the year of Reputation.

Today, a colleague sent me a great article from the FT that provides some excellent food for thought about how those tasked with managing and protecting reputation can do just that. It also provides me with a new favorite quote about reputation, from none other than Abraham Lincoln:

“Character is the tree…reputation is the shadow.”

In the interest of nurturing the tree, so that it may cast a bigger, better, shadow in 2010, here are the Five Reputation Resolutions I think every company should make.

1. Get serious about digital/social media. Note that I am not calling it new media – because it just isn’t new anymore. And companies that are still waiting on the sidelines to “see how this develops” are missing one of the greatest opportunities to connect with their stakeholders and enhance their reputations. It’s cheap. It’s (relatively) easy. And it is powerful. Use of social media means changing attitudes about “controlling the message” – it is about conversation, interaction and even disagreement. If you want to “deliver a message” take out a billboard. If you want to enhance your reputation, join the conversation. Because it’s happening – with or without you.

2. Review your crisis plans, and update them to include use of social media. (See point 1). Sixty seconds is the new first hour – and the reputation you spent decades cultivating can be destroyed in a mere minute. Imagine the alternative reality if the Miracle on the Hudson had been a less than miraculous ending. The airline’s early statements (or non-statements) of awaiting confirmation were simulcast alongside photos of the aircraft floating in the water. This story took on a life of its own long before the airline got involved. All’s well that ends well, but it could have easily been a reputational disaster.

3. Engage your employees. No doubt many are reading this and thinking “check” – December and January are months loaded with employee communications largely driven by benefits elections and other year end housekeeping. But housekeeping isn’t employee engagement. The companies that make meaningful employee dialogue (at MWW Group we call that Employee Exchange™ vs. employee engagement in 2010 will be the ones who win the talent wars and own the upturn. Your employees are afraid. And that fear can create a near-paralysis of innovation. If that isn’t reason enough, consider the following: your employees are the embodiment of your reputation with every single stakeholder you have. They touch your customers, your shareholders, your partners and your communities every day. Entrust them with real information, and tell them what you need them to do, (beyond signing up for health care during open enrollment). Because if you won’t, someone else will…and that someone just might be offering them the chance to sign on for a new union, or a new job. Unemployment won’t be in the double digits forever, and the relationships you cultivate with your employees today will last far beyond 2010.

4. Appoint a CSR officer. Today. Corporate Social Responsibility is here to stay. It is a “must do” in this environment. And by CSR, I don’t mean “Going Green.” If 2009 was the year of “Green” (and greenwashing), I hope that 2010 will be the year of citizenship. Are you serious about a comprehensive approach to citizenship that includes your business practices, your community interaction, your workplace culture and policies as well as your commitment to the environment? Appointment of a CSR officer – and a reporting structure that demonstrates the importance of the function – is a clear signal of your organization’s seriousness about citizenship. And once you are doing the right things, then you can talk about them. Reputations are built, over time, by actions and demonstrations, not simply words.

5. Make the right decisions. I’ve blogged before about the importance of actually doing what is right – and then communicating about it, not the other way around. Communications is not a magic elixir to course-correct flawed strategy, perfume the bad-policy pig or otherwise compensate for errors in judgment, planning or best laid plans that have gone awry. When companies make bad choices, you can’t “spin it.” Remember, it is about the tree first…then the shadow.

Wishing everyone a happy, healthy and prosperous 2010.

Carreen Winters can be reached at cwinters@mww.com.

admin Employee Engagement, General Corporate

Risk-taking is an undervalued asset in today’s business environment. Even as shattered investor confidence, reduced consumer spending and ever-declining employee morale have all forced executives to take pause and reassess their approach to business, innovation remains a hallmark of a strong reputation.

But, has the fragile environment created “helicopter” managers, in the vein of helicopter parents? Leaders who will swoop in to protect a team from its own potential failure before letting risk turn to innovation? It’s true. Innovation often does come with some risk but the greater risk to an organization is having its staff bubble-wrapped to the point where creativity is stifled. A significant part of fostering a culture of innovation is to develop a method for enabling calculated risk. Just as you wouldn’t allow a child to cross a street for the first time on their own, you can partner employees on projects with those who have taken risks before and know how to look both ways before crossing.

Similarly, an employee who embarks on a project without knowing the potential scenarios that could lead to failure, are as ill-prepared as a teenager who drives without ever having a driving lesson. A helicopter parent will save the child from harm by never letting them behind the wheel of the car – but the child will never learn to drive. A helicopter manager will protect the company from harm, but by never letting a risky project get off the ground may impede the company’s growth.
Following are a few tips to foster an environment that grows through calculated risk:

• Reward smart failure. So maybe a project failed but, it failed because it was stopped before it could do irreparable harm OR it did no harm but it was the right project at the wrong time. Celebrate the inspiration and hard work while using the failure as a teaching moment for the organization, all the while praising the project leader for taking the risk for what they hoped would be the benefit of the company.

• Communicate success. When a risk was taken and success achieved, celebrate. But don’t just pop the champagne cork, talk about why it succeeded, the research that led to its success and the efforts taken to ensure success…again, a teachable moment.

• Create an innovation lab…an environment in which Ideas can be floated and nurtured. Sometimes ideas can’t take root because the owner of the idea doesn’t know how to bring it to fruition. Creating a place where seeds can be planted and sown will help to bring ideas to life. This can be an actual innovation lab OR a place to idea jam on a corporate intranet site.

• Avoid the inclination to helicopter in to protect. Instead, be a parachute, a means to a soft-landing through guidance, reality checking and resource sharing.

Ame Wadler can be reached at awadler@mww.com

awadler Employee Engagement employee communication

It’s a common refrain now for reputation managers to say that good corporate responsibility programs need to be authentic, not an egregiously overt marketing play, and make Good Business Sense. This is the stuff – when smartly communicated – of strong and enduring reputations.

Further than that, good CR demands a holistic view of the community – local, national, or global – in which a company operates.

So it’s nice when a company proves that notion. A story in Fortune about Best Buy, written by respected corporate citizenship and sustainability reporter Marc Gunther, explores how the retailer is turning itself into a leader in corporate responsibility. Not just because it’s a feel-good activity, but because it makes strategic sense.

Two salient passages from the story simply explain Best Buy’s push into sustainability and CR:

• “Employees wanted to know what Best Buy was doing to become more environmentally sustainable. Some customers — not most, but enough to matter — said they preferred to do business with retailers that cared about their community.”

• “Best Buy, as a result, has decided that being a good corporate citizen makes business sense.”

The article goes on to detail all that Best Buy is doing – making investments in responsible companies, organizing employee networks for growth and opportunity, offering electronic take-backs in stores and auditing foreign factories for carbon emission and fair labor practices. They are considering all audiences, internal and external.

What seems, as written, to be such strong commitment makes me think a little about the evolution of corporate responsibility. With CR, the business imperative seems to be evolving not so much incrementally but in big waves.

Allow an abridged and unscientific history:

For a while, “strategic philanthropy” was the totality of social commitment. Companies should simply write checks to charities and that is enough. Plus, giving out those oversized novelty checks made for good photo opps (and still do).

But in the early part of this decade, there was an overwhelming push to “be green.” Any claim about being green, no matter how specious, was endorsed by an excited media happy to cover a new business trend, only creating more companies that wanted to bask in glowing media attention.

Then, the inevitable backlash. The media began demanding proof that the claims were more than hollow marketing brochures (some of which were likely not even printed on recycled paper) designed to dupe the consumer. “Greenwashing” was the battle cry and companies were exposed left and right for distorting the truth.

But that greenwashing hunt seems to be dying down. Companies – some, not all – got smarter about what they should and should not claim, and are realizing there is pressure to be more than “green” though environmental responsibility is still a critical part of the mix.

Companies that want to be better citizens – now existing in an era of extreme suspicion in the wake of stunning scandals and staggering greed – are focusing on fair labor practices, commitment to employees, increased support in local communities, and more transparency with consumers and other stakeholders.

There are those that say it isn’t up to corporations to solve societal problems; that by focusing on simply making money and creating jobs they are fulfilling their responsibility. And to an extent I agree. But that mindset doesn’t build a sterling reputation or earn the trust of the public.

Mike Sacks can be reached at msacks@mww.com.

msacks CSR, Employee Engagement, Sustainability Corporate Reputation, CSR, Sustainability

I’ve had a lot of opportunity this fall to talk to friends and colleagues about life, the economy and work these days as I stand at various fields and courts to watch my children’s sports. Regardless of industry or company size, I hear a lot about employee morale as an issue facing leaders at all levels. Workplaces are difficult. The economy is challenging. And employees are feeling the pressure. And I frequently hear comments about the need for “better communications” to combat employee morale.

Indeed, employee engagement – the buzz phrase of choice for employee communications these days – is a hot topic. On any given week, articles are written in various trade journals, in the PR industry and in the industries of many of my clients. What they all overlook is one simple fact:

Communications – no matter how artfully designed and executed – will not remedy bad decisions.

And every company, even the best company, will sometimes make a bad decision. The best way to fix a problem like that is to actually fix the problem. Employees are much more interested in our actions than our words…and in the face of enormous anxiety and skepticism, words alone can be downright suspect.

This is not to say that an unpopular decision is a bad one. Sometimes, a good decision can be unpopular, disruptive and difficult. And in those cases, effective communications can make that information more palatable, easier to understand or even understandable. In these cases great communications can make a world of difference.

Employee communications is one of my passions. Nothing makes me happier than hearing a company say they want to do a better job at employee engagement. But it isn’t pixie dust.

Carreen Winters can be reached at cwinters@mww.com

cwinters Employee Engagement employee communication, Leadership

Rumors of the death of The Employee Free Choice Act have been greatly exaggerated.    Today’s New York Times discussed further changes to the bill, including possibly dropping the “card check” provision of the legislation.  But before employers take a victory lap, read carefully.  

For sure, the card check provision -  which has been a central plank of the legislation and would have eliminated secret ballot elections by automatically certifying a union – was a huge concern for employers, and even called un-Democratic for the lack of privacy in voting.  But removal of this provision comes with other compromises - including possibly barring companies from holding mandatory employee meetings during an organizing campaigns, and requiring elections in a very fast timeframe after cards are signed.  It also may be required for Companies to allow organizing right on their property.   These compromises are still significant changes that fundamentally alter the dynamics of organizing efforts.

What does this mean for employers?

• You MUST have a direct relationship with your employees….which included interactive exchange and conversation – not just “messages.” Employees need to understand the benefit to them of a direct relationship with their employer
• Difficult decisions, and those that have an impact on employees, need to be communicated and “sold” – not just implemented.
• Employees must feel they are getting a fair deal…it isn’t enough to treat them fairly – they need to believe and acknowledge that they are being treated fairly.
• You need a campaign in a box before the organizers arrive – this enables you to act quickly to build on your foundation of “exchange” and educate employees before they have to make a choice that will impact them – and you – forever.

Unions count on the fact that big corporations aren’t nimble, and can respond with speed and effectiveness.   The time to think about creating a better foundational relationship with your workplace is now.

Carreen Winters can be reached at cwinters@mww.com

cwinters Employee Engagement Employees, Labor Relations

Just days after the President’s latest address, the seemingly singular focus on the economy has given way to a broader agenda -and the presumed “back burner” priorities such as healthcare and the Employee Free Choice Act are once again front and center.

Thus far much of the debate around Employee Free Choice has centered around the pro’s and cons of the legislation with a recent report dominating the news suggesting that an employee has a one in four chance of being fired for union activity.

Whatever your politics, this is a game-changer.  And whether the Act as it is currently written ultimately passes or not, one thing is crystal clear – organized labor is re-asserting its relevance in a way we haven’t seen in generations.  This should serve as a wake-up call to corporate leaders and managers everywhere. 

At the heart of the decision to seek third party representation is the employees’ relationship with management.  Is there mutual trust and respect?  Do employees have a voice?  Are their concerns taken seriously?  Do they get a “fair shake?”   If the answer to these questions is yes, the issue of EFCA is academic.  But if the answer is no, you need to take an honest look at your policies and your employee communications.  (Whether your EOS data will actually answer those questions is another topic for another day…too many of those surveys are designed to demonstrate that HR is doing a great job, rather than truly measuring employee opinion.  But I digress).

For sure, the issue of employee policies is key….no amount of access to management and no fancy newsletter will make employees feel good about lousy policies.  But the idea that employees only care about themselves is as outdated and untrue as the idea that CEO’s only care about profits.

In its simplest form, this is a communications problem.  Employees at all levels need to support the Company’s goals, and see their own success as intrinsically tied to their employer’s success.  This requires an understanding of the overall priorities, process for decisions, and when an unpopular decision is made the context and benefits of making that hard decision.   In the current climate, where fear of unemployment is at an all time high (reports the Associated Press) many employees are willing to sacrifice short term or personal gain for the longer term benefit of the enterprise…but only if they are actively engaged and committed to a shared vision, and believe that there will be shared benefits later.   

The good news is that actively engaging your employees now – which requires an emotional connection between the employee and the Company – has an urgent an immediate benefit to the Company, beyond smooth labor relations.   Employees who are engaged are better informed, less fearful and more likely to alert you to issues before they become big problems.  They are more likely to deliver the kind of service that helps you win and keep customers in this environment.  They are a competitive advantage, in any industry.   

So regardless of your point of view about EFCA, and the labor questions being played out in dueling op-eds and by television talking heads, make employee communications a priority.  

Not sure where to begin?  Start by listening.  But start today.  Tomorrow may be too late.

Carreen Winters / cwinters@mww.com

cwinters Employee Engagement Internal Communications, Labor Relations