沃尔玛声誉危机的警示

    罗伯托称：“在和员工真正沟通过之前，公司高层肯定不希望与员工的争端在社交媒体上升级，因为事态会飞速扩大，变得不可收拾，弄得满城风雨，尽人皆知。”

    企业高层要想有效防止公司声誉受损，就必须深入了解员工抱怨的相关背景。面对怨言时，说一句“无可奉告”，或是发表一份经公司律师审核的、通篇陈词滥调的声明都于事无补。罗伯托称：“有时候员工想要的只是一则道歉声明。”一度陷入困境的美国航空公司（American Airlines）曾历经破产、飞行员罢工和飞机维护问题等等危机，而与之共患难的员工既没得到过“我们深感抱歉”的表示，也没获得过对其工作的任何肯定。

    高盛公司（Goldman Sachs）前副总裁格雷格·史密斯曾经写过一本有关投资银行文化陷阱的书。在这本书出版之前，高盛就把自己对该故事的诠释透露给了媒体。高盛调查史密斯的怨言后发现，他的业绩评估得分一直很低——虽然评审人都是他自己挑的。

    《塔尔萨世界报》（Tulsa World）的商业编辑约翰·斯坦卡维奇曾写过一篇感同身受的报道，讲述自己遭遇美国航空公司“噩梦般的”经历。文章发表后，他接到了这家公司员工雪片般飞来的电子邮件。随后他写道：“我揣测，这些员工真正想要的，就是能获得更好的待遇，得到肯定。”

    实际上，美国航空只需要肯定那些甘愿降薪来帮助公司度过难关的老员工的贡献，这根本不需要花什么钱。

    高管猎头公司Polachi Access Executive Search的联合创始人查理·波拉奇称，就算那些满腹牢骚的员工已经把家丑公之于众了，也还是有可能挽回局面，改善公众形象。社交游戏公司Zynga的首席执行官马克·平克斯就曾采取过这种策略。不久前，大家风传该公司将大举裁员，兜售部分业务，高管因此纷纷离职，股价也一落千丈。对此，平克斯向员工发了一封短信，坦承裁员在即的事实，鼓励员工与主管讨论相关问题和疑虑，还把这封信发布在商业科技新闻网站Business Insider上。

    过去几年来，雅虎公司（Yahoo）频繁换帅显然对公司股价和士气造成了重大影响。毫无疑问，这段时间里不是所有高管和普通员工都一声不吭，离职走人。但是自从玛丽莎·梅耶尔掌舵以来，局面似乎开始有所改观了。波拉奇称：“显然她能把准员工士气的脉，同时她会经常和所有下属直接沟通。她是首席执行官队伍中能改变公司文化和沟通风格的典范。”

    哈里森·莫纳斯是专业演讲学校“宗师学堂”的创始人，也是《自信演说者和高管风度》一书的作者。

    译者：清远

    "What you don't want is to escalate a war with employees in social media, before you've actually communicated with them, because it can quickly escalate and get ugly, out for everyone to see," he asserts.

    In the days leading up to the publication of former Goldman Sachs (GS) vice president Greg Smith's book on the pitfalls of the investment bank's culture, the Wall Street firm took its version of the story to the press. The bank's investigation of Smith's complaints brought to light his consistently low performance ratings -- even though he'd picked those reviewers himself.

    Company execs need to understand the context of an employee's complaints to do any meaningful damage control. Saying "no comment," or giving an overly scripted response that's been vetted by corporate lawyers does little good in these situations.

    "Sometimes all employees want is an apology," says Roberto. The American Airlines employees working through the chaos of the beleaguered carrier's bankruptcy, pilot strike, and maintenance issues got neither a "sorry about that" nor any acknowledgment for their work.

    After publishing an empathetic piece about his "nightmare" experience with American Airlines,Tulsa World's business editor John Stancavage was inundated with emails from the carrier's staff. He then wrote, "All these workers really want, I surmised, was to be treated better and feel rewarded."

    It wouldn't have cost the airline anything to recognize the dedication of longtime workers who took pay cuts to help the company.

    It is possible to turn perception around even after unhappy workers go public, says Charley Polachi, co founder of Polachi Access Executive Search. Mark Pincus, CEO of social gaming company Zynga (ZNGA), took this approach amid rumors of layoffs and a sale following top-level executives headed for the exits and its stock took a plunge. Pincus sent a note to his staff that acknowledged the coming layoffs, encouraged employees to discuss their questions and concerns with their supervisors, and published his message on Business Insider.

    Yahoo's (YHOO) multiple CEO changes over the past few years certainly took a toll on the tech giant's stock price and morale. Not all execs and other employees exited quietly during that time, that's for sure. But it looks as if things have begun to shift with Marissa Mayer at the helm. "Clearly she has her finger on the pulse of employee morale and communicates frequently and directly with all reports," says Polachi, "She is an excellent example of a CEO changing the culture and communication style."

    Harrison Monarth is the founder of GuruMaker--School of Professional Speaking. He's also the author of The Confident Speaker and Executive Presence.