My previous company had corporate personnel responsible for investor relations (IR); however information was rarely, if ever, provided to staff employees. As far as I could tell, there were some employees (i.e. executives, VP’s) who owned shares of the company but essentially the company was owned by a private equity firm. First-hand, I do not know the role our investor relations personnel played in the company, but I would assume their roles were similar in function to those of publicly traded companies.
The following is advice quoted from a blog from Tom “Toronto” Reidt, Title: Potential Roles for PR in a recession, February 1, 2008:
“If your stock is falling, or your business isn’t getting the returns it used to, the investors are going to want some serious reassurance. Investor relations should be a crucial facet of any business in a recession. If your ROI is coming back red, and your company remains silent, investors will be dropping out faster than Rudy Giuliani [referring to the 2008 presidential election]. If you employ some excellent IR, you can maintain their trust and hopefully keep them on board.”
“Productivity and profit are directly linked to how engaged, enabled and happy the employees are. Nothing puts more strain on employee relations than a recession. Potential layoffs, salary increases and bonuses getting the axe, terms like “restructuring” being tossed around, it’s a time of high anxiety for everyone. A good internal communications plan can diffuse the tension, reassure doubts, or at the very least, keep people in the loop about what’s happening.
To read this blog and comments left by others, please use thefollowing link : http://tomtoronto.wordpress.com/2008/02/01/potential-roles-for-pr-in-a-recession/
There are many videos on the web showcasing the global fear and panic investors felt during the recent recession and stock market collapse. If you want to share your experiences or provide a suitable video please leave your comments below. Thank you.
I can relate to the company I work for not telling its employees anything about what was going on, not so much with my job now, but with my previous job. Information was rationed like it was food and we were stranded in the desert. Anyway, Tom Reidt sounds like a smart enough guy. He says employees have to be, among other things, happy to ensure the success of a business. That would explain why, at my last job, we hardly produced any results for some time, because everyone was miserable. Productivity even dropped further when we found out we were going out of business. Actually, in hindsight, it's really no wonder that place went under.
ReplyDeleteCommunications professionals now find themselves working in an investor-driven business context. Faced with a looming recession and all of the challenges that go with it, business executives are increasingly quick to cater to the whims of investors to keep their operations afloat. With these realities at the forefront of business transactions, communicators, must learn strategic investor relations practices, and they must be prepared to revise these learned strategies early and often. Personally I have not worked for a company that was severely affected by the recession, however I agree with Tom's advice to focus on public relations during such times.
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