Who needs media training? Everyone.
While empowering employees to speak up in the midst of a media firestorm is the opposite of most large companies’ knee-jerk reaction — telling staff to zip their lips is a more likely standard response — more firms are coming around to this approach. “What’s new is that more manufacturing companies, whether in food processing or auto and steel, are having their foremen and other people media trained,” observed Gene Grabowski, senior VP and crisis expert at Levick Strategic Communications.
Two key reasons to offer non-marketing employees media training? To make sure they are prepared in the event reporters circumvent established media-relations channels, and to put a human face on the brand in the midst of a crisis.
As this quote from an AdAge article explains, it is flat out impossible to ensure your entire staff “zips their lips.” We’ve seen this evidenced in crises time and time again when the entire C-suite refuses interviews, but some enterprising reporter finds a line worker or minor foreman who’s more than willing to spill the beans.
This is especially damaging because not only does the public have good reason to believe the statements of someone who is immersed in an ongoing crisis, but also in the vast majority of cases nobody below the executive level has actually had a media training session.
Media training now does not only mean preparing to face reporters, by the way. The majority of your employees likely have at least one personal social media account, if not multiple, and should be specifically told what is and is not OK to talk about when it comes to work-related comments.
Bottom line is that everybody in your organization is a potential spokesperson. The intensity and scope can vary, but all employees need media training as part of your overall crisis management plan.
The BCM Blogging Team
https://www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com/