An employee-centric approach for an era in which crisis communicators are rarely off duty
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Businesses are finding it harder than ever to anticipate and respond to reputational threats in a rapidly evolving risk landscape characterized by a growing frequency of global shocks and AI-fueled disinformation. It's making effective crisis management more difficult at a time when many communicators are already suffering from fatigue.

This Spotlight report, in partnership with RepTrak, considers how the risk landscape has evolved, and why — given growing mistrust of the media and public figures — companies should rethink how they manage risks to their brand and reputation. Crucially, it considers how best to build and maintain a high-trust organization and asks if there is a role for employees as brand ambassadors.

Insights

  • In the current environment of perma-crisis, with growing mistrust of institutions such as media and government, businesses are finding it harder to anticipate reputational threats, making effective crisis management more challenging.
  • A record number of elections during 2024 is likely to add to political tensions and drive greater generation of fake news.
  • With intangible assets now representing a significant proportion of a company's financial worth, reputational risk is effectively financial risk, and reputation management is increasingly important to financial stability.
  • The business sector has an opportunity to build on a position of trust (ranking higher than government and the media) to bolster company reputations and protect the bottom line.
  • The typical crisis management approach of relying on the CEO to defend a company's reputation via traditional media is no longer cutting through. Firms must pivot towards an approach that's bottom up, with an emphasis on internal communications.

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September 2024