Employee relations

On the subject of employee relations, City AM ran two stories last week which caught the eyes of the Think Tank PR team.

The first was about RBS chief Stephen Hester taking “the unusual step” of emailing a letter to every member at the bank to rally morale.  Excerpts from the email printed in the newspaper appear to show that he communicated his message in a straightforward and supportive way, recognising that being in the spotlight makes the job harder and could be potentially damaging for RBS, customers and shareholders.  He offers a pertinent cue for anyone looking at issue management: “We should try to be strong, to do our jobs, to deal with facts not fears.”

Meanwhile in the same edition of the paper, GlaxoSmithKline’s head of global brand communications, Kerry O’Callaghan, was interviewed about the company’s involvement in the London 2012 Olympic Games. This is the first time that a pharmaceutical company has provided the drugs testing services for any Games (the organising committee usually approach an academic institution or leading anti-doping centre in that country).

Rather than just being a sponsor for the 2012 Games (they are a Tier Three sponsor), GSK wanted to make “a material contribution based on what we are good at”. Partnering with King’s College London, GSK as the UK’s largest pharmaceutical company can bring scale to the testing, providing the appropriate facilities and support so that the KCL scientists can focus on the job of testing.

Kerry O’Callaghan says that GSK wants to use this opportunity to enhance reputation with key stakeholders and for people to think a bit differently about a big pharma company, to see GSK “getting in there and using science”.

What’s more they are planning on using 100 per cent of their ticket allocation as sponsors for employees and their personal guests, and running a global competition where you can nominate a colleague to receive tickets.