Crisis communications tactics for HR pros

What’s your worst nightmare? Is it having 90% of your workforce threaten to quit? Or is it having to figure out what to say to them when they do?

Following the recent firing of OpenAI’s co-founder and CEO Sam Altman, over 700 of the company’s 770 employees threatened to quit—unless the board resigned and reappointed Altman, the New York Times reported. Five days later, employees’ wishes were granted, and Altman announced his return.

During such a tumultuous time, it was likely a challenge for the Silicon Valley startup’s HR team to communicate change after change to its employees. We spoke to one communications expert who offered advice for how HR leaders can handle messaging during a crisis

Something > nothing. During times of change, Teal Pennebaker, co-founder and managing director of comms firm Shallot Communications, said HR leaders are often limited in what they can share. But they should still try to be as transparent as possible and share top-line information about what’s going on and what it means for them.

Employees rely on HR to guide them amid chaos, especially when it comes to their job security and the company’s future, or if more news is going to break.

“When you can, address that head on. Maybe you don’t know [or] the information is a little bit murky,” she told HR Brew. “What you can share is that company leadership is doing everything they can to ensure that the company will be in the best possible position, and we’ll be able to share more information soon.”

Don’t need more press. Like Cardi B said, your company probably doesn’t need (or want) more press when dealing with a crisis. That’s why Pennebaker recommended HR leaders communicate with employees before the business makes any public announcements.

“The last thing you want is for your employees to [find] out about a crisis hitting by reading a newspaper,” Pennebaker said. “Get ahead of it, and treat employees as a key stakeholder group, like the board or exec team.”

Equip managers. People pros aren’t the only ones responsible for internal comms. Managers, who are already in the trenches with employees, can be a great resource. Pennebaker suggested giving them crisis communications training, as well as a list of talking points to guide conversations and questions they’re likely to be asked by employees.

“Just giv[e] them as much information as possible, and [try] to solicit back from those frontline managers what employees are asking about and what they care about,” Pennebaker said. “To make sure that you know, as an HR leader, what other information can be disseminated.”

And when the crisis passes, be sure to keep the lines of communication open. That way, when the next one hits, “It’s not out of the blue that you’re choosing to communicate,” Pennebaker said