In case you were not sure, it is official. ALL of your employees can enhance or diminish your reputation. They do this from their desk, at lunch, and as consumers (ask how many GM employees are currently buying GM cars!).
This young lady recently reached out across the globe and 'touched' a consumer (markm49uk in the UK). You see, she assembles iPhones at the Foxconn factory in Shenzhen. Looks like she (or perhaps a coworker) failed to erase a test photo on a newly assembled phone. No harm done, latest reports are that she has not lost her job.
What is interesting here is the power of the
interwebs to make these stories connect. After all, only now could we possibly imagine that we could so easily identify who this was, who was affected, where the 'prank' occurred, and what the outcome is for those involved. In this case, no real harm. However, as we increasingly network and connect at all levels of life, the power of your employees and your customers to connect (bypassing official channels) is also increasing. What does it mean for your corporate reputation?
An important conclusion is that to manage your corporate reputation, you must also watch out for the relationship that you have built with your employees. Do you care about them, and value their contributions; do they know it; will they reciprocate and care for the organization and its customers? Without sufficiently strong relational bonds between the organization and employees, you cannot expect there to be mutually beneficial, supportive behaviors (and vice versa - without these mutually supportive behaviors, there will not be strong bonds!).
First place to look to see if you have good relationships? Supervisors are perhaps the most important driver.
What are you doing to monitor and manage employee-organization relationships?
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