A hotel was recently exposed by the local newspaper because their contract cleaners were paying below the minimum wage.
They reacted with classic examples of the wrong and right way to handle bad news. The first reaction by a ‘spokesman’ was, “It is standard practice that all outsourcing suppliers are required to sign … a requirement to honour all required statutory obligations to staff.” That gave every appearance of squirming on the hook, when what people wanted to know was: are you an ethical company or not? Are you sorry? What are you going to do about it?
The right way to limit the damage came two whole weeks later, by which time one sensed the hand of a good Public Relations company in the response. The hotel had “taken the decision to terminate all contract agreements” with this particular cleaning company. They went on to reassure us that they took their staff responsibilities seriously and that their policy was that “all employees be paid a minimum wage”.
The lesson is, when there’s bad news, it needn’t be a disaster provided you admit straightaway that you were wrong and let people know you’re putting things right. The hotel in the end strengthened its reputation. On the other hand, if you try to cover up, blame someone else or simply prevaricate, you can do untold damage to your company.
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