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Crisis comms highlighted in new report

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Nearly two-thirds (65 percent) of global chief communications officers (CCOs) say that crisis management experience is today’s prerequisite for success.

This requirement has nearly doubled since the survey debuted in 2007 when 33 percent said the same.

These findings come from the annual survey, The Rising CCO IVconducted by global executive search firm Spencer Stuart and global public relations firm Weber Shandwick.

Considering that more than 70 percent of global chief communications officers report that their companies experienced a threat to their reputations in the past two years, it is not a surprise that 65 percent of CCOs say improvement in corporate reputation is their highest priority.

Crisis comes at a high cost to organisations that deal with them – most CEOs (74 percent) spend time on the resolution.

It takes approximately 15 months to get past the problem and such crises beget a host of other issues, such as more media scrutiny (60 percent), more governmental scrutiny (51 percent) and reduced employee morale (42 percent).

George Jamison, who leads Spencer Stuart’s Corporate Communications business, said: “The global business events of the past few years have demonstrated in stark clarity the cost of damage to a corporate reputation. As a result, experience in crisis management is essentially a mandatory requirement for CCOs today. As our 2012 research shows, crises take time to fade and CEOs are right in wanting the best talent with them in the bunker when they find themselves in the media and political spotlight.”

Forty percent of global CCOs say they are prepared to manage a social media threat to their reputation today compared to 33 percent in 2010.

However, preparation is still lagging in APAC, where only 29 per cent believe their company is equipped to handle such a threat when compared to North America (53 per cent) and Europe (32 per cent).

While social media is the fastest-growing communications tool for CCOs in all regions, it is not the root of all crises today that CCOs must deal with.

Nearly one-half of CCOs (46 percent) whose companies suffered a crisis in the past two years said that social media did not play a role in the crisis, and only seven percent said the crisis began in social media.

However, when social media was involved in a crisis-making event, CCOs said it was more likely to help resolve the crisis than make it worse (34 percent vs. 22 percent, respectively).

Chief Reputation Strategist Dr. Leslie Gaines-Ross, said: “In 2012’s Rising CCO survey, social media is expected to grow dramatically and have a tremendous impact on corporate communications department budgets. It is encouraging to see that global CCOs are embracing social media’s ability to temper a crisis and consequently diminish additional reputation loss.”

Nearly eight in 10 global CCOs (76 percent) believe that corporate social responsibility (CSR) is critical to safeguarding reputation.

For this reason, approximately one-half (52 percent) of global CCOs say the need for a dedicated CSR communications professional is growing and nearly four in 10 (38 percent) have either hired individuals with CSR communications expertise during the past year or plan to hire such individuals over the course of the next year.

CSR expertise is given a higher priority on the agendas of companies that have experienced a crisis in the past two years than on the agendas of those who have not experienced a crisis (82 percent vs. 63 percent, respectively).

While 61 per cent of APAC CCOs state that CSR is a growing priority in Asia,current numbers remain slightly lower than elsewhere in the world. Only 30 per cent report hiring individuals with CSR expertise, and just over seven in ten (71 per cent) indicating that they believe CSR is critical for protecting company reputation.

The leading metrics for gauging CCOs and their communications effectiveness are positive media coverage (80 percent) and employee satisfaction/engagement (79 percent). In Asia Pacific, following media coverage as the top success yardstick is awards and recognition (79 per cent) which differs greatly to what CCOs reported as important in North America (56 per cent) and Europe (28 per cent). Notably, employee satisfaction across the board has risen dramatically in importance since 2007 (from 61 percent in 2007 to 79 percent in 2012).

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