I recall first reading about HCL Technologies problems with regard to offer letters on March 6th, in Business Standard. Then, a story in The Times of India, on March 7th.
Then, a bylined (by M Saraswathy & Shivani Shinde) story in Business Standard about the industry situation that is causing this mayhem, on March 8th. Early this week, things went completely out of control as students who had been promised jobs, but were not given a date of joining for a long time, decided to take to the streets, to protest!
This news, understandably, was in every news media, including print and television. (refer to reports in Hindu Business Line – March 11 and March 12, and the report in The Times of India, today.)
Most of such news reports mentioned that social media was instrumental in helping these agitated students to gather support and coordinate the protests. The specific nature of these social networking tools remains sketchy, however. The Times of India report says, “…Facebook group called HCL Technologies 2012 Freshers”, but the Facebook page with that name has about 200 likes and negligible posts. But, this post is not about locating the exact nature of social media tools that were used to organize these protests – for all you know, it could be a closed Facebook Group that was instrumental in making this happen.
The point however is about HCL Technologies’ reaction. It seems tentative at best. So far.
To be sure, every company goes through such issues where multiple media goes after it and bays for its blood. If such issues are in the realm of things other than impacting its core audiences (B2B, in case of IT companies and B2C in case of other companies that deal directly with customers), it is essential that it addresses the concerns publicly with whatever it can afford to say and ensure that it reaches its core audiences.
For instance, in case of an FMCG company, the core audiences are its users – end users. So, I’d not expect a Cadbury India to talk directly to its end consumers when media is referring to its tax evasion allegations – that is a regulatory issue beyond the realm of consumers. You could argue – the tax evasion claim impacts trust customers have placed on the brand and hence is something the brand should communicate. Valid question, but I’d like to take an informed stand on that based on the potential number of people who may lose trust based on tax evasion allegations vs. others who may not care when making their next purchase of a Cadbury India product. I’m of the opinion that the numbers do not support a public, consumer-targeted communication – it’d, if the issue was worms in the chocolate wrapper.
Getting back to HCL – assuming it is in the B2B space, should they respond publicly instead of selectively reacting to journalists when posed with specific questions? The argument could be that employees and recruitment is not B2B, but isn’t employees and recruitment core enough for an IT services company to deliver the B2B promise? Also, wouldn’t it affect, (a) the current set of employees’ morale that their employer is reneging on its promise to their ilk, and (b) prospective set of employees who may think twice before even considering HCL? These two could in turn affect its operations, enough to upset its customers.
Given this background, the more one searches online for HCL Technologies, the more one is likely to be flabbergasted.
The website opens with this!
HCL’s VC & JMD, Vineet Nayar tweets *only* about a new online forum for IT employees, called employees-first.com, for the past two days.
HCL’s official Twitter and Facebook pages do not have any update on the issue, understandably so, given their largely B2B’ish and business-centric nature of content, historically.
In my limited time managing and planning social media properties online, one of the rules I personally use is that of timing. To demonstrate this in the simplest way possible – considering your social media property/properties are manned on specific times depending on manpower/bandwidth (say, 9am to 6pm), I personally ask the teams not to indulge in one-off, sporadic responses during other times. Assuming you notice queries at say, 9pm, and a few of them seem easy enough for responding, I’d still recommend the team to hold on till 9am the next day, unless it is an issue that could snowball into a major crisis if left unattended. The reason is simple – unlike phone-based customer service that remains one-to-one, social media customer responses are public. If you respond to one/few during a time slot that you are not geared to scale up, there would be tons of others who would not get a resolution, but may continue to see you responding to others. That only aggravates their anger against your brand.
The question is clearly of scalability – if you have a 24X7 team managing social media, then go ahead and handle queries no matter what the time. But, if you don’t, you have an opportunity to either clearly mention the timings of operation for such online properties (stop gasping – social media is not *always* real-time; it is manned by humans too and need not be real-time if you think it should not – read more on this!) or make it implied by your actions.
Having said this, now see how one sees HCL Technologies online and offline. You wake up to read news about aggrieved students protesting outside their offices. You see people discussing the situation (about HCL and other tech. companies’ hiring) online, on social networking channels. You see the issue being shown as news, on TV. And you see online news sites writing and opining about it. All, starting March 1st week.
My first reaction, in this case, would be to go to any HCL Technologies-owned online property (I’m not from mainstream media, to call up someone responsible in HCL to know their stand; and going by news reports, HCL reacts to media too, selectively) to see their side of the story. I’m willing to give them the benefit of doubt and would like to know their stand before assuming anything. Particularly when the company’s head prides over a book titled, ‘Employees First, Customers Second’.
But, there is not even a whisper in the name of an explanation on any HCL-owned online property. Instead, you are greeted with that home page which proclaims ‘Employees first’ and tweets from the MD who goes on promoting a forum for employees, ironically called, ’employees-first’. (Digression: you could argue that students who have merely been ‘offered’ employment are not employees yet, but that would just end up as a crude joke).
Having been in the corporate communications space for more than a decade, I can completely empathize with HCL’s situation. If you check the comments in most of the media stories on this news, many have dragged other company names too, in a similar vein – Cognizant, Tech Mahindra etc. While they are just random names, the point is HCL is not alone in this quagmire. This is an industry issue and there are no easy solutions or reactions.
But, this is an issue of trust. And, in such cases, more than actual solutions, communicating acknowledgement of the situation and empathy are perhaps more important. It is a matter of acknowledging the fact that there has been a misstep from the organization, in words that the legal team can agree that it can’t be used against the company, if someone wants to. And a tentative solution to the problem (which HCL has communicated via mainstream media, and direct emails to some sections of the affected students).
If the company can offer tentative solutions to media and some students (via email), why can’t it put the same thing online, in one or more of their properties? And worse, the company completely ignores a burning issue about its brand and goes on like business as usual (it IS business as usual, in reality, but for the photos of protests outside its premises which is causing a dent to its carefully built reputation).
It is important to understand that social media and online properties are not like the banners and placards you put up in an industry exhibition to sell your wares – they are the walls of your company’s/home’s walls.
When people are talking about how bad the company is, with regard to students and recruitment, all your walls have posters on your industry offerings and a new online forum called ’employees first’. That would surely look odd to anyone who cares about the company. More than reacting to mainstream media queries, I’d say it is far more important to use your own online properties to share your point of view. On mainstream media, you are reacting or responding to a query (or a set of queries) and your reaction may be tagged with the opinion of the reporter/journalist in question that may well be unflattering, either directly or implied through other opinions added. But on your own properties online, you have the complete control to set the context for your side of things and explain it in the best possible way – for your brand, for the people concerned and for people who read it.
So, here is a suggestion to HCL Infotech, as someone who has read Vineet’s book and has been impressed with the company for all it has done so far in its lifetime – please have a stand and say something, publicly, beyond merely reacting to media queries on your own online properties that you have so carefully built and nurtured over the years. This need not be on all properties, just one prominent online property – say, the website or Facebook – that people are easily likely to find. It need not be concrete solutions, but at least acknowledge the situation in hand. And, if at all possible, offer temporary solutions (HCL already has some, going by their statement to media) to assuage the anger and tone down the negativity.
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Postscript: Having said all this, I fully understand that there may be things that I’m not aware that could be behind HCL not responding to this situation. As long as the communications team (internal or external partners) of HCL has made this point to the management and cited the reputation crisis this lack of public (and selective) acknowledgement is causing, I guess they a solid enough reason to choose this path.
Photos courtesy: The Hindu & Hindu Business Line