Spin Doctors Offer Bad Rx

Nobody likes bad news when it comes to cutting jobs and disrupting personal lives. For employers who care about staff and image, frank and fair disclosure is the best public relations policy, not spin.

It seems some folks forgot that wisdom recently in two instances, one involving Hewlett-Packard, the other with Sony Ericsson. In both cases, these companies got themselves more trouble than they bargained for by using poor judgment.

HP, in a news release, buried the fact it was cutting 9,000 jobs by putting emphasis on its plans for growth. Sony Ericsson advertised for a new PR director by bluntly telling the unemployed not to bother applying.

Nobody in a position of authority at either company saw any problem with these approaches, how they send the wrong message?

"HP to Invest $1 Billion to Launch New Era of Enterprise Services" was the headline for the Palo Alto, Calif., tech giant’s news release. On the surface, it sounds like good news – solid growth opportunity. But if you drill down, the news is not so rosy. In fact, it’s not good at all, unless you’re a shareholder.

“As a result of productivity gains and automation, HP expects to eliminate roughly 9,000 positions over a multi year period to reinvest for further growth and to increase shareholder value,’’ HP says.

Reporters worth their salt know the real headline is that HP will lay off 9,000 workers, as opposed to the $1 billion investment, writes Joe Ciarallo for PRNewser . The Spinmeisters at HP decided to bury the bad news inside what appeared to be positive news and hoped nobody would notice. With HP’s well-documented internal and competitive struggles in the past decade, why did it resort to such lame PR?

HP should have known better. Well-run, publicly-traded companies balance the needs of employees and the interests of shareholders, a win-win. You must have both parts of the equation to succeed over the long term.

HP did say that it will "add back about 6,000 jobs in its global sales and services staff ," according to the San Jose Mercury News.

The net reduction of 3,000 jobs represents roughly 1 percent of HP's 304,000 employees worldwide, reports Brendon Bailey of the Mercury News. HP provided no details, but the cuts are likely to be concentrated in operations that HP took over from Electronic Data Systems, a global tech services company based in Texas, which HP acquired in 2008, according to Bailey.

The online headline for the Mercury News story – “Hewlett-Packard to cut 9,000 jobs, take $1 billion in charges” – captured the full flavor of HP's moves. (Disclosure: As a former newspaper copy editor, I appreciate clarity).

Sony Ericsson, a consumer electronics manufacturer headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, offended many with a recruiter’s advertisement which essentially tells unemployed individuals their applications for the company’s PR director job will not be considered. Does SE think there aren’t any terrific PR folks out of work? Sure sounds that way with such a bonehead ad which damages the company’s reputation. And, judging by comments at LinkedIn, SE needs to do some serious damage control if it wants to attract talented individuals for any of its future job postings.

While the unemployed and underemployed are not protected categories under U.S. anti-discrimination laws (gender, race, age, sexual orientation), it’s hard to imagine anyone not taking offense with what amounts to be a corporate policy statement by SE. At minimum, it shows a lack of sensitivity to those out of work through no fault of their own.

As one LinkedIn commenter points out: “The (flawed) assumption of employers who post positions but refuse to accept applications from people who are not currently employed is that unemployed people were bad employees who deserved to lose their jobs. They seem not to recognize that there is a global recession which caused many companies to go bankrupt or cut back severely in order to survive.”

Many folks are out of work or underemployed because of poor decisions made by corporate officials or by company owners who prospered in the boom days. But now that things have soured with the Great Recession, these same employers feel unmoved to take the extra step of looking closer at applications by experienced workers seeking jobs.

The SE recruiter (possibly from pressure by social media?) has toned down the language in the PR job opening ad, according to another LinkedIn commenter, who noted the ad still stresses the need for current employment in consumer electronics manufacturing.

Bottom line: It’s likely some very qualified individuals will seek work elsewhere as a result of this SE episode.

The lessons from HP and SE are basic ones for any company or business, large or small. Manage your image and reputation carefully. Fail to do that and any situation – from a news release to a job advertisement – can lead to unintended consequences.

As most of us know, nothing really ever dies or disappears in virtual world. In the absence of sound judgment and common sense, employer PR miscues can have long-lasting impacts.

As for me, I practice what I preach at writenowworks.com.