Shake, Rattle and Corporate Social Responsibility

Shake, Rattle and Corporate Social Responsibility

A Flash Survey of business online responses to the recent earthquakes in New Zealand.

After a strong earthquake in the New Zealand mid-winter jolted people from their lazy Sunday afternoon into heart thumping, cortisol pumping hours of worry and fear how did business respond?

Recent history had eliminated any complacency that Kiwi’s once had, shrugging their shoulders as they happily ignored the screams of recent immigrants new to what the Tanewhas were doing as an earthquake rattled through the land.

After the February 2011 Christchurch disaster The Stanley East Company surveyed messages that companies had put online to their communities in order to check corporate social responsibility was being truly effective rather than ‘just words’.

Workers during that time had wanted workplace information, shoppers demanded to know where to buy food, mothers searched for their daughters and many needed a little dose of compassion. There were some businesses good at supplying these.

The method of communication has always been important, carrier pigeon, morse code, texts and Facebook all have their place in history. And of course a big shout to social media when these types of disasters occur, for all the reasons we appreciate; instant words and pictures, however if the message is not effective it is as useless as a penguin-in-flight.

24 hours after this recent big rumble the investigation began, 45 prominent businesses including a handful of government agencies were surveyed once again by The Stanley East Company , all of whom had the resource to administer a good social media face to see how they delivered their corporate social responsibility.

What was needed was promptness (a 24 hour response), clarity, information for customers/clients/staff, a note about safety and that little dose of compassion. These times are frightening and care goes a long way.

Public quake information advised those working in Wellington CBD to stay away until at least the midday (later extended until the next day) and this was the big message from most. So what message did one employer show expecting their employees to turn up for work in a CBD high rise building in the morning leaving 3 people to walk up 14 stories and be left alone in an unsafe environment?

Business knows how advertising works, there is no doubt that every ad we see wants to poke our emotions and yet when this opportunity occurred to really show some heartfelt concerns for customers, clients and staff on this occasion there were too many companies unable to get out a clear message and it was astonishing to see the lack of any information on many sites. These occurrences, traumatic and sad as they may be are a good time to show corporate social responsibility leadership, to share good information and practice some human compassion.

Who were the Good Business Eggs?

The Warehouse: “Safety is our top concern at The Warehouse” and “Please make sure that you stay safe and only leave your home if necessary, team members of closed stores please stay home until contacted by your Store Manager. If you require urgent medical assistance please contact the proper authorities.”

Westpac: “Our thoughts are with our colleagues, customers and the communities affected by the central NZ earthquakes. As a safety precaution, all our branches and offices in Wellington, and as far north as Porirua and the Hutt Valley will be closed for checks by structural engineers before they're reopened for business.”

Chorus: "Due to the inability to access certain buildings there may be some disruption to the provision of services to end-users. Chorus will contact any end users directly if we are unable to meet prior appointments. We apologise for this disruption and we are focused on returning to business as usual as soon as it is safe to do so. Chorus Wellington staff. The call has been made that we shouldn't go into work tomorrow. They want to thoroughly check all our buildings. Card access to all our buildings has been disabled. Stay at home and stay safe. Please post on your timelines and share with colleagues. We will keep you updated over the course of the day tomorrow.”

Farmers: “As a result of earthquake activity in Wellington and Marlborough, the following stores will be closed until further notice…We will continue to update this page as further information comes to hand, and when our stores are cleared to re-open. Stay safe and our apologies for any inconvenience that this may cause.”

Highly commended: ANZ, The Department of Internal Affairs, BNZ, Progressive Enterprises, IAG.

ENDS

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