The vision, leadership, quality of products and services, and financial performance exhibited by successful companies are spearheaded most often by employees; as such, it
stands to reason that companies would seek to attract and retain the best and the brightest human resources. According to an analysis of how the media cover the 100 largest US-
based companies over the past 15 months as tracked in the Delahaye Index of Corporate Reputation, two industries shine in the employee-relations department: hi-tech and,
in what would seem to be a natural outcome, the "people-service" providers.
Intel and Microsoft, perennial leaders among those large companies who benefit the most from news coverage, are recognized through a high-volume of high quality,
high-impact media attention among opinion-leading American news outlets. These companies are "walking the talk." Any advice to these leaders is simply to reinforce the current
direction and initiative.
The "people-service related providers, WellPoint, United Health and MetLife, generate positive news coverage even if the media's attention is not as
widespread as indicated by their appearance in the lower-left quadrant and as compared to the first-tier companies shown in the upper-left quadrant of the table. The best advice
for these companies - and those in a similar position - would be to elevate the current resource allocation so that visibility on this important attribute, which is already seen
by the media as credible and positive as related to these three companies, can achieve "upper-left" success.
Three companies are laboring in the area of employee-related corporate news: Boeing, General Motors, and Sears, some of America's biggest employers and
most venerable companies, who are facing new obstacles relating to pensions, employee and down-sizing. The upper right quadrant, where these companies are found, represents the
most dangerous place to be: Negative news of employee-related issues was visible and prominent - not a place to which companies aspire. Advice for these companies would be "fix
it:" Highly visible, negative news coverage may ward-off potential hires and send a company's most valuable employee talent scampering to competitors. No company can afford to
lose such a valuable resource.
When negative coverage is inevitable, as it sometimes is, the safest place to be is in the lower-right quadrant, where news is negative but not prominent or widely seen.
Cardinal Health, ADM and AT&T* are in this quartile, and the advice would be to explore opportunity, which in this case would mean opportunities to
diminish negative coverage even more until the clouds blow over, as well as opportunities to migrate from the lower-right to the lower-left, where coverage shifts towards the
positive even if it is not prominent or widely-visible.
* The 15-month scope of this analysis supersedes AT&T's spin-offs and eventual merger into SBC as well as the Kmart merger with
Sears.
Contact: Mark Weiner, 203.663.2446, [email protected]