WHEN EMPLOYEES COME HOME: IS YOUR COMPANY SORTING OUT ITS POLICIES AND PROCEDURES INVOLVING EMPLOYEES CALLED UP FOR MILITARY SERVICE?

WHEN EMPLOYEES COME HOME:
IS YOUR COMPANY SORTING OUT ITS POLICIES AND PROCEDURES
INVOLVING EMPLOYEES CALLED UP FOR MILITARY SERVICE?

By James E. Lukaszewski, APR, Fellow PRSA

As Published in Security Management Magazine, January 1991 (Revised June 2000)

Copyright © 1991, 2000, James E. Lukaszewski. All rights reserved.

Due to the situation in the Middle East, your company may now be sorting out its policies and procedures involving employees called up for military service. Here's a brief summary of issues and questions as well as some suggestions on how to avoid mistakes and embarrassment.
Security, human resources, and public affairs departments should coordinate in planning for and responding to visibility caused by employee military activity.
Security
Security monitors where employees are in all Middle Eastern countries and those countries where Arab terrorist activity is likely to occur. The names and basic data about those employees need to be shared with the human resources and public affairs departments. National security issues, however, may intrude in certain aspects of this.
Human Resources
Human resources manages employee benefits, personnel policies, etc. Your employee assistance program is probably a part of the human resources function. Because the death, wounding, or disabling of an employee due to military action or accident affects co-workers and the community, you should review the company's trauma response policies.
Public Affairs/Media Relations
Visibility means calls from the media. In most companies such calls are forwarded initially to the public affairs department. Public affairs should lead the entire process since it is your front line for external interests.
Standby statements need to be in place for the chairman in the event your company's employees are hurt or killed in combat or military accidents. The media won't be satisfied with talking to just any spokesperson; media representatives are going to want to hear from the boss.
For the duration of the military action that involves your employee reservists, the public affairs/media relations response team should hold frequent briefing sessions to:

Stay abreast of personnel changes and policies.
Monitor how other companies are responding to the same visibility.
Watch how the news media are covering military stories.
Manage information, especially in a terrorist situation, so as not to put other employees or employees' families at risk.

The following questions should also be considered. The answers to these three questions may create new or refine existing corporate policy.

What will the company's public response be when asked about employees killed by military action or accident? Low-intensity, localized conflicts may not produce large numbers of casualties or fatalities. Those that do occur will receive a disproportionate amount of media attention.

How will your company respond when wounded employees return to the United States? How will your company respond to questions involving employees who clearly are permanently disabled? Many probable scenarios exist here besides how your company fulfills its legal requirements to restore employee job rights and salary.
For example, one scenario could deal with how a veteran is succeeding on the job as a disabled employee and the impact on his or her family. Another scenario might be how the employee is failing the challenge. At least one family member is likely to say publicly that the company is not doing enough.

How will your company deal with a disabled employee who is dissatisfied with the company's efforts to help him or her readjust? Your legal department needs to consider addressing the possibility that returning employees may be unhappy with the way their benefits or job situations are handled.
The media will continue to look for stories in the Middle East and here at home. The challenge is to be prepared with information you want to talk about in addition to that the media has requested. This is especially true if the media inquires about programs or systems you are not authorized to discuss at length, let alone acknowledge. But the opportunity to share interesting information remains.

Copyright © 2000, James E. Lukaszewski. Permission granted to reprint with attribution.