Journal of Communication Management

Community Relations good neighbour strategies

Carol Friend
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Carol Friend, (1996),"Community Relations good neighbour strategies", Journal of Communication Management, Vol. 1
Iss 1 pp. 89 - 94
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Community Relations good neighbour
strategies
Carol Friend
Received (in revised form): 29th May, 1996
Pielle Public Relations, Museum House, 25 Museum Street, London WC1A 1PL; tel: 0171 323
1587; fax: 0171 631 0029.
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Carol Friend is Managing Director of Pielle
Public Relations. Co-founder of Pielle in 1980,
she is responsible for strategic advice to cli-
ents on corporate and marketing communica'
tion programmes.
Responsible for the development of the pub-
lie relations education and training matrix and
the postgraduate diploma distance learning
programme, in 1993 she was awarded the Sir
Stephen Tallents medal in recognition of her
outstanding contribution to professional stand-
ards and public relations education.
She is on the Further Education Funding
Council for Greater London, and is an elected
member of the CBI London Regional Council.
Carol is also a member of its National Council
ABSTRACT
KEYWORDS: community, neighbours, relation-
ships, reputation
A neighbour who lives entirely behind closed
doors becomes the subject of speculation, rumour
and at worst, fear, founded on lack of under-
standing. This is as true of an organisation as it
is of an individual. This paper reviews the role
and value of quality community relations strat-
egies, identifying five rules for developing those
strategies.
INTRODUCTION
An accidental leak of chemicals into the
local river; a proposal to integrate a
Journal of Communication Management Volume 1 Number 1
swathe of land and a road owned by a
company into their site; a need to recruit
20 temporary staff; a decision to reduce
staffing; a site development plan; all these
and more are causes of community
uproar. Without the support of the com-
munity in which a business operates, the
ability to effectively manage the business
will not only be interrupted, it will be
severely curtailed and possibly prevented
completely. These truths are held to be
self-evident and yet community relations
building good relationships with the
neighbourhood is too often given scant
attention and rarely commands continuing
action in even the best-run organisation.
Being a good neighbour and a valued
member of the community are commer-
cial imperatives for small and large
organisations alike, for service as well as
for manufacturing operations. It is, how-
ever, at the larger manufacturing site that
the risks of failure in community relations
are seen in greatest relief.
THE HIGH RISK SITE
An instructive example is the case of a
chemical plant. By its very nature, the
operation presents risks to the environ-
ment in which the community lives and
works. Regulatory and legislative needs,
irrespective of sound management prac- Journal of Communication
tice, will dictate that a sound environ- Management, Vol. 1 No. 1,
1996, pp. 89-94, Henry
mental, health and safety procedure will Stewart Publications, 1363-254X
Page 89
 Community relations good neighbour strategies
be in place. Proper communication of that
procedure to employees is a pre-requisite
of its effectiveness. Training in its imple-
mentation and quality assurance of its
efficacy are mandatory.
However, even with all those internal
dimensions properly addressed, it is only
the employees and their immediate net-
work who will know anything of the
lengths to which a business will go to
protect its people and the community
unless this is communicated more widely.
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The community itself will live and work
in fear of the company's failure to protect
individuals, their family and friends, the
environment and local quality of life.
The ubiquitous special interest pressure
group in this case the environmen-
talists will be ready to reap advantages
at the company's expense. To them this
case represents a superb opportunity to
play on inherent fears to create reams and
hours of publicity. Such publicity means,
for them, increased membership and
fund-raising opportunities the stuff of
which greater influence is made. And
influence means the ability to dictate,
through pressure, the procedures this
company and the neighbouring companies
will need to use in future.
Ironically it could be, of course, that
the demands of the environmentalists are
no more than the procedures already in
place. An attempt to communicate this
after the pressure and publicity has started
will only succeed in creating the percep-
tion that the environmentalists have won
their case. These pressure groups start
with the community's hearts in their
pocket. A business begins with the com-
munity's minds at their most sceptical.
The solution is to face up to the risks
early and before they become an issue; to
place policies and procedures on health,
safety and in this case the environment in
the public arena along with other dimen-
sions of a company's operations and
management style. Being a good neigh-
Page 90
bour and being seen to be so, as an
integral part of the community, is the
only effective policy. If a business operates
in an area where a previous major acci-
dent, environmental damage or industrial
dispute took place even if it was not on
the same site the balance of belief in
the community is even less likely to be on
the company's side.
THREE RULES FOR EVERY
ORGANISATION
Whatever the scenario, the three key rules
remain the same.
1. It is important to start inside. A
company's employees are part of the com-
munity in which the business operates,
mixing with their neighbours, buying
local services and, in the majority of cases,
living in the immediate area. They are the
single most important influence on a
company's reputation and how others per-
ceive the company an obvious but
often forgotten truth.
The employees' knowledge of their
organisation and how it operates, their
attitudes, the things they say and how
they talk about the business and about
their colleagues will all have an impact on
the perceptions of others and will all con-
tribute to community relations for
good or ill.
2. Internal audiences should be pro-
vided with clear, concise messages and
supporting documentation that they can
take home with them. This is not just for
their own information, motivation and
confidence, but so that they can share it
with family and friends and have it avail-
able to reinforce their own memory of
what was said. Not all internal communi-
cation messages are intended to be taken
home, of course. The requirement is,
however, to ensure that there is a 'take
home' message for each major internal
communication occasion.
3. The 'take home' message should be
communicated externally to reinforce the

internal communication and to maintain
an open dialogue with community audi-
ences. Bad news travels exponentially
faster than any good news. It is unfortu-
nate that good news is often seen by
media, grown used to confrontation, as no
news at all. A business, therefore, has to
move faster to communicate negative
news and work harder to communicate
positive news.
It is important to remember too, that
communication, by definition, is informa-
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tion together with understanding. The act
of simply throwing information in the
general direction of an audience is not
enough. That information has to be pre-
sented in a way that the audience can
readily receive and understand it and
recognise the implications for them. If
there are no implications, no benefits,
there will appear to be no reason for the
communication. The outcome can only
be a feeling that the communication is
unimportant and can be ignored, or a
feeling that the company has something to
conceal. Neither option is a basis for
effective community relations.
DEVELOPING THE STRATEGY
Developing a community relations strat-
egy in common with developing all
other relationships, communication activi-
ties and management disciplines has
equally hard and fast rules that start with
a corporate strategy and plan. When the
overall picture is clear, strategies for
building and maintaining relationships
with the organisation's various stakeholder
audiences become evident.
Rule one: set clear community
relations objectives
If the plan is to expand production, the
community relations requirement is to
generate support for that development.
If that plan calls for more skilled
employees, the need for community
relations is to ensure that the organisa-
Friend
tion is seen as a good employer with a
future commitment to the area.
If the plan is to reduce or even cease
production, the community relations
requirement is to demonstrate the care
that has gone into the decision and the
support that will be provided to the
employees and the community.
If the plan is to continue without any
significant change in view, the com-
munity relations need is to be recog-
nised as a stable, valuable neighbour
and employer rather than a moribund
and potentially doomed dinosaur. That
requires being a visible partner and
participant in the community, support-
ing or creating community initiatives
perhaps sponsoring a student to
undertake an historic study of the town
or supporting a local work experience
scheme.
The author worked on a project with a
company in west London which had been
established for more than 50 years and
required a major redevelopment plan to
maximise the effective operation of two
neighbouring sites, divided by a public
road. The road and the land on which it
stood was owned by the company but had
been open for public access for some 20
years. The objective was clear; to mini-
mise community objections to redevelop-
ment of the sites and, in particular, to
explain the reasons for closure of the
road. The objectives were achieved, but
not without a public enquiry.
Rule two: specify and identify the
community audiences
Start with mapping:
where the employees of the company
live
the schools and colleges from which it
generally recruits
where the local suppliers are based
(from utilities and local authority to
Page 91
 Community relations good neighbour strategies
branch bank, garage and raw materials
sources)
the traffic routes and means of trans-
port of employees and supplies, iden-
tifying the major points of impact
along the way
the catchment of the local authority,
Member of Parliament and site regula-
tors, if any
the local charities, hospital, recreational
facilities, parks, schools and voluntary
groups
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the area over which any disaster on the
company's site could have any implica-
tions.
That mapping will identify the primary
and secondary community areas for the
programme. Within those areas, the next
step is to identify the audience groups a
company may need to reach:
employees, their families and neigh-
bours
business neighbours including suppli-
ers
local authority key contacts
Member of Parliament and Member of
the European Parliament
community groups local Chamber
of Commerce, Lions or Rotary Club,
Women's Institute or Townswomen's
Guild, residents' associations, pressure
or special interest groups these will
give potential points of contact for
groups of community audience to
speed and ease communication.
Once the core contact database is in place
for community relations, the community
media may be added:
local weekly, daily newspapers and
freesheets including those of voluntary
groups
radio and television stations with local
news facilities
a company's own internal publication,
Page 92
if there is one remember that once
something is published, it can be
expected to become available outside
the company.
At the site in west London, the audiences
were the residents living near the sites,
employees (most of whom lived within a
five-mile area), local businesses including
retailers, local councillors and Member of
Parliament.
Rule three: specify your messages
Start with what the organisation wishes to
say and identify the implications and
benefits to each audience. It is then pos-
sible to develop and tailor-make the
messages in an appropriate form for the
different audiences. But it is important to
keep the fundamental positioning message
common to all to avoid confusion it is
the emphasis and the sub-messages that
should be tailored to specific audiences.
Rule four: prioritise the means of
reaching the audiences
While employees in even the largest
organisation are the major influence on a
company's reputation among those they
know, they will not be personally
acquainted with everyone in the com-
munity. Although the employees may be
ambassadors, if a company abrogates to
these employees the responsibility of
communicating with the community, it is
no way to manage reputation.
Timing and appropriateness are the key
criteria for prioritising the means of
reaching community audiences. Messages
that have a pressure of time on them
require fast-track communication such as
personal telephone calls, door-to-door
drops or radio, for example. For more
routine communication and dialogue, site
meetings, attending residents' association
meetings and door-to-door delivery of a
letter or publication is usually best. With
the case in west London, all three were

used, adding local media briefings and a
direct line telephone number for
enquiries with a guaranteed 24-hour
response.
For retailers, a significant community
audience neighbours are also the
customer. When MacDonalds and other
fast food retailers were addressing the
BSE issue, speed of communication was
essential to demonstrate concern and
action to be seen to protect the customer.
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Rather than address each community
individually, they chose to address the
national community as one, with a single,
simple message 'no more British beef
in our burgers' using an editorial news
approach to national broadcast and print
media. For famous brands and products
or services that have national distribution,
when an emergency arises, taking the
story out on a national level rather than
waiting for it to come to the company is
often the best policy.
When it comes to launching a product,
the local MP may not have the time to
join the business and their customers at
the event, but could be grateful for the
invitation and the news that this develop-
ment will be securing jobs for the future.
If a company wins the Queen's Award for
Export, the local MP will certainly expect
to be present when the Queen's repre-
sentative comes to make the presentation.
If a company announces a reduction in
site operations and staffing, the first per-
son who will be asked to comment on
local radio and television will be that MP.
A company fails to communicate with
him or her promptly at its peril (but it is
important to beware of pre-briefing an
MP is looking at the greater community
interest and political advantage).
Rule five: develop a plan for
continuing community relations
Waiting for an item of big news to break
before implementing a community rela-
tions programme is tantamount to a com-
Friend
pany destroying its own reputation. A
total lack of previous communication will
automatically place extra scepticism on
what a company says at first. It is essential
to establish a dialogue and a basis for
understanding within the community so
that a company's communication is
proven to be open and trusted.
It is equally essential to be sensitive to
other events and dates of importance to
the community. The anniversary of
another organisation's previous environ-
mental disaster is no time to announce
new procedures unless the company really
wants to link the two together. It is,
therefore, important to look at the com-
munity calendar anniversary dates,
elections and carnivals, for example.
These will highlight many of the timing
issues and opportunities for planning.
Central to the community relations
plan should be:
media relations including site visits and
briefings to demonstrate what a com-
pany does and how it operates
MP and local authority relations, again
including site visits and briefings
The rest will vary according to the nature
of the organisation but could include:
distribution to near neighbours of
internal publications with a covering
letter inviting them to contact a named
individual with any queries at any time
offers to local schools and colleges of
site visits or lecture sessions on, for
example, the expectations the company
has as an employer of school leavers or
issues about the company's operations
providing facilities on site for business
and residents' community groups to
meet
supporting community fund-raising
activities by allowing collections on site
or supporting employees with match-
Page 93
 Community relations good neighbour strategies
ing funds from their own fund-raising
activities
offering places on internal training
programmes for the local unemployed
offering collection facilities for plastic
bottles, for example, if the company
operates a plastics recycling plant or
function as part of its business
providing furniture or equipment no
longer needed to local schools or
voluntary groups
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offering expert staff and managers as
speakers to community groups for
businesses, residents and to schools
participating in the local carnival by
providing a vehicle, catering, mailing
facilities or whatever is appropriate to
the organisation.
A RELATIONSHIP OF TRUST
Being a good neighbour means giving as
well as taking; developing a relationship of
trust based on a genuine desire to be a
responsible part of the community, at all
times, not just when needs must. In the
west London case, part of the plan was to
create, with the local residents' associa-
tion, a code of practice for contractors
working on the site. This covered early
warning of major deliveries that might
cause congestion, notice of hours of work,
noise levels and a site contact in case of
query or problem.
In Harlow, part of one company's com-
munity relations programme is the provi-
sion of team strip for the local under-11s
football team. The children love the fact
Page 94
that it is branded by the sponsoring com-
pany and take pride in being part of the
bigger team. That same company also
supports a tree-planting initiative each
year, local to all of its regional offices and
in co-operation with the council and
environmental groups. Mayors and school
groups come out to plant the trees; minis-
ters and members of the Royal Family do
the same.
All this, and more, will combine to
develop an effective community relations
strategy. This is not pure altruism. All of
it is designed to communicate the values
of the organisation and to provide a basis
for building relationships as good neigh-
bours for now and the future. Should dis-
aster occur or the news be less than good,
the inherent support in the community,
built over a number of years, will provide
a foundation of understanding rather than
a groundswell of fear and antagonism.
Should the community's support be
needed for growth and development,
recruitment or help to achieve an objec-
tive, then the moderate investment made
in quality community relations will be
readily paid back with interest.
Every organisation will benefit from a
clear understanding of itself within its
community. To achieve that understand-
ing requires a clear, planned and sustained
community relations and communication
programme, operated in parallel with the
essential internal communication pro-
gramme. It requires commitment from
the top and communication at all levels,
every day.