Slater and Gordon salaries leak: What went wrong
On Friday morning an email purporting to be from the outgoing chief people officer at law firm Slater and Gordon landed in all staff inboxes. The email contained a vitriolic “handover” and an attachment containing the salaries of all 906 employees.
Peter Wilkinson
Communications expert Peter Wilkinson says Slater and Gordon is failing in the handling of its current email crisis on almost every front, with “confusion and poor culture” the key takeaway.
The email was purportedly sent by outgoing chief people officer Mari Ruiz-Matthyssen from a private Gmail account. It contained detailed knowledge of internal HR and management issues, couched in unprofessional language and including character attacks. The attached salary information was reportedly mostly accurate, according to sources within Slater and Gordon.
Slater and Gordon have said the email is a fraud and referred the matter to police.
Wilkinson, the Chair of Wilkinson Butler and a crisis comms professional with more than two decades experience, said the law firm had lost control of the narrative.
Peter Wilkinson
“ Slater and Gordon is an excellent company and in situations like this, you want to convey excellence and nimbleness and they failed at both,” he told Mumbrella.
He said there are three critical responses here:
- Understanding and responding to the incident
- Making sure the audience and stakeholders understand the quality of the company
- Providing the right spokesperson
“Those three elements have been absent – all three. The overall impression is one of defensiveness.”
Wilkinson said in Slater and Gordon’s situation, it was important to correctly prioritise stakeholders.
“The most important stakeholder is staff. The second-most important is clients and prospective clients. The media is a vital tool in speaking to them and other stakeholders.”
After understanding the facts and establishing the quality of the company, the selection of a spokesperson was crucial.
”The choice of spokesperson is really important, and in a serious situation where staff unhappiness is potentially significant, you need someone who’s got really good cred internally. What every consultancy wants, what every professional service organization wants, is happy staff and happy clients.”
The right spokesperson would – in the Richard Branson fashion – establish themselves as an authority.
”You need to deal with the situation that’s in front of you. And part of that is doing the forensics. But finding the villain in this is secondary to the big issue,” Wilkinson said.
“In this early stage, you’ve got to get ahead of the narrative, establish, remind people that the company is an excellent organization, remind particularly staff in situations like this by your actions, that you’re nimble on top of it, and protecting them, and protecting clients.
“This fast-moving crisis is similar to a cybersecurity breach, staff and clients want the confidence that nimble comms provides.
“ It’s a bit of a mystery as to why they haven’t been able to address it.”
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sounds like they should get a good lawyer!
The owners could be concerned about the meuleman action
This is getting traction this weekend at Portsea.
Sounds like they should employ Peter Wilkinson!