I would recommend that all those involved in Corporate Communication and public relations training start focusing more and more on Reputation Management. As with our personal lives, the more companies invest in building good relationships with their ‘significant’ others or stakeholders, the more they will earn in terms of loyalty and support in times of trouble.
Try and source a very useful article by Deon Binneman (posted online on 30 November 2012) entitled, “7 Compelling reasons to educate, train and develop your employees about Reputation Management”. It has always been my contention that reputation management should be core to any business activities. I emphasize reputation management in all my courses and enjoy using the term “reputational capital” because often managers response more readily to the idea of capital. “Soft skills” like communication, relationship building, harmony, stakeholder perceptions and the like don’t grip their interests. They are more focused on sales, profit and assets and forget that relationships contribute to the most valuable asset – reputation.

According to Binneman, “A good reputation means your name is trusted….you are considered a sound investment….and employer.” Educating your employees about reputation management encourages them to work collaboratively in building your corporate reputation, resulting in benefits like increased productivity, increased competitiveness, stakeholder identification and loyalty, to name a few.