There's arguably no industry under more pressure to calm employee fears today than banks

In corporate communication, a key to containing a crisis is timing.

Case in point: On Sept. 25, JP Morgan Chase bought Washington Mutual Bank seconds after going in to receivership at 9 p.m. EST.

At 9:15 p.m., every Washington Mutual Bank employee received an e-mail from Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, entitled “JP Morgan Chase and Washington Mutual join together,” said Tom Kelly, media relations for Chase.

Dimon welcomed the WaMu staff to the Chase family with an employee-directed Q&A to address their top concerns, everything from “Why is JP Morgan Chase doing this acquisition?” to “How should I answer the phone?” He provided answers on benefit changes, consolidation and on how to reassure the public that their money was safe.

There is perhaps no other kind of company more under pressure to calm fears inside its own walls than banks. With headlines forecasting a looming depression, they have to be in a position to communicate quickly — sometimes immediately — with employees.

Successful strategy: Be transparent
Make maintaining a transparency and frankness with employees so that they trust receiving news about their employer from their employer your priority. This will prevent false or inaccurate information from spreading through Internet rumors and office gossip.

Chase didn’t leave WaMu employees in the dark about their futures.

“My key ‘Day One’ message — especially for those of you serving customers directly — is to keep doing what you’re doing,” Dimon’s e-mail read. “We don’t want to miss a beat in our daily activities.”

Kelly said WaMu employees faced a special situation, because there was no time let the news sink in.

“Unlike standard mergers where there is six months or so between announcement and completion of the merger, ours happened simultaneously,” he said.

Chase also devoted a section of the WaMu intranet to post additional merger information, including executive announcements, additional Q&As and information about JPMorgan Chase.

Speak directly
National or regional, banks and financial institutions seem to be using the same strategies to speak plainly and openly to their employees.

Cristi Kirisits, marketing and corporate communications manager of Atlanta-based Silverton Bank recently faced this challenge when Silverton had its worst third-quarter financials in the company’s 20-year history.

To communicate the bad news, her department implemented internal sessions that explained what the bank was going through and what employees could expect in the months to come. Her team also asked the president of the bank speak to employees personally, and posted a video of him on the company's Web site explaining the situation.

Internal comms said the goal was to make sure that employees were informed before anyone else.

"It was my impression that the employees really appreciated hearing about it straight from our own management,” Kirisits said. “It allayed any fears they may have had about what was going on in the industry."

At the border
So how are our neighbors in Canada handling the economic crisis, and what they are doing to stop panic?

David M. Schneider, communications manager at the Local Authorities Pension Plan (LAPP) in Edmonton, Alberta, said his company has been sending out information to 180,000 plan members in the voice of the CEO, Ron Liteplo. Employee reaction has been positive, he said.

The message: LAPP had taken steps to combat rising and falling stock prices by moving equity into defensive stocks; avoiding dealing with firms at the center of the controversy, such as Lehman Brothers; and increasing assets outside the stock market in to areas such as timberland and power plants.

“Finally, we have not panicked,” Liteplo added. “LAPP takes a long-term approach to investing, and uses some of the best money managers in Canada. When the water is rough, we want experienced hands steering the ship.”

Schneider said that by sending these kinds of messages, the number of questions from members is down.

“If you tell people what the situation is and what you are doing about it — in a timely fashion and in language they can understand — chances are good they will be satisfied,” he said.

Financial communication dos and don’ts
There are four things banks and other financial institutions need to consider when approaching any type of communications surrounding the credit crisis, according to Kirk Cheyfitz, founder and CEO of New York's Story Worldwide, which handles Bank of America's annual report. Total candor: Be honest about your year. If there are problems, you have to be upfront about them in order to explain what you are doing to solve them.

No bells & whistles: Stick to the essentials. Don't use hyperbole and fancy design elements to cover up bad news.

Make the graph bigger: If you're using a graph or any other graphic to show a decline, make it bigger than last year's. Show your audience that you're aware of the problem, you're not hiding from it and, more importantly, you're handling it.

Don't over-communicate: Show, don't tell. It's easy to sugarcoat and weave a fabricated tale that will make people feel better in the short time, but the truth always comes out. Communicate this directly in simple language and again, always follow up with the steps you are taking to resolve the areas in need. You never want to appear as if you're hiding.