“In respect of the allegations of sexual harassment,  two employees have been served termination letters for misconduct.

The Board has determined that there is sufficient evidence to warrant this course of action.”

YESTERDAY, on January 7, 2019, 36 days after announcing that it had begun formal investigations into sexual misconducts by several senior employees as alleged in an anonymous email, BFM issued a third statement into the matter stating that it had sacked two persons based on “sufficient evidence to warrant this course of action”. The popular radio station also explained that it did not make a police report of a separately alleged rape incident “as the complainant did not wish to escalate the matter at the time”.

BFM’s communication process throughout this entire scandal is mostly on point and checks almost all the boxes I personally look at in a crisis. In fact, I wrote about the five key considerations in crisis communications, in early 2018, with regard to the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica issue, which I have linked here.

So here is my dissection of BFM’s communications based on my five points:

1. As soon as it became aware of the anonymous email, BFM immediately spoke with its employees and followed this with a public statement. It even cleverly took to social media.

2. BFM did not deny that there was any truth to the sexual misconduct allegations and instead announced that it had initiated an independent investigation into the matter.

3. The station was quick to act and fast to make a stand before the email was publicly made known by the media thus taking ownership of the situation.

4. BFM has indicated how it plans to tackle this issue moving forward and even mentions a timeline.

I read the latest statement that appeared to say all the right things, yet strangely, I felt unmoved by what was said. It took me three reads before I realised why. The statement was lacking the one crucial element that I personally find important when communicating in a crisis and that is the emotional conviction of the management, led by Malek Ali. All I read was a whisper of an apology.

“The BFM management team acknowledges that more could have been done to proactively gather evidence so that such misconduct could have been addressed in a more timely manner.”

The gravity of the issue surely demands stronger words than that.

Perhaps I am simple-minded, but I would have greater respect for BFM’s management and its commitment to this matter if it had simply said “we are sorry” or “we take full responsibility”. After all, none of the harassment or rape issues would have come to light if that damning email had not been sent to the various media and the only reason BFM has sacked its star performers is because all eyes are on it, and management delivered the pound of flesh demanded of it.

So, despite having played the crisis card well, I am left disappointed. At this juncture where the organisation’s morale and reputation are at an all-time low, there is little to loose by being the bigger person in recognising that as management, the fault is largely on you for your failure to curb such transgressions and ensuring non-gender fairness and safety at your workplace.

All is not lost though, and statements are merely words.

BFM’s next actions in putting in place a zero tolerance policy, as it claims, against sexual misconduct will be watched by many quarters, and how the management embraces and enforces such policies in its growing workplace will speak for its true emotional conviction on this matter. Has everything that has come to pass merely been BFM’s commendable reaction to a crisis or will it use this opportunity to turn the organisation around and show the rest of us, how to be better as employers.

In the meantime and for many years to come, BFM’s handling of this scandal will be widely discussed, debated and dissected by practitioners of PR, HR and compliance.

* Janitha Sukumaran is founder of Rantau Golin.

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.