The Art of Inclusion

The Art of Inclusion

Diversity, equity, and inclusion. These are the three words that form the core of Naked Truth Agency. So of course, we’ve been particularly tuned in to the Halifax debacle that has seen hundreds of customers cut up their cards, close their accounts and speak with their feet (and Twitter accounts).

?As an agency that specialises in Crisis Management, there’s one myth here that needs to be debunked first and that is the ‘all PR is good PR’ adage.?The belief that "there is no such thing as negative press" is based on the belief that so long as it gets you in the paper and people are talking, your business is alive. The fact is the world has changed and so while a company might try to do everything they can to ‘get woke’, what might seem like a good idea can backfire horribly.

We’re living in a world where society is becoming more and more demanding for various resources, and with the rise of these demands, you also get a rise in expectations. In other words, you can’t just walk away from a wrong move.

When Halifax announced their new initiatives to the critical tweets prompted the bank to defend its new policy by responding to the tweets. It said in one post: 'We strive for inclusion, equality and quite simply, in doing what's right. If you disagree with our values, you're welcome to close your account'. If there’s one thing we know, telling a customer to take their business elsewhere is a crisis management nightmare. Especially on a social media platform.?

In a relationship, saying ‘if you don’t like it, you can leave’ is considered toxic. So, as much as I appreciate Halifax’s efforts to stand up for a belief, this choice of words is a catastrophe. There are so many different ways of standing firm without alienating people.?

This situation is a little like the Ratner’s jewellery situation when their former chairman said in an interview ‘People say, "How can you sell this for such a low price?", I say, "Because it's total crap." I’m sure Mr Ratner thought his brutal honesty might come across as endearing or refreshing in a modern world that loves honesty, but it was sorely misjudged.??His ill-judged comments created a major decline in business that plunged them ￡122.3m into the red and caused them to close 330 shops in Britain and the US. The publicity led to a general economic downturn which in turn led to a crash in the firm's share price, with its value plummeting by around ￡500million.

This publicity for Halifax might just be even more adverse.??Mostly because a new pronoun policy is a matter of inclusion, but it can’t be forced.?

Yes, it was a positive move for inclusion when they announced on?Twitter?earlier this week that it would allow staff to display their pronouns on their name badges, but the ‘like it or lump it’ approach has led to hundreds of social media users saying they are boycotting the former building society after being lectured about inclusivity.

Some have cut up their credit cards while others are lodging complaints about Halifax's social media manager who when customers accused the bank of 'virtue-signalling'.?

The?Cambridge Dictionary?defines virtue signalling as: ‘An attempt to show other people that you are a good person, for example by expressing opinions that will be acceptable to them, especially on social media.’

It can of course be a good thing, but it has also come to mean a slur meant to imply moral grandstanding that might not be authentic.??Virtue signalling is a fine art. Many brands overshoot the subtleties of virtue signaling. They preach, lecture, and alienate the people they’re trying to impress.?

With authenticity, subtlety and a touch of class, virtue signaling can be a healthy aspect of promoting a business, but there are challenges that require caution, and one is that it must be backed with affirmative action. Halifax might be willing to change the printing on their badges but like most U.K banks, they still have a shortage of BAME management, and they have more than a few disgruntled LGBTQ customers.

It was only a few months ago when a couple almost lost their house after Halifax refused to recognise one of them had a non-binary title. Parents-of-four Ruth?Sabini-Roberts?and G, 45, found their ‘dream five-bed home’ in Shropshire. The family was left devastated when they were told G’s??title wouldn’t be accepted on their mortgage application. They discovered Halifax would only accept ‘Mrs.’ or ‘Miss’ as G’s title on the mortgage application. This is the problem, its one thing to stand up for diversity, equity, and inclusion but it has to be more than posturing. What good is it telling customers they can take a hike over pronouns on a name badge, when their mortgage processes aren’t inclusive? Social cause is holistic, its not about picking the easiest ways to tick a couple of woke boxes and leaving out the ones that really impact lives. The truth is, if a company makes a gesture to stand up for something it should be holistic, and meaningful and it certainly shouldn’t alienate customers who may not want something new rubbed in their faces.?

People don’t want impersonal, super-rich corporations attempting to calibrate their moral compass. It’s better for big companies to focus on quality offerings and responsible business practices, that create tangible change. Then, when it’s time to make a stand on social media, consumers can at least be confident that the expressions of goodwill are aboveboard, authentic and backed by action.