AVON Turkey

Challenge

AVON Turkey faced a labor dispute caused by the dismissal of three employees, two of whom were working under a subcontracting company as of 17th of May. The dispute turned into a crisis and had negative implications due to public attention on women and labor rights, facilitated by intense use of social media. That situation affected AVON’s reputation and its business targets as well as the stability of labor relations. The goal of the project recommended by us was to help AVON Turkey mitigate the risks of the crisis and prevent operational disruption.

Solution

The first step of crisis management was developing a strategy and determining AVON’s position on critical issues. To manage the effect on the social media and social organizations, a communication plan has been developed and the correct message was transmitted to all related stakeholders in the correct way. Another critical strategic decision was not to recognize this unauthorized union and not to respond to their letters and expectations.

Consequently, the intensity of social media messages decreased. Employee expectations were evaluated through focus group meetings and employee workshops. A synergy which clearly indicated that the solutions would emerge within the operation and not with the support of protesters was created.

Result

At the end of this period, the situation became normal. Several action plans have been defined to solve the problems employees had mentioned. To ensure the sustainability of this environment in the organization, we suggested them to implement an engagement program based on participatory approaches.