Shell Airs Dirty Laundry Online
from the amazing dept
I have to say that I’m somewhat amazed about this one. This article talks about how Shell (the huge oil company) has an open forum on their website where anyone can comment about anything – mostly concerning Shell’s values. It’s a type of openness that you won’t see from most companies (large or small). Even better, is that they say any Shell employee can respond to any comment. Many of the comments are not particularly positive towards Shell – and yet they leave them up and employees respond, honestly. I agree with the author of the article that it certainly shows a way in which a company like Shell actually does value feedback from people all over the world. Of course, the cynical might question how much they actually value that feedback (it is just a web forum, after all), but that doesn’t explain why they actively promote it off of their front page (and even highlight some of the negative comments). It also doesn’t explain why so few other companies offer a similar feature. I hope that other companies realize that this sort of thing should be the “corporate values statement” of the future. One that involves the people that are affected by the company – and one that is open to criticism and feedback.
