WHAT WE ARE LEARNING ABOUT CRISIS COMMUNICATIONS DURING COVID-19

Amanda Lacey, Director of POPCOM answers three questions about the importance of a crisis communications plan, and how to communicate returning to the office.

Why is having a crisis communication plan so important for businesses, particularly now with the COVID-19 pandemic?

Speed. When you don’t communicate with your audience in a timely manner, the narrative gets written for you. COVID-19 so far has been a crisis on steroids.

Initially, when COVID-19 started gaining momentum and we saw Italy closing down, there were a lot of comparisons to the GFC. COVID-19 is bigger than the GFC - for those who were working through that period we all remember how awful that was. I was reminded recently that the GFC was a series of events - essentially, it was caused by people doing the wrong thing in business. COVID-19 is bigger, and we won’t know the full implications for some time, which is frankly, scary.

During scary times, we look to our leaders - not just political but community based. Leaders are your immediate boss, the CEO of your company the old guy who owns the cafe on the next street who everyone knows; in other words, they are the people you look too for opinion and information. We will be looking to these leaders more as we are all hungry for updates. We want to know information as it happens, we want to know the bad news - as we all love watching bad news; but it gets exhausting, we also want to know how and when we will get through it.

What should organisations be doing as we return to the office?

Have a crisis plan and a clear channel for communicating in place. There is a possibility that someone within your workplace will contract the COVID virus. How quickly and clearly you respond will differentiate your organisation. 

When crunch time comes, employees and other stakeholders will compare notes. Having a prepared crisis communications plan in place gives you a leg up during this time. You don’t want ‘Katey from accounts’ being the person to disseminate the news that a colleague has been admitted to hospital. 

You need to plan your communication lines internally and externally to ensure that you delivering the right message, that is coordinated and includes vital information, in a timely manner. 

What are the biggest mistakes businesses can make during crisis communication, both in regard to COVID-19 but also in the future? 

When you don’t communicate with your audience in a timely manner, the narrative gets written for you. COVID-19 is no different. 

If you need to deliver difficult information, such as asking staff to take a pay cut to get through the next six months due to a drop in revenue, don’t dwell for too long, you have the numbers, you know the outcomes, deliver the news. Don’t talk about it broadly during the modelling stage, as information like this will slip. 

Own the bad news, develop appropriate messaging for each stakeholder group, show genuine empathy - as let’s be honest, unless you are actually some sort of corporate sociopath, no one likes communicating bad news, and look to the future or the next steps after the bad news. 

The mistake I am seeing organisations make is developing messaging that is ambiguous around bad news. Don’t do that. Deliver sensitive information in a clear and concise way. If you are really struggling use bullet points: 

• We are asking all employees to opt in to a 20% reduction of salary.

Follow up hard news with future or forward looking statements. You want to move the mindset of the receiver past the negative message. 

• It is our commitment to you that we will repay any remuneration forgone as soon as we can. We are asking for this sacrifice so we can secure our future.

You also need to show that you are sacrificing above and beyond what you are asking employees to do, which you more than likely are. This won’t make you look weak, this will accurately reflect just how much you care about the organisations and the individuals within it.

Lastly, it is essential you deliver news internally first. No one wants to read about their company news for the first time from an external source - it is disrespectful. Internal and external relations will obviously read differently, but the message should be synchronised.

If you need help communicating with your employees during COVID-19 or to develop a crisis communication plan on returning to work, please reach out directly to Amanda Lacey at amanda@popcom.com.au.