learned from the coronavirus

What have some of the UK’s leading internal communications leaders learned from the coronavirus crisis in the first weeks and months of the outbreak?

If you work in internal communications, the last few weeks will have been some of the most intense in recent professional memory. The coronavirus crisis and response has left many businesses struggling to adjust to new ways of working and has forced us into difficult decisions affecting workers across the country. Internal communications has been right at the heart of this challenge, and we may find that our professional landscape has changed forever.

In times of crisis it can be difficult to pause and reflect on how we are managing the situation and what we have learned. To understand how our world has changed and what truths remain constant in the face of crisis.

We asked leading communicators from our client organisations what their reflections were on the current crisis and what they had learned in the first weeks of the response. Here are some of their thoughts and insights:

We’ve learned from the coronavirus that pace matters

One common thread is how, in a crisis, getting it done quickly is more important than it being perfect. It’s also the case that during a crisis, what often used to take months or years can suddenly happen very quickly as the normal rules of engagement change.

“Pace beats perfection – and practicality beats it all. Now is not the time to be creating channels that require a lot of resource or time to produce. Make sure you can communicate quickly whenever it’s needed. Clear the airwaves. Shift any BAU messages to a weekly round-up and leave the airwaves clear for critical information. Be clear when you will communicate about COVID-19 (we issue a daily update early evening after the PM briefing) – and stick to it.”

“Timing is everything. What you think is current may not be within the hour, so making sure you have timely delivery is key.”

“Timing matters. Don’t get forced onto the back foot.”

“As soon as COVID-19 hit, we were forced to stop teaching all classroom based-lessons globally. In several countries, including Italy, we rolled out new online solutions in two weeks, instead of several months. They’re not perfect, but they are working pretty well. This has led to a lot of soul searching in change and communication teams about whether we over-think change programmes.”

Understanding relationships and who makes decisions is critical

We’ve often talked about the need to have a seat at the management table, as outlined in step one of our Five Step Value Framework. Well, now is the time to earn it. Or if you already have it, show your value and keep it. This is crucial for establishing control and clarity over messaging in a fast-moving, complex environment. But, in the chaos, don’t forget to recognise that we’re all human beings coping with the same problem.

“Get real clarity and agreement over the process for issuing communications. Who is writing what? Who is consulting? Who is reviewing? Who is collating feedback and who decides what is in and what is out? We learned this quickly and agreed on a clear process flow after a bumpy start. Keep ‘the cooks’ to a minimum and final review even fewer. We also agreed on our communications principles, to help guide our tone and content: clarity, confidence, and calm.”

“Own your seat at the table. Your job is much easier when you are close to – or ideally part of – the business continuity group which is empowered to make decisions. Absorb, relate and communicate your organisation’s response to government statements quickly, so people understand how what they see on the news is affecting their role.”

“We’ve always been an informal organisation, but talking to colleagues from home all the time takes some getting used to when you normally talk across a desk. Conversations about comms planning become more interesting when you have a cat walking across your keyboard and the person you’re talking to has a two-year-old sitting on their lap singing nursery rhymes. Strangely, not sitting in the same office has brought teams a little closer – and the tone of voice in our internal comms has become even more informal.”

Keep things simple, use trusted voices and adopt technology where it can really make a difference

During any crisis, clarity of message is vital. With so much information and data available, keeping things simple is a daunting challenge. Technology can help keep people connected, but it can also spread misinformation and create problems.

“Don’t recreate the wheel: comms people wear many hats, but none of us are medical experts. Don’t try and create your own health advice – point people to robust official sources.”

“Only worry about what you can control. We’re not in control of what Government advice is, but we can help make things clear and support our teams along the way.”

“Line managers are essential to help people keep calm and manage the flow of information and people’s concerns. We’ve found that briefing them as much as possible before all-colleague comms is issued is a good way to keep them in the loop and empowers them to be leaders in an uncertain situation.”

“Having only just rolled-out Office 365, we were the lucky ones. It meant that our entire workforce had only recently been getting to grips with MS Teams and were already somewhat prepared for remote working. We slipped into online meetings, team chats and even social events quite easily. We’re also running most big events online through Teams or Teams Live across our 110 countries. I hear other companies have struggled without up-to-date tech.”

Make time for recovery and check in with each other

We’ve learned from the coronavirus that crisis response can stretch us physically and mentally. Responding to the latest situation or changing circumstances while under the eye of the senior table can leave us exhausted. So, making time to recover or step away is important to keep us healthy.

“Look after yourself – comms people can only help others and their business if we help ourselves in terms of wellbeing.”

“Crisis comms is intense and tends to dominate thinking and time for those in the thick of it. But it won’t be a crisis forever, and those we are communicating with have their ‘normal’ work to be getting on with. So, I am endeavouring to make sure I’m working on something completely different too, and having a clear cut-off time when I am not ‘at work’.”

“There’s a big leap you have to make, coming to terms with the fact that it could last for weeks or months. It’s hugely helpful to have an avid interest in something you can do outside work (in my case, writing) that’s fulfilling and something you actually look forward to doing each day.”

Thank you to all our clients who submitted their thoughts on their experiences so far. If you would like to discuss crisis communications for employees, get in touch.