... Communication is key to keeping employees safe and maintaining productivity. 3. Set up a dedicated, well-organized and mobile-accessible location where all coronavirus-related communications and content can live. "Not everyone is sitting in front of a computer all day long.". He quickly wrote an all-staff memo thanking Starbucks employees for their work on the weeklong initiative and describing the other efforts the company was pursuing to address diversity and inequality. 3. For most of us, that’s our people—employees, customers, vendors, partners. 5. Following the devastation in Japan, the company implemented a sophisticated emergency notification system through which HR can draw on updated rosters of employees in affected areas and instantly contact workers through various modes of communication: work, home and mobile phones; work e-mail addresses; and texts. Topics: COVID-19, Crisis Communications, Internal Communications, The Consultant Is In. US stores have instituted “contactless” curbside service or free doorstep delivery. First, businesses must think ahead and be prepared before a crisis event occurs. Employees can respond to any of the notifications to let the employer know if they’re safe or need support. Note: With high-infection rates at global office locations, communicate extensively at the local level. "You set expectations that will quiet down the noise level among employees.". Pam Baker; Published: 17 Mar 2020. The initial onset of a crisis presents immense pressure to act — and act quickly. Determine which leader will be responsible for communicating with employees on all things related to the coronavirus. "It required multiple steps and left it in the hands of employees to get the message rather than being sent the message," says Johnetta Scales, HR training and development manager at the company. Join/RenewNow and let SHRM help you work smarter. Establish a single source of truth. But it’s normal to have crises, so you should always be prepared for them," Achille says. "We think of crises as acute, and that’s accurate. 25 Tips and Tricks for Buying a Car Online During the Pandemic ... Best Ways To Sell Your Car During the Coronavirus Crisis. Immediately after the Sept. 11 attacks, PetSmart’s employees asked the organization how they could donate money, blood and products to the relief efforts. You need to communicate with everyone at once because you want everyone to think and act like owners," Argenti says. Editor’s note: We are re-running the top stories of 2020 as part of our year-end countdown. The coronavirus pandemic is affecting small businesses in a variety of ways. "Internal communications should at least be concurrent with external communications," Holtz says. "Speed is of the essence, but it should be tempered by the need for accurate information," Thompson adds. Crucial to your success is creating feedback channels so people can express themselves and ask questions. But, now isn’t the time for that. She made sure that happened at imaging company Canon, where she worked when Hurricane Sandy hit the eastern seaboard in 2012. Remote management is the same as managing people in an office with you, right? Here are five ways they can take charge of communication. Involve people managers. A company can do a number of things to avoid a PR catastrophe during a crisis. 5 Leadership Skills to Best Manage a Crisis November 17, 2017 boldnew2014 Managers have a load of responsibilities and they are constantly dealing with different situations but one thing is certain: every manager will encounter a crisis at some point in their career and they need to be equipped with the skills necessary to handle it. "I made sure the information on the regional level was disseminated on the national level by working with senior management and putting that information in e-mails and weekly newsletters," she says. Microsoft and partners may be compensated if … "Employees recognize how an organization communicates a crisis," says Iloma Simmons, SHRM-CP, senior employee relations specialist at JLL, a professional services firm based in Chicago. Even though different internal audiences may need different information, depending on how the crisis affects them and their ability to do their jobs, employers should keep messages consistent. "Internal communications should at least be concurrent with external communications," Holtz says. 4. The process needs to account for the reality that people have different preferred modes of communication. It is important during these uncertain times to support one another and understand that racism, anti-immigrant messaging and stereotyping of certain races and cultures is not reflective of our values. This situation could trigger a traumatic event or illness, and employees might know someone infected or have lost a loved one. You don’t know what people are going through. var currentUrl = window.location.href.toLowerCase(); How to wisely weigh return-to-work scenarios. All internal crisis communication processes should support a dialogue that allows the business to communicate to employees and that lets HR hear from workers about their status and concerns. Communicate frequently through multiple channels . Find answers to your COVID-19 vaccine questions here. Organizations’ employee communications skills are being tested as more cases of COVID-19 are reported around the world.. How you communicate with your employees during this time is essential to keeping them safe, informed and productive as they navigate and adapt to sudden and unexpected changes. Put someone you trust in charge of doing this. But during a test of the system, HR found that, among the 680 employees at the company’s headquarters, only a dozen actually checked the message over a two-week period. To request permission for specific items, click on the “reuse permissions” button on the page where you find the item. Please purchase a SHRM membership before saving bookmarks. The Coronavirus is disrupting the workplace. Please enable scripts and reload this page. "We have a lot of different mechanisms to communicate," says Judy Botelho, Cisco’s director of employee relations. All communications directed at Canon employees on the East Coast—such as office closures, assistance hotlines and donation options—were also communicated to workers in the Midwest. Copyright 2021 Lawrence Ragan Communications, Inc. Ragan will honor the top women in wellness and HR. Let us know if you need support. 1. The firm implemented a new system during the past year that pushes notifications out to affected employees via phone, e-mail and text. The focus during a crisis then should be on the key information to be delivered rather than how to handle the media. It’s better to simply communicate what you do and don’t know. Need help with a specific HR issue like coronavirus or FLSA? }. As tempting as it may be to go silent until you have a firm handle on the situation, don’t. Use these tips to be more conscious of the unique approaches you should take to managing remote employees. Effective communication to staff goes beyond issuing announcements or bulletins. Thanks to social media, the public now has direct access to a trusted source of information: employees. Internal crisis communication is important because it helps to mitigate the stress crises produce for employees and to illuminate how employees can become ambassadors (an asset) during a crisis (Frandsen & Johansen, 2011). including compliance updates, sample policies, HR expert advice, education "Employees are probably going to be the single biggest determinant in how fast and how well an organization recovers from a crisis, and they’ll be the first contact with customers as recovery occurs," says Paul Barton, principal consultant at Paul Barton Communications in Phoenix. 5 tips for HR: Employee communications during coronavirus outbreak. This year, the organization used the new system twice during severe snowstorms. Although the scale of affected employees in the two scenarios was markedly different, the faster response earlier this year reflects a dramatic transformation in the way Cisco’s leaders communicate with employees in a crisis. Don’t pretend to know all the answers. Read "5 Tips for Communicating with Employees During a Crisis" leadership insights Help employees work at home effectively. } In general, the internal crisis communication research has found managers neglect communication with employees during a crisis. Construct messaging to provide information about what employees should know, feel and do. Neither members nor non-members may reproduce such samples in any other way (e.g., to republish in a book or use for a commercial purpose) without SHRM’s permission. 5 Ways to Manage an Employee in Crisis Life and what it throws at us affect everyone. Whatever you decide, make sure it’s a sustainable decision in light of other crises. Employees want to hear from an executive so they feel secure/safe at work. 2. Consider having a standing live video Q&A or other easily accessible channel to keep communications always on and open. After terrorist bombs ripped through a metro station and airport in Brussels in March, leaders at Cisco Systems were able to account for the company’s 150-plus employees in the area within 24 hours. "Once a crisis is over, we need employees to come back in a positive, willing way to work," says Ivan Thompson, vice president for HR and CHRO at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. You have successfully saved this page as a bookmark. Share this item with your network: By. We really are all in this together. 4 Tips for Selling During The Coronavirus Pandemic. In addition, Cisco’s leaders now have a plan in place for providing updates to employees using e-mails from HR staff and internal websites that instruct employees on what to do during emergencies, including natural disasters and disease outbreaks, and how they can contribute to relief efforts. Read on: Crisis Communication — How to Communicate with Your Employees During a Crisis? Due to the financial impact the COVID-19 health crisis has had on UAB, the very difficult decision was made to implement a furlough after the careful review of many options. During a crisis, time is compressed. Crisis Communications Tips. Following that event, the HR team changed its process so that the company can instantly provide employees with a comprehensive list of ways they can help. 8. Selecting the right focus. Please confirm that you want to proceed with deleting bookmark. Finally, apply all of the above steps to your employees. Instead, he thought the most successful leaders focused on serving their team and bringing out the best in them. "Starbucks has been really good at dealing with crises internally, and Schultz is excellent at writing internally and using it externally," Argenti says. The authors surveyed 350 HR leaders and other employees to determine the most meaningful actions their organizations had taken to support remote work during the COVID-19 crisis. Emergency management is the organization and management of the resources and responsibilities for dealing with all humanitarian aspects of emergencies (preparedness, response, mitigation, and recovery). HR and communications experts differ in their opinions about whether employees should be able to communicate externally on behalf of the company following a crisis or if only designated spokespeople should do so, but they agree that trying to block social media channels is simply not feasible. But the right questions during your 1 on 1s can go a long way to helping them thrive. "Good employee communication is two-way," Holtz says. By Kim Clark Dec. 31, 2020. During times of crisis, organizational leaders should establish feelings of trust with employees by communicating accurate and clear information continuously. Talk about what you’re doing—not what you’re not doing. Explain what your organization is doing about the crisis. If the messaging comes from managers rather than directly from the CEO, help train those supervisors in crisis communications. During a crisis, it’s imperative to open channels for discussions and to raise questions. Planning should involve determining not only what and how to communicate to employees but also who will serve as the designated crisis management group. Holtz Communication + Technology in San Francisco. Like Cisco’s HR team, the HR staff at Gresham, Smith and Partners realized that one communication channel was not enough. Example: “The company is providing temporary housing for all workers in the affected area who do not currently have access to their homes.”, After terrorist bombs ripped through a metro station and airport in Brussels in March, leaders at. Editor’s note: We are re-running the top stories of 2020 as part of our year-end countdown. Table 12.1. Article | Harvard Business Review | July 9, 2020. Assign authority. Top Best Practices for Managing a Remote Team Before the outbreak, roughly 5% of the employees that could work remotely full time actually did. Before communicating during an outbreak, think through how risk perceptions might influence the affected populations and, therefore, how you communicate about those risks. Stay focused. "Employees are increasingly important voices during crises," says Shel Holtz, principal of Communication that earns the reputation and credibility of its publics. There can sometimes be a life crisis such as the death of a friend or family member, family members falling ill, divorce, domestic violence, or many other crises that can occur. This simple framework will help guide the team and keep you grounded through the speed of change and multiple meetings you’re having with different executives and stakeholders. Address concerns about job security. 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