internal communication

May 8, 2020June 29, 2023

Employee communication how-to’s during a crisis

The usual employee communication strategy goes out the door when a company faces a crisis. Special circumstances like natural disasters, workplace shootings and pandemics put employers in a challenging situation. The future is uncertain, people are constantly learning new facts and messaging has to be carefully crafted.

Meanwhile, emotions may be high while people deal with the aftermath of a potentially traumatic event, and employers must be able to communicate messages carefully and empathetically. Added to this challenge, distance may be an issue. Disease outbreaks, hurricanes and snowstorms may leave a workforce separated from each other, either working remotely or unable to work at all.

It’s important for organizations to develop a crisis communication plan. Within that plan include details that relate to specific crises. Technology will be a key part of these strategies, especially when there’s a possibility that employees and managers won’t be in the same office for an unknown amount of time.

Here are some tips on how to utilize technology in a crisis communication strategy.

Communicate the organization’s response:

Whatever the crisis, employees want to know what is going on with their jobs and updates on the company. If a company closes temporarily due to a disaster, for example, people want to know when it will open again. Are their jobs safe? Is the employer taking proper health and safety precautions as they reopen the workspace? Are employees’ concerns and questions being addressed or ignored?

While managers may not have all the facts, they can set up weekly calls or send ongoing communication that gives employees whatever information is available. That way, people don’t feel out of the loop and know that their concerns are being considered and addressed by management.

A mobile communication solution is especially valuable since employees can access the information they want whenever and wherever on their own device.

Share only trustworthy sources and facts:

In times of crisis, misinformation and myths can be spread just as easily as facts, as crises like the COVID-19 pandemic and mass shootings show. Coronavirus myths include that antibiotics kill the virus and that only older people and people with chronic conditions are at risk. Mass shootings myths include that people with a mental illness are more likely to commit acts of violence (they’re actually much more likely to be victims of violence).

The important lesson for employers here is that rather than relying on the opinions of random people online — even if they seem credible — they should rely on basic facts from the experts.

As managers regularly communicate with employees as part of their crisis management strategy, they shouldn’t further spread misinformation.

Show empathy:

Just sharing facts won’t show empathy for the anxiety, trauma or other negative emotions employees may feel during a crisis. Compassion and a sense of understanding can go a long way to easing employees’ fears.

This is also an area managers can practice. They don’t have to go in blindly when they want to show a human, vulnerable, empathetic side to employees. Practice could be role-playing with someone else and analyzing what responses worked. Or it could mean researching how to communicate with people who have been through a crisis and practicing how to say it genuinely to another person.

In the case where managers and employees are separated, managers can show their team members on a personal level as well via their company’s mobile chat tool. It could be as simple as asking someone how they’re doing or communicating to them that management cares about their well-being. Just be sure it is genuine.

Don’t ghost employees:

Even though employers have enough on their plate when dealing with the aftermath of a crisis, they shouldn’t neglect their employees , who often are hailed as an organization’s “most valuable asset.” Ignoring the impact of the crisis on these people won’t reflect well on the manager or the organization.

It can be easy to keep in touch with employees and keep the lines of communication open with the right tech tools. Workforce.com allows managers to communicate with employees, whether it’s to share important information with them or just to reach out and show empathy for their situation.

Tools like this exist and can make managers’ crisis management responsibilities more effortless and streamlined. Utilize the latest communication technology in your crisis communication strategy.

March 18, 2020April 11, 2023

During COVID-19 outbreak, utilize internal communications in your company crisis plan

Internal communication is a vital part of crisis management, whether it is a pandemic like COVID-19, a natural disaster or a workplace shooting.

As the people and organizations worldwide deal with the implications of the coronavirus, it is vital for people to communicate accurate information about the virus, check what they’re retweeting and make sure not to spread disinformation. Businesses have a similar responsibility, but on top of that, their communication must be strategic. It should be part of any crisis management plan.

Employees will be getting information about the coronavirus from somewhere, and coworkers will realistically discuss the company’s response to the pandemic among one another, whether their response is appreciative or critical.

Whatever standard message a business publicly announces during a crisis, if employees have issues with how the crisis is being handled, it doesn’t matter if the media paints the company in a good light. There still may be low employee morale and high levels of frustration internally.

Despite the immediate importance of communication, many organizations have yet to create a strategy. According to a report from Gallagher’s Benefits and HR Consulting Division, 61 percent of organizations have developed a communication strategy related to COVID-19, with 82 percent of health care having a strategy compared to 49 percent of non-health care organizations.

In another survey of 300 communications senior leaders, the Institute for Public Relations found that 44 of respondents said their crisis communications plan did not specifically address an infectious disease outbreak. Ten percent of respondents did not have crisis communication plans at all.

There are some basics that employees should understand about coronavirus symptoms and the course of the illness, which should be an integral part of a communication campaign.

First, COVID-19 is not airborne. It’s passed by droplets. That means when someone who is infected coughs into their hands and touches a surface, someone else can catch it by touching that surface and then touching their face. As strange as it may seem, that’s good news. It means that if people wash their hands frequently with regular soap — especially after you may have touched surfaces that a lot of other people touch, like doorknobs, the keypad for clocking into work or shaking hands — they’re much less likely to be infected.

Second, some people have compared COVID-19 symptoms to the flu, but that’s not completely accurate. The two most common symptoms are fever and a dry cough. People with COVID-19 rarely have a sniffle. They also aren’t likely to be nauseous. What they are likely to have is bad upper respiratory problems. They tend to develop a severe cough that makes it hard for them to breathe, which is what is making COVID-19 dangerous.

Finally, it’s also true that for most younger workers, the symptoms are milder and people who have it may only think they have a cold. However, older employees or anyone with a compromised immune system are much more likely to have serious symptoms that require medical assistance. The medical assistance that is often required is intubation and the use of a ventilator.

The reason why COVID-19 is such a big deal right now is because the number of people who require medical assistance is overwhelming the medical system in the places where the number of cases has grown, like Italy. The medical system has been overwhelmed even in places that have a consistent ratio of doctors and hospital beds to people (Italy’s is better than the United States’, for example). There are only so many beds in the hospitals and only so many ventilators.

That’s why there has been a push to slow down transmission through actions like social distancing and remote working, because if it is slowed enough, it won’t overwhelm the health care system. The mission is to flatten the curve and buy time for the health care system to adequately care for those who fall ill.

If someone has been exposed, they are likely to have symptoms within five days of exposure and can also be a carrier for up to 14 days, even if they’re asymptomatic. This is why quarantine periods are generally 14 days long.

According to recent guidance from consultancy Deloitte, the most important players in your communications plan are front-line managers. Employees expect accurate, authoritative and transparent information. “Trying to conceal risk can potentially create more,” the report stated. Leaders should outline communication plans and make sure that managers know what to expect and understand and define their role.

Further, companies need to prepare plans for site disruption and reactivation. “In the event an entity has to close its doors for non-critical workers for a period, determine a communications plan about how you’ll communicate with all workers, including contractors and vendor partners,” according to the Deloitte guidance. “Have a clear playbook for how to initiate a closure and how to reroute operations and employees to other locations within your network. Moreover, finalize a checklist to determine when employees can return to work once the all clear is given.”

Employees are bound to talk about the coronavirus outbreak on social media, and there are certain steps a business can take to temper this, according to Deloitte. One solution is to provide employees an internal communications channel through which they can express their issues about what they’re seeing within the organization. It’s a smart business move to “ensure direct communication as much as possible as an alternative to social media,” the report stated.

For Workforce.com users there are features on our platform available to keep communication lines open during this difficult time. Chat with your staff, schedule according to operational changes, manage leave, clock in and out remotely, and communicate changes through custom events, among other things.

COVID-19 is rapidly changing how businesses operate. We recognize that organizations need an extra helping hand right now. So we’re offering our platform for free to new sign-ups over the coming months. Sign up today and our Workforce Success team will gladly provide a personal, online walkthrough of our platform to help you get started.

May 3, 2019October 18, 2024

Poor Internal Communication Can Be a Costly Mistake for Businesses

Poor internal communication can have some seriously negative impacts on a company — poor morale, high employee turnover and lower employee productivity, to name a few. Worse yet, these can lead to a lasting effect on a company’s bottom line.

Statistics show that plenty of businesses could stand to improve in this area. According to a 2018 Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. study, 60 percent of companies don’t have a long-term internal communication strategy, though about half said they wanted to make improving leadership communication a top priority.

Also read: How to use technology in your internal communications strategy

Additionally, replacing a worker can cost a company 33 percent of that worker’s annual salary. And lower morale leads to actively disengaged employees, which results in reduced productivity. Productivity loss costs the U.S. a whopping $550 billion each year, according to a Gallup report. Turnover and lower morale can also make it more difficult for a company to attract the talent it needs to move forward.

These problems should give businesses powerful incentive to improve communication with employees.

Three Internal Communication Problems to Avoid

Here are some of the most common communication problems companies face and how to avoid them:

Using outdated communication methods. With many companies going paperless, email has become the primary form of communication because it’s quick and efficient. However, it can also be a source of decreased productivity, as employee inboxes can quickly get cluttered with frivolous emails that hide important messages. The constant influx of new messages can also be a distraction from completing important tasks.

Companies can try focusing on mobile-driven communication instead. Company apps such as G Suite, Asana and Slack offer a new way to communicate and engage employees via their smartphones or tablets. This is especially ideal as the workforce demographics are changing to include nontraditional employees like remote workers, contract-based workers and freelancers.

An employee app provides workers with easy access to corporate information and workplace tools while cutting out the clutter of irrelevant messages and keeping all employees on the same page. Many employees also prefer the use of apps over email. For example, our clients and even some vendors prefer communicating via Slack channels rather than email to touch base quickly and share relevant documents.

Not having an internal communication strategy. Many times, companies place their focus on putting a solid strategy in place for external communications with their customers, but developing an internal communication strategy is just as important. In fact, poor internal communication, along with poor coaching of frontline workers, can result in poor communication with customers. This limits a company’s ability to build a sense of loyalty among customers. Here are some tips to help you start building an internal communication strategy that works:

Assess your current internal communication and where you want to be. What has worked successfully and what hasn’t?
Identify and track key metrics. What data points matter to you? Is it how many people access your intranet, social media shares and comments from your staff, or customer service issues? Identifying and setting goals that align with your business objectives will be important.
Identify and segment your internal audience. Not all communication needs to go to everyone.
Identify your communication tools. This can include email, face-to-face meetings, social media, an intranet, company apps and more. Pick the channel that works best for the audience and the type of message you are communicating.

A lack of feedback. A lack of feedback can cause employees to feel like their voices aren’t being heard and can have a significant impact on employee turnover. HR professionals and managers often communicate with employees about policies and procedures without taking the time to listen to them. If you want to implement a comprehensive communication strategy, it should include two-way communication.

Not only does listening to employee issues and concerns improve productivity and build loyalty, but it’s also an opportunity to learn about issues or concerns before they escalate into a formal complaint.

Start a feedback loop process through authentic and consistent communication between managers and employees. Providing feedback benefits a company by increasing engagement and helping to move the company forward. Up to 80 percent of an organization’s opportunity for improvement comes from frontline employees.

Now that you understand what’s at stake when a company has poor internal communication, you can begin taking the necessary steps to avoid these pitfalls. If you don’t take the time to develop a solid strategy, you’re putting your company at risk of losing touch with employees in addition to losing money.