STAT OF THE DAY “42 percent of the top 50 Connected Leaders among S&P 500 and FTSE 350 public companies have employed social media to communicate key messages about COVID-19 to their stakeholders, and many more have communicated via corporate and internal channels.” – Brunswick Group Report COVID-19 UPDATE Globally, cases of COVID-19 surpassed 1 million on Thursday. As of Friday morning, The New York Times reported at least 244,000 cases in the U.S. and 6,200 deaths. At the time of reporting, Bing’s COVID-19 Tracker showed 245,974 cases in the U.S. and 6,126 deaths. Anthony Fauci has implored every state to issue stay-at-home orders and puts our response to the crisis into a sports analogy, saying we’re “not even at halftime.” The economy continues to reel from the crisis as unemployment is at 4.4%, the highest rate in over two years. The numbers are just the tip of the iceberg, experts warn, and call this early data “unfathomable.”
Showing empathy for your audience is crucial. Some ways to adjust your internal messaging include adding some levity to messaging, being more concise than ever and employing two-way communication. Here are all the tips to offer comfort to employees.
How you treat employees today will define your organization for years to come. Here are some tips on how you can use your communications to set your company up for success when this is all over and make a robust comeback. HR is an essential part of communicating through the current crisis. Here is a template from Workable to help you create your HR action plan to make sure you address all the important issues employees want to hear about. Remote work programs should emphasize flexibility. There are many hurdles that employees are navigating right now, and communicators can help define these remote work policies and directives to focus on flexibility to help workers meet these challenges. Here’s how HR should talk about expectations. Amazon faces backlash over memo about union organizer. The online retailer is defending statements made internally about a former employee who says he was terminated for trying to organize warehouse workers around concerns about safety and COVID-19. Ars Technica reported: “He’s not smart, or articulate, and to the extent the press wants to focus on us versus him, we will be in a much stronger PR position than simply explaining for the umpteenth time how we’re trying to protect workers,” wrote David Zapolsky, Amazon's general counsel. Zapolsky was summarizing discussions at a daily meeting of senior Amazon executives focused on the coronavirus crisis. Vice reports that Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos attended the meeting. Business leaders can be their own worst enemy during this crisis. Here are some examples of business leadership that won’t be fondly remembered when this crisis is over. Local governments turn to PR agencies for help on COVID-19. Reports show that Los Angeles County has hired two PR firms to help with messaging around the coronavirus. However, some are questioning the use of disaster money on PR firms, showing the need for tact and care when operating on these kinds of accounts. According to a report, 21% of small businesses are cancelling marketing. However, only 11% are offering discounts and sales to consumers, per the report from Freshbooks.
Image courtesy of Freshbooks. Delivering sobering news. When circumstances change around the financial outlook of our organization, it’s important to be transparent and honest with employees. Here’s a look at Disney’s announcement that it’s going to furlough non-employees at parks. “This reality has been sobering to all of us,” executives from Disney Parks, Experiences and Products wrote in a letter to staff Thursday. “As difficult as this decision was, we know it was the right one to help protect our cast members, our guests and our communities.” Readers share pictures of their work-from-home set-ups. See how your colleagues are adjusting to their home offices—and furry coworkers—with this weekly photo essay. Don’t forget to send us your pictures of your new work environment! Virtual Conference Alert Join us for Ragan’s Internal Communications and Culture Virtual Conference April 21-22 to learn how you can connect dispersed workers and unite your organization in the face of unprecedented disruption. Join our Crisis Leadership Board Ragan’s Crisis Leadership Board is the resource you need before, during and post-crisis. As a Board member, you have access to all back issues of this newsletter, we well as research, data, case studies, checklists, tip sheets, articles and other resources, plus a peer to peer discussion board and an all-access pass to the annual Crisis Management Conference. Sponsorship/Advertising Opportunities Contact Hannah Lavelle at HannahL@ragan.com with sponsorship and advertising inquiries. Pitch Us Have a great story to share about crisis communication or your own take on current best practices? Contact Editor Ted Kitterman at TedK@ragan.com. Sign Up Subscribe to Ragan’s Crisis Daily newsletter today! | 