Workforce Communications Being Tested During This Pandemic - Workology

Workforce Communications Being Tested During This Pandemic - Workology Changing Workplace Communications During Pandemics Changing Workplace Communications During Pandemics With much of corporate America working from home, HR executives and business leaders have had to change the way they communicate with their workforces. Gone are the days of company-wide meetings and blast emails. Nowadays it’s all about texting, ‘Zooming’ in order to keep employees up to date. According to employee advocacy company FirmPlay, those messages are now being dominated by COVID related items. They posted on their blog that Coronavirus communications “accounted for over 50% of all comms in late March”.   That messaging is dominated by three main themes, related to operations, customer support information and advice on staying safe. But there’s also the news of furloughs, pay cuts and layoffs, all which are taxing the mental health of workers no matter where they sit. And sometimes these messages are coming in ways we never would expect. For example, employees of Dig a popular restaurant chain based in New York City first alerted its workers of an impending layoff via text message.   That didn’t sit too well with workers. Most HR folks I asked about it also grimaced at the idea. As one person said to me, “OMG, no! The whole world may be experiencing this disaster together and lay offs certainly aren’t a surprise right now. But that doesn’t change the emotional impact people will feel when they get laid off.” Sending text messages to workers should best be left for things like quick reminders and short person to person communications. In other layoff comms news, when Ziprecruiter laid off hundreds of workers last month the CEO of the company announced the news via a live Zoom video meeting. In it, he stated how much he hated having to share the news via video but with their offices closed he had no other choice.   He told his team “I need to give you guys an update on the business and I need to give you a candid update”, he told his team. “Fundamentally COVID came out of nowhere and all of our financial modeling never built a scenario where the economy effectively would come to a full stop”. He went on to describe just how bad the numbers were, saying that if they didn’t reduce costs immediately the business would fail within the year.   Not exactly the kind of news you want to deliver via video but in this case it was the next best option. Zip’s CEO lamented this fact saying “doing this remotely via video is painful, you did nothing wrong and I wish I could shake your hand to thank you for your time and service at Ziprecruiter.” His words offer a lesson others can learn from. In times like this, expediency and honesty should be a primary focus for executives. Another CEO in the HR technology space also had to layoff folks. Part of that news came in the form of a blog post by Daniel Chait, CEO of Greenhouse. In a post entitled ‘Weathering the Storm’ he also laid bare the sad facts and also apologized to workers that it wasn’t their fault. “My heart truly goes out to all of those people who we had to lay off. This was not caused by them. The virus, and resulting economic effects, are what made this necessary. And as CEO, I am ultimately responsible for this decision. The company has done what it needed to do in order to weather the storm, and though it hurts us to see them leave, the people who were laid off â€" and their families â€" suffer more. My thoughts are with them at this moment.” ~Glassdoor CEO I think the examples above offer a glimpse into how or how not to deliver bad news during a crisis. Workforce communications should be done with a personal touch from the top of the organization. Be transparent and empathetic. Your employees are watching.   Times like this call for a more strategic approach to what you say and how that message is delivered to workers. Make sure the message fits the channel you are sending it with. In short, think before you send.