Agility and communication in times of unprecedented uncertainty

Over the last week or so the potential scale of the coronavirus outbreak has unfolded before us like a slow motion car crash springing up to full speed.

This is undoubtedly the most turbulent happening many of us have seen in our lifetime and its impact will likely be felt for years to come, both economically and socially.

With the latest Government advice urging people to stay at home, businesses are having to adapt both to manage their workforce and serve their customers. And they are having to do so incredibly quickly.

We’re seeing early signs of this globally as restaurants pivot to provide takeaway delivery services, luxury perfume brands adapt their production facilities to manufacture hand sanitiser and fitness classes switch to online. There has also been a huge increase in working from home.

Studies have found that it takes around 12 weeks to turn a new behaviour into a habit and so, with a Public Health England report estimating that the pandemic could last until Spring 2021, it’s looking increasingly likely that we’re going to see permanent changes to our way of life - even once the outbreak is behind us.

So how should businesses be reacting to this rapid turn of events? Well there is no doubt that good communication is key.

Over the last few days the Government has faced mounting and fierce criticism that vital public health information was only being made available through private briefings to select political journalists and in news outlets that put their content behind a paywall.

These misjudgements only served to increase people’s distrust of politicians, which the Edelman Trust Barometer recently showed was already a huge issue.

As a result, the Government’s new communications strategy is centred around consistent spokespeople, daily briefings and direct communication with the public - all things that the Twittersphere had been calling for for several days. These steps also provide a solid basis for businesses looking at how to communicate effectively during this upheaval.

Having studied Crisis Communications and helped manage the function in leading national organisations, I have identified a few key steps that organisations can follow in order to reassure their employees, customers, stakeholders and shareholders that they are taking appropriate action. These are:

Assemble a response team

Bringing together a senior internal team that represents all of the organisation’s key stakeholders is the first step to identifying the potential impact on your business. This may include Directors of operations, HR, customer service and marketing. Appointing a line of command and ensuring that a senior communications leader has a central role in this group gives it the best chance of being successful.

Gather the facts

There is an enormous amount of speculation about the current outbreak. In this situation it is important to identify the difference between speculation and facts. Following official guidance such as that provided by Public Health England is the best way to ensure your staff, customers and other stakeholders are kept safe and that that your decisions are based on the best available evidence.

Identify stakeholders

Many organisations will already have a stakeholder map. If you don’t, now is a good time to create one. By identifying all of your stakeholders - customers, employees, suppliers, partners, shareholders - and drilling down further to identify at risk groups like the elderly or people with an underlying health condition, you can make decisions with more of an understanding of how they will affect certain groups. This is particularly important in the case of coronavirus.

Make a plan

‘Fail to prepare, prepare to fail,’ so the old saying goes. Once you have gathered the facts and identified your stakeholders, you need to create a plan of action. You should start with the immediate priority issues - who is at risk right now? What do we have happening in the next day or so that needs to change? - and then start looking further ahead at how to adapt your business.

In the case of coronavirus, immediate steps might include cleanliness of work areas, social distancing measures and implementing IT changes to allow staff to work from home, before moving on to analysing potential alternative ways of delivering your service e.g. online. No plan survives a crisis without changing though, so it is important to continue to monitor and adapt as needed.

Communicate regularly and openly

Where there is a vacuum of information there will be speculation and no one likes hearing about things second-hand. Business leaders have a duty to their employees, customers and other stakeholders to offer regular, direct, honest and decisive communication in times of crisis so that people feel as informed as possible.

As we potentially slip into a more virtual way of working with increased social distancing, it will be down to leaders to take steps to maintain a positive company culture. This will be no easy task. Revisiting the company's mission and values to establish (and communicate) how it will continue to deliver on this in the current circumstances will be an important foundation. 

Those companies that can be agile, adapting their service so that they still fulfil their company purpose, while at the same time finding ways of engaging and motivating their employees at a distance, will be the ones most likely to survive all of this. 

As a specialist health PR agency on a mission to help brands to improve the health of the public through the power of communications and positive action, we’re happy to offer support as needed during this difficult time. We hope you find the advice in this article useful and wish you the best of luck as you navigate this challenging period.