PRESS RELEASE: Communication in lockdown: motivate loyalty
The influx of COVID-19 cases in Victoria, now also rising steadily in NSW, indicates major parts of Australia might be heading for a second lockdown.
Preparation is key.
The majority of businesses headed clumsily into the first lockdown, unsure of what to expect and with few working from home strategies in place. Having been through it once, business blunders are no longer an option – particularly when it comes to internal communication. Poor communication with stakeholders, in regard to both what you are saying and how you are saying it, will impede dramatically on business. Once during the first lockdown is a mistake, but twice indicates incompetence and employees will quickly lose confidence in your brand and its leadership.
Producing regular content for stakeholders can quickly become a struggle for businesses, particularly when it focuses around working from home. While you may feel at a loss there are plenty of areas for discussion that will help employees and the business.
What we are working on with our larger corporate clients is an internal communications schedule that looks a lot like what we would plan for external engagement. Think a mixture of varied content such as important information coming from Government, key corporate messages and branded content, behind the scenes/community posts, wellness reminders and client wins.
Pay attention to how you are delivering these messages as well. Email, Teams, Slack, Zoom and short video all have their role to play.
Find themes that appeal – example wellness
Wellness at home will continue to develop as an important theme. Ensuring employees maintain their physical and wellbeing remains an expectation of employers, even if not technically in the office. Having direct and genuine conversations with staff of this regard is essential and provides an opportunity to show employees that you care.
Rob Lyon, Corporate Wellness expert and founder of Lyon Health, said there are plenty of ways to encourage employees to keep healthy and motivated from home. He notes examples including encouraging employees to partake in light exercise in the morning, journaling, or something as simple as eating a healthy breakfast.
He said: “Encourage staff to break up the day with bouts of movement – it could be as simple as a lunchtime walk, some mobility or stretching exercises or even a short burst of higher intensity bodyweight exercises. Your employees will notice an increase in energy levels and task focus afterwards.”
This message can be delivered in a bite sized chunk on a Monday as a ‘Monday motivation’ post or a ‘hump day jump day’. Think a quick video from the CEO, or an expert like Rob himself delivered via text at 9am, followed up by a post on social media – as let’s not forget, your external social channels are subscribed to by your internal stakeholders as well.
Need more convincing? Rob Lyon also went on to say:
“It’s also vital to check in on the mental health of employees. Issues like stress, anxiety and burnout can go quietly undetected, especially in a WFH environment. Help your staff find the right rhythm at home, find out what’s not working for them and put strategies in place to mitigate these issues.”
Two birds, one stone and a creative way to engage and build loyalty with your internal audience.
Family worklife
Particularly for parents with kids at home, working from home can be incredibly difficult. It’s important they do not feel undue stress or lacking empathy from management in this regard, it isn’t an ideal situation for anyone. Use it as an opportunity to humanise the brand and its leadership, and create stronger relationships between staff.
Communicating on this topic could surround tips on creating flexible working arrangements when at home – which could be contributed to by all staff, not just management – or weekly ‘WFH fails’ with images taken by staff of their kids up to no good. Putting a light-hearted spin to something commonly regarded as stressful will help to create a comfortable, family-oriented and positive workplace. This will be reflected not just in staff attitude, but also within their work.
Remember to acknowledge those who are struggling with family in the WFH environment. A simple ‘you are doing a good job’ can make a day.
Overload communication – to an extent
At POPCOM we are always telling clients to over communicate. Business changes, expectations and the brand’s core values should be continuously communicated so staff are left with absolute clarity and understanding.
Having said this, other forms of communication – particularly surrounding purposeless emails, work deadlines and reminders – should be limited. Over-communication in these instances will have the opposite effect, overwhelming employees and creating unnecessary stress. Creating content around this to educate staff and management will help ensure this does not occur.
Work on making your messages short but frequent and utilise all channels: “Hi guys, a quick update on the lockdown restrictions – all indicators are that we will be continuing to work from home and maintaining distance, but the Prime Minister will be making a live announcement tomorrow. See the intranet for more details” is sufficient and drives traffic back to the intranet (which is having a rebirth in our COVID world).
Often the message in an email will have greater effect as an instant message on Teams. Use video, images, short posts and phone calls – not just Zoom and email.
There are dozens of examples I can give about what to say and how to say it, depending on the size of your organisation and what your values are and the vision for culture. Each organisation is unique but the successful ones all have one thing in common; community. Enrich yours by engaging in it.
For more communications advice and techniques visit www.popcom.com.au or reach out directly to POPCOM Director Amanda Lacey on [email protected]. Amanda has over a decade of experience in internal communications and external relations and works with organisations across all industries.
