At a point when more of us than ever are working remotely, now’s the time to invest in your internal comms – enabling managers to communicate effectively with their teams, earning the trust and loyalty of your employees, and boosting morale and productivity.
Here are some of our recommendations to help you communicate in uncertain times.
Stay in touch
It’s natural for your teams to be experiencing some anxiety as they deal with so much change in such a short space of time. Employers play an important role in helping their teams deal with stress and feelings of isolation.
Daily check-ins are a great way to stay connected. This is beneficial for establishing key work priorities, making sure everyone is feeling as good as they can and replicating the day-to-day conversations that would have taken place around the office.
Use technologies like Zoom and Microsoft Teams to connect with people. Equip your teams with these tools, support your managers to develop their capabilities, and encourage everyone to make the most of the opportunities they provide for communication and collaboration.
Share as much as you can
Businesses across the country are having to make critical decisions to stay afloat. Trust your employees with an appropriate level of information and keep them in the loop as much as you can with how the business is likely to be affected.
Remember to keep your comms simple and accessible and give practical information about the wider implications of any changes, and what they might mean for your employees as individuals.
Give people someone to look up to
At times like this, leaders must be more visible than ever. Your employees will look to senior leaders to provide a sense of stability and security.
Providing regular updates on business performance and any new measures or initiatives being rolled out across the business is vital – set up virtual town halls, CEO Q&As, or SLT drop-in sessions to give employees the opportunity to engage in a dialogue and ask questions.
Leaders should also signpost how employees can get support for anything they’re concerned about, whether personal or professional.
It’s worth giving some thought to how you maintain and improve your internal comms approach as the crisis continues to develop, and what your ‘business as usual’ internal comms might look like once it finally passes. We’ll share more on this in a future post!
If there’s anything we can do to help you communicate with your employees in this difficult time, please get in touch with Emma, our Director of Internal Co