Internal Communication during the coronavirus pandemic

Your employees need to know why they are still required to come to work.

Here is my opinion.
The pandemic is here and your employees don’t want to come to work anymore. You can’t blame them. C’mon. Nobody wanna die. Our capitalistic system isn’t anywhere near being ready for this pandemic. It is now economy vs human lives dilemma. Here is what I think businesses should do — COMMUNICATE. Your staffs deserve to know why they are still required to come to work during this pandemic. And your answer better not be “For the company’s profit”. So here are the steps I suggest you take.

1. Make a decision quick!

The longer you wait, the more people are at risk. So make a decision — Am I going to allow staffs to work from home or not? If you are going to ask them to keep coming to work, you should have a good reason. And again, it better not be “For the company’s profit”.

2. Let your people know the reason

They deserve to know why they are still required to come to work. Maybe it is because your business is in food and beverages industry and plays an important role in the economy and wouldn’t function perfectly if your workers work from home resulting in hungry families. That sentence was too long. But you get my point. Let your people know a reason. Maybe they might even say it proudly others if you had a good reason. “Mom.. I have to go to work because many families would starve if our company stopped working”.

3. Ask them

We have different reasons to be scared of the pandemic. For me, I smoke a pack of cigarette a day! If I get coronavirus, my lung would stop working immediately. And YES! I am scared of death. But there are other people with other reasons. Someone who lives with elders and worried that their grandma would get infected because of them. There are even some families who pressure their sons and daughters not to go to work anymore. So, ask them and hear them out.
And some people are afraid of losing jobs. Because of that, some might even want to come to job even if they are ordered to work remotely. So listen to them. Ask for votes or whatever.

4. AND SHOW GENUINE CARE!

Your hand sanitizer bottles are not gonna matter if your people think you don’t really care about them but only profit.

5. Take safety measures and prepare for emergency

Plan ferries for transportation. Gives out masks. Have enough hand sanitizer ready for everyone. Have a clean up crew ready. What would you do if someone from your work was found as coronavirus positive? I am sure no company ever wanna get blamed for people’s lives.

So yeah. That’s it and as my first step says “Make a decision quick!”.