By Stuart R. Levine

Published In, Forbes

The Covid-19 pandemic appears to be with us for the foreseeable future, creating a fog of uncertainty for much of the workforce. People have worries about their personal and family health and safety, their children’s education and care, their parent’s well-being, and a lot more. At the same time, work-related issues abound including how to return safely to the workplace, job security, difficulties with off-site work including missing human interactions and apprehensions about the company’s very survival. Such concerns create significant anxiety and can result in negative health effects. Yet, people are resilient and can learn to cope, especially when leadership’s effective management of a difficult situation serves to reduce work-related stress. More broadly, leadership’s actions impact the level of faith your employees and other stakeholders have in your organization and the ability of employees to continue to achieve strategic results.

Managing any crisis demands great leadership. However, survey data indicate that leaders must do better. Gallup research, conducted at the start of the Covid-19 lock-down in March showed that only 38% of U.S. employees were confident their organization’s leadership could “successfully manage emerging challenges.” Plus, employees were apprehensive about Covid’s bearing on their jobs, with about 75% of employees fearing their companies would be negatively affected. Now, after dealing with the pandemic for most of the year, many organizations are still facing a deficit in confidence. Edelman, a leading communications firm, recently reported in its Trust Barometer, that only 49% of employees globally and 46% in the U.S. believe their businesses are doing well or very well in implementing safety measures to protect employees and customers. And, only 29% feel that CEOs are doing an outstanding job in meeting pandemic-related demands.

Against the backdrop of this crisis, more than ever, employees need accurate honest guidance and direction from their leaders. Robust planning that builds organizational confidence is critical, and just as critical is excellent communication of those plans in order to allay fears and build trust. The need to be proactive is paramount. Never allow employees to come to you first with concerns about a crisis. Failing to keep workers well-informed during uncertain times comes at a very high cost in terms of organizational trust. Leaders must be out in front in any crisis, anticipating and planning for whatever might unfold in these novel and strenuous times.

Communicating quickly, often, and effectively with your employees creates an informed workforce that is more resilient in the face of uncertainty. Many companies feel they must focus their communication outward during a crisis, attending to customers and suppliers. However, keeping your workforce up-to-date is equally if not more important. Not only will great communication build employee certainty and trust, but all employees are spokespeople for your brand, whether they are customer-facing or interfacing with suppliers or other stakeholders. In any crisis, leadership must arm all employees with information they need to confidently and accurately communicate and share information both internally and externally.

The CEO and C-suite members, in coordination with human resources and others on your crisis management team, must develop the substance of your messaging through a clear integrated communication strategy, with employee safety as its core priority. The accurate, consistent, and timely communications disseminated must be delivered by the best means available under the circumstances. An effective delivery system should assure communications reach employees quickly with the accurate information they need. Face-to-face meetings, an ideal approach, are generally impossible now. However, videoconferencing, video/audio messaging, email, social media, the company’s intranet, and even texts from the CEO and other senior leaders are filling the void.

Especially in periods of uncertainty, leadership must Communicate Up and Down, Inside and Out.  This Fundamental #2 from our book, The Six Fundamentals of Success, published in 2004, is as relevant today as it was almost 20 years ago. Timing is of the essence. While speed is important, distributing accurate verified information is more important. Communicate what you do know, but also be clear on what you don’t know. If your organization is in the process of developing a strategy to determine its next steps in the crisis, but is not ready to roll it out yet, let people know that the work is in progress and you will follow up as soon as possible. Avoid an information vacuum. When organizational information is unavailable, viral rumors or complaints can spread more quickly than actual viruses.

Make your communications available to everyone at the same time to keep consistency of the message throughout the organization. Different internal audiences may need different types of information, depending on how the situation affects them and their work. Even so, employers should keep messages consistent, so it is unlikely that employees will have differing understandings of the organizational response to the situation. This way everyone knows they are being treated equally.

HR, which is on the front lines of the daily interface with employees, should be responsible for managing this essential two-way communication during such difficult times. The communication processes should involve a dialogue that lets leaders hear how employees are doing and they can relay their concerns. Employees will tell you about unforeseen outcomes whether positive or negative, lessons learned, and changes that should be made. Again, be proactive. Test the messages on an ongoing basis to make sure that employees are getting the information they need and that they can use it. Find out what is most and least effective and then adjust both the strategy and the messaging around it accordingly. Employee involvement in your communication processes increases employee trust, confidence, and engagement. When employees are heard, it contributes to a strong culture that can better withstand disruption, providing stability when employees encounter new difficult circumstances.

And remember, in any crisis, your employees can be a direct trusted source of information to each other, your customers, other stakeholders, and the community. Supplying them with high-quality, timely, and accurate information gives them what they need to share your messages both internally and externally. People tend to put faith in what your employees are saying, and due to social media, their words can have a broad audience. They are an increasingly important voice for your organization, especially during a crisis when people both require and demand more information. In effect, your employees are your organization’s trusted ambassadors, so treat them with respect and focus on their needs first during this very challenging time.