Tech layoffs, bank failures – What’s next? Lessons for communications in uncertain times

With every day bringing more headlines of disruptions in major industries, corporate leaders of any organisation should be considering the potential impact of these disturbances.

Communications executives are uniquely positioned to take a leading role in helping their organisations plan for, and respond to, these shocks. Here are a few things to keep in mind:

Take your seat at the table

Communications leaders should recognise this opportunity to add value to their organisation in this environment. With their unique perspective into stakeholders’ perceptions of their organisation – be they employees, customers, community partners, investors, or others – they should be willing to share these insights with their fellow leaders to anticipate how these groups will be affected by any of these disruptions.

Communications executives will also be able to develop a coherent, consistent narrative across these different stakeholder groups and equip executives to tailor their messages for their specific audiences. Finally, communications leaders should take the lead on managing ongoing listening to spot potential crises before they “blow up” and provide real-time feedback for their fellow executives.

Of course, these major crises can also impact the way that communications leaders manage their own team. The most glaring potential consequence is the loss of resources available to them, from budget cuts to layoffs on their team.

Cost optimisation is something that leaders always need to consider, not only in a crisis. That way, they can budget smartly, without resorting to layoffs. 

Managing external communications: Consider reputation and risk

In the early days of the most recent bank crisis, especially with regional banks, it was really about moving quickly and signalling stability given how uncertain everything felt.

This kind of communication is best conducted via owned channels both for speed and to serve as a central source of truth. Narratives across earned media predicting a potential ripple effect reinforced the need for swift and transparent external communications from bank’s owned channels.

In the shaky times that have followed, transparency and messaging around stability are still important. Communications leaders should continue to monitor audience sentiment and behaviours–through social media, call centre data and other relevant sources–and respond accordingly on the appropriate channel.

From a proactive perspective, any external communications initiatives or brand campaigns should be reevaluated based on overall industry sentiment and conversation themes. Any proactive communications that may come off as tone-deaf to the current environment should be adjusted or paused in order to protect the organisation’s long-term reputation and ensure they’re signalling what’s intended.

Help your employees navigate uncertainty

Long before the current crises popped up in the news, employees were already reporting record levels of change fatigue, with workers experiencing an average of 39 work-related changes per year. Faced with this onslaught of disruption, communicators need to avoid the temptation of thinking that more is always better when it comes to sharing messages with employees; our recent research into information overload highlights the dangers of this approach.

Rather, leaders should not only share information in enterprise-wide communications to keep all employees aware of relevant news, but also include how certain organisational decisions have been made, or at least the inputs into what will go into decisions that might be in the process of being made.

That way, employees will be more likely to understand the “why” behind organisational strategy, potentially negating the need for constant information sharing about specific details.

Communications leaders should also recognise that not all employees will be equally anxious, or affected, by certain changes. To that end, they should be identifying segments of the workforce to potentially turn up the engagement for them without sending more “push” communications to the entire employee population.

They should also rely on their sources of employee listening to help senior executives address any potential rumours or clarify misassumptions of employees.

Most of us cannot forecast systemic banking failures any more than we can predict a global pandemic or natural disaster.

What communications leaders can do is recognise their unique value in preparing their organisations to respond to these changes and rely on their expertise to hold a steady hand in managing their corporate reputation, helping their employees navigate the environment, and keeping their own team engaged as effectively as possible.

This article was republished with permission from the Gartner Blog Network.