"navigating Covid-19: How Travel Insurance Responds To Pandemic Situations In Australia"

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Asia-Pacific Communications Chiefs Navigating Covid-19 Challenges and Priorities A special APACD webinar on Covid-19 found that the region's internal communications leaders are focusing on employee engagement and customer gains/disruption, while addressing the prospect of systemic change.

"navigating Covid-19: How Travel Insurance Responds To Pandemic Situations In Australia"

It is no exaggeration to say that the Covid-19 crisis has caught almost every organisation, from government bodies to the world's largest corporations, seriously off guard. At the same time, it offers a valuable learning experience and is an opportunity for communication functions to emerge stronger and better prepared to deal with future problems.

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To understand the issues in more detail, the Asia-Pacific Association of Communications Directors (APACD) held a webinar last week attended by 140 in-house executives from across the region. The session was supplemented by attendee surveys conducted through the SparkUp audience interaction platform. Pre-event findings from this research found that 54% of communications leaders were “somewhat prepared” for the crisis; 17% claimed to be "very prepared", while 24% were "neither prepared nor prepared"; 5% admitted they were not prepared at all.

In a webinar to discuss these and other findings, Adrian Warr, Edelman's chief executive for Hong Kong and Taiwan, noted that the "truly global" nature of Covid-19 makes it particularly challenging. "Very few crises are truly global," he said. "It's completely cross-category and affects everyone in every industry but it's also unique in that it's a rare crisis that has very high intensity and impact but also longevity."

With the virus far from being under control, Warr expects the coming months to throw organizations into "new territory" in the longer term in engaging with employees, communities and consumers. “All those things are changing massively and I don't think we're ready for that. I have yet to come across any businesses that have said they are comfortable with those much bigger changes.”

Even in mainland China, the gravity of the situation hit people late in the day, said Lydia Lee, Weber Shandwick's country president. In the scramble to catch up, she says the most important response has been listening — to employees and to the market, and using that to model and prepare for a wide range of possible scenarios.

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Rachel Catanach, senior partner and president of Greater China at Fleishman Hillard, thinks that once the situation eventually passes, people will wonder why organizations weren't better prepared to deal with a global pandemic. "Why wasn't more done to prepare for a scenario that seems obvious that it is likely to happen at some point," he said. "It goes back to the old saying: we all have to prepare for the absolute worst as communications experts... As a profession we need to be thinking about the worst case scenario all the time and preparing for for that."

For Warr, a sense of realism is still lacking. He has not spoken to a client who has simulated an emergency response with staff under remote working conditions. He does not believe that businesses are ready to deal with cyber security threats under these fragmented working conditions either. "It is not just the Covid-19 crisis that is going to damage businesses," he warned. "All the other crises that are happening while Covid-19 is happening."

Mixed priorities The survey supported a general sense in the industry that employees are still the top priority when it comes to communicating with stakeholders: 49% said they were, with customers next at 39%. Lee said it reflected a broader emphasis on employee engagement. But Catanach noted that it's also easier to focus on employees “because that's what you can control. They are a target audience that is easily within your grasp”.

At the same time, remote working can "undermine our efforts to foster a culture of collaboration," Warr said. Relying on written communications, especially through messaging platforms, can make it difficult to read emotional tone. “Our ability to express ourselves is minimized. Furthermore, silos and subgroups can form more easily in the various online tools we use, and it is easier to raise barriers. All this, if not managed, can create ambiguity, friction and conflict."

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Warr added that conflicts also tend to go unresolved. "These challenges have to be brought out into the open and dealt with so that teams can continue to work together. Team charters with new principles and processes can help.”

"They are wondering, how do they really support the community, how do they show beyond their traditional CSR efforts that they are trusted ... how do they also start marketing to them customers and not make mistakes like some brands have done by mistaking the tonality that might have been appropriate at other times but it's not now."

Indeed, revenue and customer disruption is seen as the biggest communication challenge (42%), followed by workplace disruption (17%) and staff physical and mental health (15%). Warr sees this as a longer-term concern: the crisis has heightened the current anxiety in the business world, particularly in politically troubled Hong Kong, and communications people are likely to be "on the cutting edge of the spear”.

"They have to deal with the communication plan, the marketing plan, to explain to the world how the business could be downsizing or operating in a different way," he said. "So I think that earnings and disruption to customers is a very natural effect of the current situation, which is fear for the future."

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Lee said the only way to deal with customer and earnings disruptions is to be transparent while paying attention to the realities of the situation in individual markets and managing expectations accordingly. But while China may appear to be returning to business as usual, Warr urged caution. “A lot of people assume it's back to business as usual and I don't think it will be. I think you are going to go back to business as something very unusual. I think consumer buying patterns, consumer habits, mindsets, supply chains, everything is going to be very different. The 'return to normal' I don't think necessarily exists."

Moving goalposts Taking into account the multiple challenges that clearly exist, the finding that 73% feel they are meeting the expectations of key stakeholders may come as a surprise. But what exactly are those expectations?

Most respondents think that timeliness is the most important factor for effective communication, followed by being prepared for the unexpected, and global alignment of corporate messages. If one defines expectations “in terms of process and immediacy of your response, i.e. the effort you put in, then I think most people meet expectations,” said Catanach. But she thinks that expectations will change, and that the various stakeholders will look back at what has been done with a critical eye.

"For communication professionals it is a real time to be on the front line and to show the value but also the long-term strategic thinking that we can deliver," he said, adding that the situation calls for more perspective, ability to perceive valuable information, and guidance for leadership than ever before.

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Warr believes that global alignment and carefully considered corporate messaging will become more important than speed of response. "Providing context is absolutely huge in terms of redefining how you're going to talk about your brands to consumers or to business audiences," he said.

That doesn't mean flooding inboxes with corporate coronavirus-related emails. It would do well for companies to think twice if what they have to say is really meaningful, Catanach pointed out. "Too much information is not beneficial to the situation... I would advise to be careful with your communication and have a unique perspective to offer that is really relevant to the moment."

Media relations is currently a low priority, which Catanach attributes to the fact that Covid-19 is already dominating news coverage. She thinks this will change as the media in markets where the situation is showing signs of increasing interest in topics beyond the immediate crisis. Warr referred to a study by his company which noted that public trust in media information on the situation is low compared to employers.

Catanach said she expects a new set of influencers to rise up, especially medical experts. They will probably be the best predictors of the market moving forward and will therefore have a better role in our communication", he said.

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The crisis could help make the communication function better respected within companies. Lee laments that communication is often still an afterthought, except when there is an emergency. With the operations of many businesses on hold, “all you can do is communicate. So communication has definitely taken on a much more central role”.

Still, there is a chance that budgets could be cut due to the impact of the virus on business, noted Azmar Sukandar, president of APACD and head of Asia-Pacific communications and society at Diageo. "So to be honest, we're planning furiously and trying to spend the money now because we really think it's going to happen."

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