Implement Employee Crisis Communication to Build a Trusting Culture

How leadership handles today’s difficult situation will determine the level of faith your employees and stakeholders will have in your credit union now and going forward. Effective communication during a crisis in general, and during COVID-19 specifically, is essential to building organizational trust and creating a strong, trusting culture. Leaders must be proactive in crisis communication, anticipating and planning for whatever the organization might encounter as these novel times unfold. Many companies naturally direct their communication focus outward during a crisis, attending to customers and suppliers. Yet, communicating quickly, often and well with your employees is even more important. An informed workforce fosters organizational resilience and strength, and is an essential channel of communication to the outside world. Be proactive. 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.

High-quality communication allays fear and builds both trust and confidence. The CEO and C-suite members must create an integrated organizational communication strategy. Employee safety must become the priority. Senior leadership, human resources team members and others on your crisis management team should create accurate, consistent and timely communications for staff, and determine the best means of delivery. Your COVID-19 planning team is assuredly already in place, and their continuing role and responsibilities could be expanded for additional crisis communication preparedness.

An ideal communication approach – face-to-face meetings – is generally impossible now. Filling the void are videoconferencing, video/audio messaging, email, social media, the company’s intranet, and even texts from the CEO and other senior leaders. All can be effective delivery channels that assure you have a system that quickly reaches employees with the accurate information they need.

Timing is of the essence when communicating during periods of uncertainty. If your credit union is in the process of developing a strategy to define continuing steps in the crisis, but is not ready to roll it out yet, management can let people know that the work is in progress and that they will follow up as soon as possible. Although speed is of the essence, the need for accurate information is more important. Don’t share anything that is not verified. It is best to communicate what you do know, but also be clear on what you don’t know. Avoid an information vacuum. When organizational information is unavailable, viral rumors or complaints can spread more quickly than actual viruses. Well-informed employees are equipped to share internal messaging with others whether inside or outside the organization, thereby creating alignment around your crisis communication.

To maintain a consistent message throughout the organization, it should be available to everyone at the same time. 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 that employees will be unlikely to have differing understandings of the organizational response to the situation, and everyone knows they are equally important.

HR is on the front lines of daily interfaces with employees and should be responsible for managing this essential employee communication. Contact with employees requires a proactive interactive dialogue that lets leaders learn of employee status and concerns. Test the messaging on an ongoing basis to make sure that employees have the information they need and that they know how to use it. Find out from them what messages are most and least effective and then adjust accordingly. Involve employees in your communication strategy and pay attention to feedback on the messaging’s utility and effect. The organization will, in turn, gain an increase in employee trust and engagement both currently and over time.

In any crisis, leadership must arm all employees with information they need to confidently and accurately communicate internally and externally. Many of your employees have subject matter expertise that should be heard. Your employees can provide a direct trusted source of information to each other, your members and the community. Moreover, people tend to put greater faith in what your employees are saying than what comes from official spokespeople. Due to social media, what employees say can reach a broad audience and serve as important voices during a crisis. Your employees are ambassadors for your brand, representing your credit union to both members and the community. These ambassadors require high quality, accurate information to represent you well and create a strong organizational culture.

Stuart R. Levine is Chairman and CEO for Stuart Levine & Associates and EduLeader LLC in Miami Beach, Fla.