Business Communication in This New Age
5th October 2020
As Ireland gets to grips with the latest developments in the government’s five-level plan, Springboard PR & Marketing Managing Director, Susie Horgan discusses how organisations should communicate with their stakeholders — whether they are internal or external — during the ever-changing and fast-moving climate we currently live in.
LIVING WITH COVID — BUSINESS COMMUNICATION IN THIS NEW AGE
Words: Susie Horgan
The plan for living with Covid-19 outlines the government’s approach to the ongoing pandemic. For many businesses these are challenging times. Yet,
now more than ever, it is so important that your organisation’s internal and external communications are clear, honest and unambiguous.
This is a fast-moving situation. Therefore, every business should have some level of an external and internal communications plan in place for each of the various levels of the government’s plan for living with Covid-19.
Before getting into tactics, I advise that you outline a strategy for your communications. There are three key steps that you must take when developing a success strategy.
Step one is stakeholder mapping — identifying who are the key stakeholders for your business or organisation.
The second step is about ensuring your goals are in line with your business objectives. These communications goals must be SMART – Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-based.
The third step is identifying your business’s key messages. These must be trustworthy, believable and always backed up by evidence. This will ensure that your stakeholders can trust and believe everything they hear from you.
Once you have established your communications strategy, you will then need to start creating an internal and an external communications plan.
The current crisis has pushed a huge number of organisations to act and make the change to a more digital focus. The key to digital success is to create content on the right platform for your target audience. Getting a pulse for what your audience wants online, and creating content that they are looking for, is invaluable for every business. To create this content, you can’t be afraid to ask questions, run polls and be direct.
When it comes to internal communications, once again there has been a huge shift to digital. Even when we do get back to the office, it will more than likely be a blended approach. Therefore, we must continue to adapt to new ways of communicating at work using digital tools and online resources in order to facilitate remote working.
We recommend that every business has outlined a clear path that will help them navigate their way through the changes that are, or will, arise over the coming months.
Remember to continue to provide your team with important information to navigate this period. It is vital that your organisation remains the source of truth for your employees.
Your business’s internal communications channels should be a reliable and trustworthy source of information. Your internal communications should also keep your team up to date on external developments and what they may mean for them and the business.
You can download Springboard PR & Marketing’s free e-book Effective Communications for your Business in a Covid-19 World at bit.ly/SpringCommsEbook.
