How The Pandemic Changed The Concept Of Corporate Communication Forever

The Covid-19 pandemic has touched almost every part of our lives, be it our families, our livelihoods or our communities.

In the corporate world, the changes were immense. Workplaces were closed as workforces were either forced to adapt to homeworking or faced uncertain periods as the furlough scheme saw millions lose their working day.

Such unprecedented events have had a lasting legacy, especially in the UK, where emerging from the grip of the virus has been a slow process.

As our personal lives begin to return to a semblance of the old normality, the workplace for many is a place that may never be the same – especially when it comes to communication.

What state was comms in before?

Face-to-face meetings, conference calls and email dominated the landscape of comms before times of lockdown and working from home made the first of those effectively impossible.

With travel expenses down, it remains to be seen how the future of in-person comms will change in the months and years to come, while the conference call could also be irreparably changed by events of the past year or more.

As video conferencing technology became a must, tech companies responded with swift advancements in quality and call strength – which had previously made the technology difficult to use in corporate situations.

Now, however, entire conferences and indeed workforces have moved online utilising apps such as Teams, Skype and Microsoft Teams.

What are the positive changes?

While the impact on physical wellbeing during the pandemic has been obvious, the effects on our mental health have also been thrown into the spotlight – and this has led to big changes in workplaces as well as in our lives away from the office.

Similarly, the mass move to home-working might not be sustained to the same extent once offices across the board are allowed to open, but employers may have found a new sense of trust in employees to have greater control over their working day, while still delivering great results.

It seems certain that flexible working is here to stay in some form, and communicating this culture change effectively will be one of the biggest challenges at the boardroom level in the months to come.

How to communicate better in your organisation

Our lives may never return to the same ways that we knew pre-pandemic, and your approach to communications in the future must reflect that at all times.

• Keep lines open: A flexible future of our workplaces could make for a disconnected workforce, with some employees reachable face-to-face and others still reliant on technology to communicate. Ensuring that the sense of ‘team’ is not lost will form a crucial part of your future strategy.
• Maintain the personal touch: The worst of the pandemic may be over, but that is no reason to stop approaching your comms with the personal touch. Continuing a focus on the wellbeing of your staff will make them more comfortable in their roles, and can have serious business benefits too.
• Ask the right questions: This does not just apply to the questions you ask your workforce, but also what you ask yourself. Is this comms strategy properly targeted to future benefits? Have employees been given a chance to shape this in a way that will help them feel settled at work?

These questions and more will become crucial guiding pillars of your comms strategy as we move into yet another ‘new normal’ in the months to come.