Crisis Communications for the “Next” Normal: Vaccine Protocols for Your Business

We’re just about nine months into the COVID-19 pandemic, and I don’t know about you, but sometimes it feels like nine years! And while we have a long, hard winter ahead of us, we also have a light at the end of the tunnel – the vaccines which are now being distributed around the globe.  

This is great, great news, and it has surely raised my spirits, but it also raises new questions and challenges, particularly for business communications, just as the early days of the pandemic did. 

The demands of communications strategies from March through June were very firmly and very clearly that of crisis communications. The messages developed at that time dealt with everything from virtual offices, business interruptions, supply and demand issues, and of course, overall health and safety concerns. We wrote extensively about these topics and how we supported clients across a host of industries, including senior care, food services, and higher education, in count them, one, two, three blog posts, (and then we pulled it all together in The Only Crisis Communications Guide You’ll Ever Need).

Today’s challenge is slightly different. Let’s call this issues management, with a focus on vaccine protocols and an eventual return to offices and classrooms. The roadmap is equally blurry, as once again, this is a road we’ve never traveled before. 

So what do we mean by vaccine protocols? Generally speaking, we’re referring to the plans that must be in place to ensure a safe and healthy future for your organization. Without a doubt, news of the vaccine has forced you to rethink how your employees can safely return to the office, and/or how your customers can safely return to your place of business. 

We’re already strategizing with clients on this front, and here are some of the questions we’re working through to develop individual vaccine protocol communications plans: 

• What will be the vaccine protocols in your business? For employees? For customers? 
• How will you ensure compliance with these protocols?
• What’s the best way to engage your target audiences about the protocols?
• What channels (i.e. email, social media, etc.) are most effective in connecting and influencing your stakeholders?
• Will you have a firm policy, or will there be flexibility based on individual situations?

My guess is that these questions are resonating with you, and very likely, your senior team will go even further down the path for topics that are unique to your business, your industry, your workplace environment, and your employee and/or customer base. 

Take it a step further and consider:  

• How will you handle employees who are too risk-averse to come back? 
• How can you service customers or manage employees who refuse the vaccine? 
• What can you offer those who don’t want to be in a closed-door office or conference room? 
• How can you support your employees who must continue to work virtually because they still have children going to school virtually?  
• What can you do for employees who are reliant on public transportation, but aren’t comfortable returning to it yet? Or ever?
• And perhaps most critically, how will you manage individuals who simply won’t comply? Can you mandate mask-wearing or require proof of vaccination? Does this fall under your current HR guidelines? HIPAA?

What do you need to build into your communications plan to exhibit empathy and transparency, and at the same time, do what’s best for your business and your team?

Careful, clear, and considerate communications will be essential over the next few months, just as they were when the virus changed our lives and our businesses, from top to bottom (line). We’re working with companies and organizations to develop these messages and the resulting communications deliverables (blogs, surveys, emails, presentations, you name it) to ensure both the transparency and empathy that is critical at this time. Let us know if you want to talk.

Surely, this is brighter, more optimistic work than what we faced in March, April, and May, but at its core, it’s an extension of the same concept of issues management, crisis communications, or whatever you choose to call it.  Over the next 6-12 months, as we ease into our future, how you choose to communicate your plans and protocols will be the determining factor of your success.

It’s not the “new normal,” it’s just the next one.