QUOTE OF THE DAY “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.” –R. Buckminster Fuller COVID-19 UPDATE - At the time of reporting, The New York Times showed 2,703,212 cases of COVID-19 in the U.S. and 128,103 deaths. Bing’s COVID-19 Tracker reported 2,738,113 cases in the U.S. and 130,101 deaths.
- Florida breaks records for new COVID-19 cases in a single day with reports of over 10,000 on Thursday. Surges have continued to cause concern across the country, including Arizona and California.
- With recent jobs gains the unemployment rate drops to 11.1%, beating expectations and raising hopes of a robust economic recovery.
How can you spur a candid internal conversation about race and equality? Here are some tips from Encompass Health and its video campaign to help employees connect on this important issue.
Florida State University revokes flexibility for remote employees with children. The institution says that as local schools are planning to return to in-person instruction, it is reinstituting previous workplace guidelines and will not allow remote employees to care for children during business hours. The New York Post wrote: “In March 2020, the University communicated a temporary exception to policy which allowed employees to care for children at home while on the Temporary Remote Work agreement,” the FSU administration’s email to staff read, The Lily reported. “Effective Aug. 7, 2020, the University will return to normal policy and will no longer allow employees to care for children while working remotely,” added the memo, which was sent Friday. To stay relevant post-pandemic, communicators must embrace technology. Here’s how one PR pro argues that the COVID-19 crisis has accelerated changes the industry already faced with digital channels, artificial intelligence, and more. According to a new survey, 60% say they don’t have outside help for childcare. Additionally, 10% say they have less help than they did before the pandemic. How is your organization attempting to help working parents as the new school year approaches? Facebook says it won’t make changes in response to ad boycott. Despite more than 600 brands now boycotting Facebook, chief Mark Zuckerberg played down the threat and refused to acquiesce or make changes. The BBC reported: "My guess is that all these advertisers will be back on the platform soon enough" the Facebook chief executive has said. Campaigners accuse the tech firm of being too slow and reluctant to remove some hateful content. But Zuckerberg added: "We're not going to change our policies or approach on anything because of a threat to a small percent of our revenue." Make D&I more than “checking a box.” Here’s how your organization can make diversity, equity and inclusion a true core value and not a performative exercise. Mistreatment of employees will lead to social media crises. L.A.Times food editor Peter Meehan resigns over allegations of aggressive, abusive behavior. The departure comes after freelancers shared stories and examples of actions that crossed a line on social media. Meehan apologized in a post that was shared on Twitter. It read, in part: I’m leaving the LA Times. Tweets on Monday allege a number of things I don’t think are true, but they also compelled my staff to speak out. In my tunnel vision commitment to making the best thing we could, I lost sight of people and their feelings. This is a terrible failing on my part. I offer actual sincere non-PR apologies to all of them and to anybody who my approach to editing and management hurt. Netflix commits $100m to fund opportunities for the Black community. The effort follows many other actions to allocate money toward fighting structural inequality. Netflix says the donation represents up to 2% of its current cash holdings. Novartis stresses changes in settlement over kickback scheme. The pharma company is trying to put misdeeds in the rearview with a $678m settlement and demonstrated efforts to build a different culture. The New York Times reported: “Today’s settlements are consistent with Novartis commitment to resolve and learn from legacy compliance matters,” Dr. Vasant Narasimhan, the company’s chief executive, said in a statement. “We are a different company today — with new leadership, a stronger culture, and a more comprehensive commitment to ethics embedded at the heart of our company.” Ubisoft CEO announces working group to address rampant harassment. The effort hopes to address the concerns about a toxic work environment at the company raised in recent weeks. Screen Rant wrote: Company emails seen by Gamasutra have been sent to employees within Ubisoft by Yves Guillemot and chief talent and communications officer Cecile Cornet detailing the new measures. A new working group will work with external partners to put in place a system for people to report problems and have them investigated properly. Virtual Conference Alert Join us for Ragan’s Remote Employee Engagement &Culture Virtual Conference on Tuesday, July 21 to learn internal comms strategies and best practices to meet the challenges of the new reality. Join our Crisis Leadership Board Ragan’s Crisis Leadership Board is the resource you need before, during and after the crisis. As a Board member, you have access to all back issues of this newsletter—as well as research, data, case studies, checklists, tip sheets, articles and other resources—plus a peer-to-peer discussion board and an all-access pass to the annual Crisis Management Conference. Sponsorship/Advertising Opportunities Contact Hannah Lavelle at [email protected] with sponsorship and advertising inquiries. Pitch Us Have a great story to share about crisis communication or your own take on current best practices? 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