QUOTE OF THE DAY

“Real change, enduring change, happens one step at a time.” — Ruth Bader Ginsburg

COVID-19 UPDATE

• At the time of reporting, The New York Times showed 1,493,653 cases of COVID-19 in the U.S. and 89,504 deaths. Bing’s COVID-19 Tracker showed 1,516,343 cases and 89,932 fatalities. Global cases now exceed 4.7 million.
• House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called on Republican lawmakers to come together for a deal on COVID-19 relief Monday, saying, “Time is important.” The HEROES Act, with its price tag of $3 trillion, has yet to get a vote.
• Cellphone data suggests that some new cases of COVID-19 can be traced to rallies against government lockdown orders in states like Illinois, Michigan and Colorado. Protestors say the risks won’t keep them from attending future rallies.
• Economic experts like former Federal Chairman Ben Bernanke say there is much to be hopeful about in the economic future. While the Great Depression lasted 12 years, economists say the current downturn should be much shorter, with more sober targets after a year or two.

Create a dedicated response team for bringing workers back to the office. Here’s how you can make sure that employees feel seen and heard as you navigate your recovery strategy in the months ahead. Create a welcome back packet and get ahead of important questions about safety and new procedures.

User-generated content builds community and trust during the pandemic. Engaging your audience and using your platform to highlight stories from various stakeholders can generate goodwill and foster trust that you will need to start to rebuild. Here are some ideas for using this tactic. Or, follow the lead of brands like Southwest Airlines.

Uber CEO explains thinking behind announcing more layoffs. The company is laying off another 3,000 employees, a move that CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said was something he put off out of hopes that it wouldn’t be necessary.

CNBC reported:

“Our balance sheet is strong, Eats is doing great, Rides looks a little better, maybe we can wait this damn virus out...I wanted there to be a different answer,” Khosrowshahi told employees in the email. “Let me talk to a few more CEOs...maybe one of them will tell me some good news, but there simply was no good news to hear. Ultimately, I realized that hoping the world would return to normal within any predictable timeframe, so we could pick up where we left off on our path to profitability, was not a viable option.”

Communicators are crucial team members for return-to-work planning. Make sure your PR pros are used as strategic advisors, not order-takers when putting together a plan that protects your organization’s reputation and keeps stakeholders safe. Here’s what the research says about the role of the comms pro.

Workers report greater job satisfaction, harder work during pandemic. For workers who are lucky enough to still be employed, many say they have more job satisfaction now that before the current crisis. However, they also report that they are working harder than before. Be sure to think about how you will recognize and reward employees who go above and beyond.

Image courtesy of CNBC.

American Express prepares workers to stay remote until 2021. Its CEO shared how the company was thinking about a return to the office in a video message. Other companies like Facebook, Google and Twitter have also pushed a return to the office back until next year, at the least.

Yahoo News reported:

“We still don’t know exactly when we will start coming back, but we expect it will take several months in most locations. The key here is that returning to the office will not happen all at once. We will open buildings on a location-by-location, floor-by-floor, and colleague-by-colleague basis as each location and floor is different. The main thing to understand is that the work environment will be completely different when we go back than when we left,” said American Express CEO Stephen Squeri in a video message to employees on Monday.

Protect the mental health of your workforce with a safe work environment.  Here are some ideas on how you can safeguard your workplace and prove that you are putting people over profits.

Tailor your response to the recovery. Business leaders don’t yet know what kind of economic recovery will occur in the coming months, and so their strategy must be flexible to respond to different potential landscapes. Here’s a chart for thinking through your risks and different scenarios for a return to work.

Kroger winds down pay bump program with one-time “Thank You Pay” bonus. The grocery chain will pay workers between $200 and $400 dollars as it stops paying a higher hourly wage for workers who come to work despite COVID-19 risks. Walking back higher wages for frontline retail workers has posed reputational risks for many companies.

Fox 59 reported:

Kroger’s decision to end the “Hero Bonus” drew a sharp response from the workers’ union, which urged the company to continue the hourly bonuses as long as the pandemic lasts, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer. Kroger announced that it will extend its COVID-19 Emergency Leave program, which provides paid time off to employees most directly affected by the virus or experiencing related symptoms.

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