QUOTE OF THE DAY Leadership is unlocking people’s potential to become better. —Bill Bradley COVID-19 UPDATE At the time of reporting, The New York Times showed 2,357,209 cases of COVID-19 and 121,178 deaths. Bing’s COVID-19 Tracker showed 2,391,336 cases in the U.S. and 122,985 fatalities. Florida reported a new one-day record for new COVID-19 cases with 5,500 on Wednesday. The IMF has warned about soaring debt worldwide and has slashed its forecast for the global economy. The Dow dropped 700 points on new COVID-19 fears.
AMEC’s Johna Burke: “It’s OK to not be OK.” The leader of the communications measurement group shares her tips on enduring the COVID-19 crisis and staying on top of your measurement priorities.
Microsoft announces three-year plan to address racial injustice. The tech company issues a post from chief Satya Nadella about how it plans to increase representation and inclusion within the company and engage the wider ecosystem to support minorities. The post said, in part: Today, we are making commitments to address racial injustice and inequity for the Black and African American community in the United States. We will additionally take important steps to address the needs of other communities, including the Hispanic and Latinx community, across the company in the next five years. Make sure your idioms don’t have a racist past. Some words that get plenty of use in a business context have their roots in racist history—and could be unintentionally discriminatory. Here are some phrases you should consider removing from your vocabulary. For a productive workplace, focus on employee wellness. Here are some tips to sustain employees during turbulent times of change and financial uncertainty. How are you experimenting with WFH strategies? Experts suggest that savvy managers shouldn’t stop tinkering with their approach to new workflows and work habits as workers try to adjust to working outside the office. Here are some tips for managers and workers. A sense of belonging is crucial for employees to weather hard times. In a new report from the Center for Talent Innovation, researchers say that “sense of belonging” leads to higher productivity and a likelihood that a worker will stay with the company past two years. Belonging often is increased by diversity, particularly at the leadership level and Baby Boomers were more likely to report a sense of belonging than Gen X and millennial workers. Twitter makes Election Day a paid holiday in the U.S. Many companies have been considering ways to help citizens engage in the political process, particularly as audiences have started to demand advocacy and action from brands around social justice and other cultural issues. CNBC reported: “Given the importance of voting, going forward all national election voting days that take place on a weekday will be a paid day off. Since the U.S. presidential election falls on a work day (November 3), we will plan to close all U.S. offices on that day,” the company told employees in an internal memo that was shared with CNBC. When showing social media impact, focus on strategy over raw numbers. It’s your job to show the context for your data. And in a crisis, context is key. Here’s how social media and comms teams can use their numbers to make a stronger argument in their organization. The video game industry grapples with history of abuse and harassment, seeks change. Many companies that engage this consumer niche, like the Twitch streaming platform, are trying to address widespread harassment, racism and misogyny in its community and find ways to make positive change. However, critics say there is long history of ignoring reported misconduct. Cnet wrote: In response to the allegations, Twitch put out a statement, claiming it was taking allegations of abuse "extremely seriously" and working "with law enforcement where applicable." Twitch CEO Emmett Shear later posted an email sent to the broader Twitch team, expanding on the Amazon-owned unit's initial response. Twitch, he said, would ban and remove streamers it had concerns with, "based on credible accusations and their historical behaviour on Twitch." 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? Contact Editor Ted Kitterman at [email protected]. Sign Up Subscribe to Ragan’s Crisis Daily newsletter today. | 