STAT OF THE DAY

88% of employees expect their organization’s wellbeing budgets to stay the same or increase. — People Matters

COVID-19 UPDATE

• At the time of reporting, The New York Times reported 1,424,740 confirmed cases in the U.S. and 85,843 deaths from COVID-19. Bing’s COVID-19 Tracker showed 1,448,810 cases, with 86,571 fatalities.
• S. health officials released guidance on how schools, businesses and other organizations can use as states reopen from coronavirus shutdowns. The tool is for schools, workplaces, childcare centers, mass transit systems and others.
• Immune warriors known as T cells found in COVID-19 patients “bode well” for long-term immunity, Science magazine reports. Two studies reveal that infected people harbor T cells that target the virus—and may help them recover.
• Retail sales plunged a record 16.4% in April, far worse than predicted.

Ensure your COVID-19 messaging is relevant. Don’t muddy the waters around the pandemic, and share crucial, accurate information on your channels. Here are 6 ways to ace it.

5 tips for smart social media during COVID-19. Struggling to produce pertinent posts during the pandemic? Strike the right balance in the age of social distancing.

Paid social media dominant during COVID-19. With audiences stuck at home and looking for digital entertainment, brand managers are turning to social media channels. Here’s why paying for your exposure could be worth the expenditure.

Layoff memo offers sympathy. A leaked memo by Carnival Corp.’s CEO Arnold Donald to employees announced mass layoffs, furloughs and pay cuts. Donald shows how to express sympathy yet offer hope to those let go:

This reduction will include a combination of job eliminations and furloughs, and for those employees remaining, either a reduction of hours or salary reductions. This is a very difficult and painful decision for me to make knowing the serious impact this will have on so many of you. I make this decision knowing our best plan forward is to be in a position to ride out this adversity—in order to rise again as a vibrant firm that can call back those on furlough, restore salaries and bonuses, and regenerate the positive economic impact we have on so many of our other stakeholders that depend on our company.

15 ways to inject culture to reach a remote workforce. We asked you to brainstorm how to unite and motivate employees from afar. Check out how your peers are reaching a remote workforce. And there’s room in the comments for your own suggestions.

Will employee health see an uptick? The world is struggling with death and loss amid pandemic. But sickness isn’t the entire story. More than 70 percent of respondents say COVID-19 will improve health and wellbeing activities and employee engagement at their organization.

Image courtesy of People Matters.

Why effective communication is crucial. Rudy Fernandez, senior vice president for public affairs and communications at the University of Miami, discusses the four guiding principles that guide the university’s response to COVID-19. He says:

“During times of crisis, people are hungry for information, and they want it to be factual and disseminated on a timely basis.”

COVID-19 changes the workspace. As employees return, it’s going to be a different office space. Pandemic-proofing offices could involve short-term fixes, new working patterns and long-term design upgrades that put hygiene at the heart of workplace planning.

What's in a COVID-19 preparedness plan for a business? As states start to open up, here are tips on what to include. Don’t forget to consult with your workforce as you get ready.

Screening app premiers. UnitedHealth and Microsoft launched ProtectWell app to enable employers to screen workers for Covid-19. Testing is going to be a major issue for many organizations as employees return from self-isolation.

Virtual Conference Alert

Join us for Ragan & PR Daily's Social Media & Digital Communications Virtual Conference June 18-19 to learn brand strategies and best practices to meet the challenges of the new reality.

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