The nine challenges PR will face after the pandemic
The rapid development of vaccines against SARS-CoV 2 signals an end to the COVID-19 pandemic. This ending may not be a happy one for people who have lost loved ones, although it is a relief for all and especially for an economy hit hard by the crisis, largely due to mobility restrictions. We will enter a new period in which optimism for the recovery (of the economy and our lifestyle) will coexist with the fear of a relapse, a mutation or a new virus. A real and dramatic experience more characteristic of a dystopia will still be very fresh.
As often happens in crises, they are times of a lot of communication. Public Relations professionals are on the front lines to help protect individuals and businesses from the consequences of the pandemic. In the field of intangibles, we fight against hopelessness, pessimism, demotivation and misinformation; and on the side of tangibles, against the effects of the economic crisis on the P&L. Our best weapons in this fight have been rigorous, timely and punctual information and the channels of relationship established with interest groups.
The first challenge is that communication is not deactivated or does not lose relevance once we overcome the acute phase of the crisis and enter a “new normal”.
We have to be able to show that the contribution of communication to the management of companies is as important in normal times as in times of crisis. Furthermore, good and constant communication management acts as a protective shield against events that disturb the normal functioning of the organization.
Recovery will have a rational and an emotional aspect. The communication department has to work with both. In the first, to participate in the reactivation of operations, with a clear focus on customers. In the second, to take care of the emotional health of company's people, given that we will continue to move in an environment of uncertainties and turbulence even after mass vaccination becomes a reality.
The second challenge is to actively contribute to the recovery of the business.
PR is a young profession that has yet to demonstrate its structural contribution to the financial results. The restrictions on mobility decreed to stop infections, and especially confinements, have caused a drop in income in many companies. In some cases, sales have plummeted to zero. Millions of businesses, and consequently millions of jobs, are at risk of disappearing.
Communication has to respond with its ideas and resources to this urgent need. Along these lines, cooperation with the marketing, commercial and sales departments is essential to re-engage customers. It is time to generate leads. The corporate discourse, holistically oriented to protect the soul, and the commercial one, built to feed the needs of the body, must flow harmoniously.
The third challenge will be to preserve the soul that companies are showing since the spread of the epidemic.
There are many varied examples of good practices during the pandemic that have made many people start to embrace the idea that companies do have a soul. This perception is essential in building the reputation of organizations. One of the biggest challenges that the communication manager will face will be to preserve that spirit, that wireless connection with the emotions that a brand invokes. Companies will continue to be judged for their conduct, particularly towards employees, placed for the sake of a damn virus in the eye of the storm of a sudden depression.
The person in charge of communication will have to be very vigilant so that possible imbalances between interest groups do not ruin the emotional capital stored during the crisis. The motto of "people first" will be put to the test in many companies that will be forced to adjust their costs to the new reality. Preserving the soul that has emerged in this crisis will mean keeping alive the reputational wealth that has meant the commitment of companies in the collective fight against the SARS-Cov 2 coronavirus.
The fourth challenge is to connect the soul with the purpose.
The soul is too intangible and ethereal, it needs an anchor. Purpose provides that necessary connection to reality. It is a moral force that aligns the expectations of the people of an organization with a collective vision. The mission of the communication department is that the purpose is known, understood, shared and practiced. To that goal, it is essential that you create a story in which each worker can feel like a participant, a protagonist to some extent. A choral story that has to be fed with facts: behaviours and achievements, that is, attitudes and consequences in the form of results.
If the company does not have a defined purpose, the communication department has the opportunity to lead its formulation, for which it has to involve the entire organization. Once a declaration has been agreed, it must be approved by the main executive body, which must also ensure its compliance through periodic monitoring.
On that note, Global PR & Communication Model recently launched by the Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communication Management reveals that “the probability that the head of the PR & Communications is involved in the strategic decisions of the organization and is a member of the C-suite is greater if this professional has led the process of definition and implementation of the corporate purpose and if the method selected for its construction has been participatory and not top-down ”.
The purpose implies the desire for sustainability of the company, a territory of competence that is not exclusive to the communication department, but which, at least, must form part of the basis of its corporate narrative.
The fifth challenge is to promote inclusive digitization.
The pandemic has accelerated the digital transformation of companies. Necessity forces change. Teleworking or remote work, a concept developed by a NASA engineer in 1973, has advanced more in a month than in the last five decades. All the studies agree that the vast majority of companies will maintain this work modality because it has been shown that it increases productivity and, by reducing travel and commuting, reduces accidents and CO2 emissions.
However, digitization can leave behind many workers who are not sufficiently prepared. There are two weapons to combat this risk: training and communication. Digitization is, above all, a cultural transformation. The PR department has to work in that territory so that going digital is not seen as a threat, but as an opportunity. It is clear that not all jobs can be easily digitized, but everyone can benefit to a greater or lesser extent from the advantages that technology brings, especially in the field of information systems and telecommunications.
The sixth challenge is to promote the recovery of truth as the basic substance of communication processes.
The coronavirus has not only spread the disease, but also misinformation. The climate of concern and uncertainty induced by the epidemic has been an appropriate breeding ground for the dissemination of fake news. Disinformation has ridden faster than ever on the back of fear and nervousness. We are therefore more aware of the need for rigorous information and spokespersons who are very aware of their responsibility. The pandemic has accentuated many trends, including the weakness of the truth.
Communicators have to contribute to the truth as the basic substance of the interaction processes between people. This mission has above all an ethical motivation, but it is also a survival factor, because the truth is the basis on which our product circulates: the relationships that are managed through conversations that, in turn, are fed with truthful content and that are useful.
This challenge involves cooperating with the main guarantors of the truth, the media, to clean up the information ecosystem. In the time of disintermediation, the mediation of honest, rigorous and independent news companies is more necessary than ever. As communicators we can fall into the error of thinking that the weakness of the media strengthens us, when it is really the opposite, because when the jungle closes the known roads, the easiest thing is to get lost.
The seventh challenge is to promote ethics in organizations.
This challenge is largely derived from the previous one. Telling the truth is fundamentally an ethical decision. From a moral point of view, there is only one way to do business. To date, ethics have been considered an individual exercise (in fact, it is), on the one hand, and as a requirement that comes from outside the organizations, on the other. That is, as an exogenous factor to the business. The sentence "You have to do things and do them well" expresses this exogenous view of ethics. It is not a sufficiently internalized value such as quality and safety. For many people, ethics is something that must be taken into account so that the business does not spoil.
However, we are witnessing a paradigm shift, driven in part by the abundance of dishonest and unethical behavior. For a long time aesthetics (let's think about brands) have carried more weight than ethics (behaviors). It is not that brands cease to be important, perhaps they are even more important in the attention economy, but that ethics have become more relevant, to the point that it must be part of the core business. This is proven by the latest edition of the Edelman barometer, one of whose conclusions that "ethics is three times more important than competition to create value."
It is not a comfortable territory and therefore ethics is often situated in no man's land. Sometimes it is the compliance departments who assume this role, although their orientation is more legal than ethical. The communication department has to shape and preserve the ethical commitment of the organization, which must be expressed in the conduct of the people who form it.
The eighth challenge is to consolidate the multi-stakeholder vision.
The pandemic has motivated a rebalancing among stakeholders. Shareholders have had to and will have to give up a part of their interests for the benefit of employees, because protecting employment was a priority for companies and governments during the acute phase of the health crisis. Communication has to work to build a better weighted balance between stakeholders. Weighted balance is not synonymous with equality, because some stakeholders risk more than others and, consequently, their remuneration has to be commensurate with the risk assumed.
The PR department has to promote a better understanding between stakeholders. They are not in competition, although sometimes their interests collide. The main mission of the head of the PR department is to create safe spaces for dialogue between the company and its stakeholders. He is a facilitator and also a notary of the conversations that are recorded.
The ninth challenge is to continue training managers to be better communicators.
Organizations strive to train spokespersons when they suspect or face a crisis. It is not bad practice. It is important that in difficult circumstances the people who carry the voice of the entity are able to transmit the appropriate messages. But it is much more important that these capabilities are present in all circumstances that occur in the life of the company.
Communicators must train the managers of organizations not only to improve their communication skills, but also to understand the function and get the most out of it. If we want the chief executive officer of a company to value communication, we will have to get him involved in his decisions, for which it is essential that he knows the role. This is an evangelizing function; slow, tiresome, not very bright and sometimes ungracious, but essential for communication to occupy the strategic place that it deserves.
Although nine is the number of combative spirits according to esoteric interpretations, I have not selected nine challenges for this reason, but so that the tenth - and thus we get a more round figure - is the result of the reflection of each communication professional, of your particular concerns, expectations, goals, and circumstances. Let's think individually and then act together for the benefit of a profession that has to take advantage of its relevant role in this crisis to keep rising.
José Manuel Velasco
Inmediate Past Chair
Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communication Management