As the R rate continues to increase, we all face uncertainty.

For employers, the speed at which challenges have had to be dealt with, adjustments in working operations made and messaging to teams updated has been breakneck. Indeed, some commentators have speculated that the pandemic has brought about two-decades worth of change in a matter of months - from remote working to tech adoption. 

Businesses have had to rely on their people, and they’ve had to rely perhaps more than ever on the strength of their internal communications to help navigate the ever-changing tides of COVID-19 too. 

Key messages have to reach everyone, no matter what hours they work and where they’re located. With social distancing likely to be our ‘new normal’ for longer than anyone would have expected back in the Spring, those messages are now more likely to be read at kitchen tables or spare room desks than an all-hands catch-up. 

To compound new challenges for internal comms teams, messaging is often out of date just a matter of hours after it’s been issued too. New restrictions, maybe we can open, now there’s updated industry regulations, an unexpected spike in demand meaning more shifts needed or, as has been the unfortunate case for millions, no more shifts to give out. 

And this presents another issue for employers - retained employees are going to be feeling insecure about their roles. And as we know, workers who don’t feel emotionally secure at work are less likely to speak up and be honest about any concerns or misgivings. 

Audience engagement, especially for now predominantly-remote workers, is key to facilitating honest conversions through anonymous engagement, utilising tools like Vevox within an MS Teams meeting for colleagues to like or vote for questions, comments and ideas. This way, employers can more accurately gauge the mood of their people, make the right changes and adjustments and boost engagement and a sense of (remote) belonging along the way. 

As with many areas of business, Covid has without doubt permanently changed internal comms. And if necessity is the mother of invention, then the necessity is right now to reinvest internal communications strategies and practices and ensuring they’re fit for the new world we all find ourselves in.