How the pandemic is revealing the indispensable value of employee communication
An Italian study shows that communicators are poised to assume greater roles and responsibilities moving forward.
Like all crises affecting companies, the COVID-19 emergency brought employee communication to the forefront — this time even more than usual.
With physical distancing being enforced worldwide, employee communication became the primary way to promote closeness between people in organizations. In particular, employee communication managed various challenges and expressed its highest potential.
The Centre for Employee Relations and Communication (CERC) at Università IULM conducted a study that analyzed the employee communication strategies used by Italian companies during these difficult times. Two focus groups and 10 interviews with employee communication managers outlined a qualitative picture of the challenges that companies have faced with the help of employee communication. This qualitative analysis was complemented with a survey on a sample of 116 employee communication managers working in Italian companies.
The study’s qualitative stage outlined three main categories of employee communication strategies:
The survey showed that the strategy aimed at creating a sense of security was deployed by focusing on the following communication objectives:
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