Calm recession fears with CEO letter

The CEO’s column should ease employee anxiety about the troubled economy—not ignore the fact

Face-to-face isn’t always the best way to go.

“In our culture, team members might find an emergency, companywide ‘recession meeting’ alarming,” says Lori Kaylor, vice president of communications at the Kansas City, Mo.-based employee benefits and financial services firm The Lewer Agency.

That’s why Lewer CEO Mike Lewer addressed the current economic situation in a candid, all-employee e-mail a few weeks ago; communicators emphasized the letter’s importance by publishing it in the weekly in-house Friday newsletter.

“The message was ‘opportunity,’” Kaylor says. “We also emphasized the importance of focusing on performing our individual roles within the company at this time and how, after 52 years of being in business, we’re not ‘newbies’ to economic downturns.”

Here’s an excerpt from Lewer’s letter to his 60-plus employees (click here to read it in its entirety):