First and foremost, I want to stress that what I am writing about here will be limited to communication - I will leave health advice and epidemiological planning to the experts.
Nor am I focusing on crisis communications, typically defined as the defence of an individual, company or organisation facing a public challenge to its reputation; this is not about relationships but lives. The onus here is firmly on what might be best described as public health communication.
This advice is intended for colleges but almost all of it is applicable to any public sector organisation.
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I am aware that some of the guidance I set out below is contingent on the current situation, in which colleges remain open. This may well change very soon.
Sharing official sources
Public bodies and community influencers, such as colleges, have a definite public communications role simply by virtue of their reach: they have the capacity to communicate directly to thousands of students and staff, and a swathe of the broader community. Colleges can help keep people informed and safe by sharing and promoting official sources of information through their channels, for example:
Communication resources
There are a number of very useful resources available for public sector and education communication professionals.
More generally, the list of Covid-19 information resources (including a Twitter list of experts from epidemiology, virology, modelling and science journalism), published by Education Partnerships Group chief executive Sam Freedman, is recommended.
College cases and closure
The Association of Colleges is also regularly updating its guidance to colleges. As in a recent update, if a college has a confirmed case on site, it should visit the government’s health protection team website for further information. It will “assist in next steps, including helping to organise a deep clean of the college”.
A college campus may close as a result of a confirmed case of coronavirus. Colleges may well have been instructed to close by the government by the time you read this. Given the likelihood of early and extended closure, colleges should be prepared to make announcements to this effect. Colleges should:
- Be clear about what channels are available in order to broadcast the fact of an impending or immediate closure. Institutions can use the PESO (paid, earned, shared and owned) model to map those channels if they haven’t done so already.
- Test those channels and ensure that the right staff have access to owned media.
- Be proactive: while closure may be mandated by government, don’t rely on central government to communicate to the people that matter most to your organisation. Your staff, students and partners will have concerns and questions that only you can answer.
- Ensure communication is clear, simple and jargon free.
- Be responsive: allow your key public to ask questions and publish the answers to common questions via a frequently-asked-questions page or section on a college website.
- Ensure there is the contingency to communicate to key publics after closure. This will obviously include supplying teaching or teaching resources to students and updates to staff but may also include communication to suppliers, subcontractors, clients or partners.
- Repeat key messages: institutions will struggle to reach the people they need to by virtue of the sheer volume of information in the public domain related to coronavirus and the potential for confusion about who is saying what.
Staff
The government is regularly updating its information for employers in relation to the outbreak. The Chartered Institute of Personal Development has published a useful guide for employers on communicating with staff in the context of coronavirus. Its top three tips are:
1. Regularly communicate with your people on the steps you are taking to protect staff, as well as on their sick pay and leave policies.
2. Do the basics to protect staff, such as ensuring they are aware of the latest public health advice, providing hand sanitisers, and increasing the frequency and intensity of workplace cleaning.
3. Ensure you are aware of individuals’ particular needs and concerns, and how you can support them - this will be particularly important for people with underlying health issues and those with caring responsibilities.
Kerry Sheehan, of the CIPR’s local public service committee, adds: “Check your business contingency plans are being communicated to staff. Communicating clearly on what is expected and having a mechanism for questions helps reduce extra pressure on staff.”
Addressing misinformation
As well as the direct threat to life, the pandemic is likely to have substantial consequences for our economies and livelihoods, and (at least in the short term) our way of life. Fear and stress affect our capacity to take information on board. In scary situations, we naturally seek information that helps us make sense of what is happening, and we want to pass on advice that we think might help protect friends or family. In this situation, conspiracy theories abound and misleading advice can be rife but very dangerous.
By virtue of their reach and relationships with specific communities, colleges have a duty to address misinformation in the same way they have a duty to promote expert advice. The World Health Organisation has published a handy guide to help organisations bust myths about coronavirus.
Media liaison
Local and regional media are likely to be among the channels colleges use to communicate their position in relation to coronavirus over the next few weeks. Be realistic in terms of expectations, though - there will be limited space for any institution to communicate about closure or related issues.
Do not be afraid to call out irresponsible or inaccurate reporting. Articles that misrepresent an institution’s position - such as an untrue story that suggests a school or college will penalise absent pupils or students, for instance - have the potential to cause public harm.
In the past week, my work has involved correcting some poor (untrue) and sensationalist reporting from regional media relating to schools and colleges, and coronavirus. Success in correcting misreporting will depend, to some extent, on whether you are able to establish direct contact with the news editor or editor of the media outlet, and the institution’s existing relationship with the outlet.
And finally…
It is perhaps helpful to unpick the psychology behind some of our recent behaviours. For instance, stockpiling and panic buying are the result of a powerful marriage between the heuristics - those mental rules of thumb that we employ every day - of social norms and the scarcity principle. (In this article, two behavioural scientists explain how these heuristics play out in the context of the recent pandemic.)
The government faces a considerable communication challenge in informing and persuading the British public about its coronavirus strategy. Our capacity to believe information is significantly influenced by our views of the person delivering the message. Belief is contingent on trust, which is, in turn, strongly influenced by whether we think that a communicator has our best interests at heart.
Furthermore, we seek out and listen to the advice of those who share our political beliefs over those who possess subject matter expertise, and we are disproportionately influenced by those who share our political views. Politicians will be ineffective spokespeople in relation to coronavirus for a proportion of the population: this is one reason why the chief medical and scientific officers have been so prominent in media relations activity.
Ben Verinder is managing director of research and communications consultancy Chalkstream
