THE term ‘the new normal’ will fast replace ‘social distancing’ as the leading catch-phrase of the Covid-19-era we are living through; an era that commenced on the eve of a new year and a new decade, when China first reported the outbreak to the World Health Organisation on December 31, 2019. A peculiar coincidence by itself this, a new disease that would soon become a global pandemic, being announced on New Year’s Eve!

The new normal refers to what the state of the world will be once the pandemic is over or at least largely controlled. Opinions vary widely as to what the new normal — the state of affairs — will actually be, but there is general agreement that post-Covid-19, the world will not be the same and that the predominant change will be in global economics and finances. Further from this point, opinions differ regarding the intensity of the changes.

Prudent businesses, while still caught up in crisis management since ‘all hell broke loose’, are today also devoting time and energy in planning for the new normal, to be ahead of the game. But this is far easier said than done, given that nobody knows when the pandemic will end, or what the new normal will be when it does end. So all planning for the new normal has to be based on as objective as possible guesstimates that one can make. But it is evident that the new normal will not be the same for every business or for every industry. To give a simple example, travel and tourism sector is one of the hardest hit by the pandemic. And it will recover slowly, but then again some businesses within the sector, say air travel, will recover faster than say luxury cruises.

The preparation for the new normal must be customised by each company for itself, based on a range of influencing factors like the nature of the business, the industry it is in, its financial strength, the relative inelasticity of demand for its goods and services, and so on. However, there is one vital aspect of the preparation that all businesses, irrespective of the diverse influences at play, must take very seriously. And that aspect is the communications function of businesses, whose critical role in helping a company get back on its feet so to speak should not be underestimated, even while the main focus may be on more obvious areas like supply chain stabilisation, product diversification, operational costs rationalisation, HR restructuring and still others.

A well thought-through communications strategy will significantly support all the other areas being reviewed and realigned for the new normal. Effective communications will re-establish and strengthen crucially needed trust of stakeholders, inspire and motivate employees returning to a changed work environment (still somewhat dazed by the months of the work from home and lockdown regimen), re-energise relationship with consumers and customers, and generate support and empathy for the company from all those whose support will be essentially required to adapt to the new normal — the government, regulatory authorities, financial institutions and labour unions being just four examples of such stakeholders.

Again, each business and each company needs to develop a customised communications strategy in line with its needs, priorities, resources and opportunities. Here, five key guidelines for developing and executing the communication strategy are enumerated.

The first step is to define all the stakeholder groups with which the company needs to communicate with regarding the new normal. Internal stakeholder groups will include employees (sub-groups being blue-collar workers, executive cadre employees, contractual employees) and the Board of Directors, and external audience groups can include consumers, customers, government, unions, suppliers and vendors, distributors and retailers, transporters, business partners and so on. All your stakeholders together form your business ecosystem, and considering any one of these groups as not important and not to be included in the communication outreach will run the same risk of the whole ecosystem being destablilised.

The second step is to decide what exactly is it that you need to communicate to each audience group regarding your new normal plans. Based on this, detailed messaging will need to be prepared. Part of the messaging may be common for all audience groups, while other messaging will be group interest specific. Messaging will evince the most positive response if it is rooted in Stakeholder Wants and Needs (SWANs), addressing worries, allaying fears and instilling hope and positivity.

The third step is to decide which channels of communication will be most effective to convey the messaging. The options include mass media, digital media (both intranet for internal audiences and the company’s social media platforms and website for external audiences), advertising or advertorials, direct mail, email, town halls, small group briefings (for example to a group of business reporters), et cetera. All this may sound obvious, but the importance of choosing the right channel for the right audience needs to be emphasised. Further and even more importantly, it is recommended that depending on the messaging and the audience targeted, it is much more effective to use a mix of different channels rather than rely on just one channel.

The next element of the communication strategy is to work out a detailed timeline for the dissemination of the worked out messaging, with a view to a steady momentum building up.

And finally, it is imperative that the communications strategy allows audiences to reach into the company as well, at the same time as the company is reaching out to the audiences with its messaging. It is vitally important that your audiences are able to convey to you their concerns and apprehensions if any, share thoughts and feedback and even offer their compliments! It is not to be assumed that whatever you are putting out is being fully understood, or is being well-received by the audiences. Only with encouraging audience response can the strategy be reviewed and further fine-tuned as required.

The author is a communications and PR professional and builds strategies for corporate clients. He heads Asiatic Public Relations Network

Published in Dawn, May 20th, 2020