Public Relations Has to be Genuine During Crisis: Aman Dhall

The Coronavirus outbreak has brought the economy and businesses to a standstill across the globe. The International Monetary Fund has recently issued a warning about Coronavirus’s economic toll saying that it is the worst downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s. During these unprecedented times, corporate communication professionals are playing a major role in managing the crisis for their organizations. This profession has come to the forefront, especially when the news is being consumed 24X7.

Aman Dhall, Head of Corporate Communications, Policybazaar.com believes that brands have to be careful about their messaging during a crisis situation.

BE TRUTHFUL
"A lot of brands have done a lot of PR on social media about donating money to charities. However, it's a little tricky turf, especially when they are not taking care of their own employees. Employees are being asked for pay cuts but at the same time companies are doing charities," said Dhall during a webinar discussion on 'Role of communications in crisis' organized by Amity University.
"Somewhere, there is a conflict of messaging. Public Relations has to be genuine. If they are genuinely doing something, they should put it out," he added. The webinar was a part of an 'Industry Leader Webinar Series' which are student-centric interactions through online guest lectures, industry sessions, with noted industry leaders in India and abroad. Shaila Sam, Communications Specialist at United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) was also a panelist in the webinar.

BE OPEN, ACCESSIBLE AND WILLING TO RESPOND
Talking about how Policybazaar has managed the crisis, Dhall said that the company was able to move 13,000 employees to work-from-home within just three-four days seamlessly. "There is a huge workforce including our contact centre employees. Our senior management always had in mind to shift employees to work from home since the beginning but somehow we were unable to expand the concept," Dhall said.
The technology and operations team worked tirelessly to make work-from-home possible for a huge number of workforce in such a short span of time which is a one-of-a-kind example. "We ordered mobile tablets in bulk for our support centre employees and it didn’t take more than two hours to decide. Our founders were proactive in ensuring that those decisions were taken, which now are actually keeping the business for us. We have also seen that productivity has gone up during this period," he added.

BE COMPASSIONATE, EMPHATIC, AND CONSIDERATE
Dhall also said that there was proactive and instant communication right after the lockdown in which it was assured to the employees that there would be no pay cuts till June and no layoffs too. “This communication immediately boosted employee morale. We also highlighted in our employee and consumer communication about how situations such as these underline the importance of insurance in financial planning,” he added.

BE WILLING TO ADDRESS 'WHAT IF QUESTIONS'
Dhall further said that answering Frequently Asked Questions is very important. “Acknowledge what employees are saying and answer their questions because everyone wants assurance. A lot of employees send us questions and we are trying to answer all of them even if we see that we are repeating answers. At the same time, don’t say things which might not be possible,” Dhall emphasized.
"All the team leaders have been told to call their teams on an individual basis and chat with their team members to help them with any issues that they are facing," he added. “Over-communication and proactive communication are very important in this scenario. It's still better to over-communicate rather than under-communicate,” Dhall said.