The Covid-19 pandemic has impacted businesses across all sectors. In this difficult time, businesses are prone to get into crisis situations. Therefore, the preparedness of crisis management from each company was also being tested. The Institute for Public Relations (IPR) and Peppercomm conducted a study of 300 communications executives and senior leaders to find deeper understandings of how prepared businesses were for Covid-19.
From this study, I found several interesting numbers on how these executives are responding to the Covid-19 situation. Let’s look at it!
1. 90%
Ninety percent of executives believe that internal communication involves more in proofing communication functions rather than external communication during Covid-19 pandemic. Moreover, out of the 90 percent respondents who believe internal communication is important, 75 percent believe that it is very involved.
2. 71%
In this uncertain situation, there are many parties which compete with each other to provide news as fast as possible. However, sometimes the news accuracy is lacking. Thus, not only it is important to keep updated about the information, but it is also crucial to have a credible and trustworthy source.
Seventy one percent of the respondents trust in federal agencies, such as Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and international health organizations, such as the World Health Organization (WHO). They believe that the following sources provide accurate news and information about Covid-19.
3. 60%
The role of the media is important in this pandemic era. As I mentioned earlier, between one and another media, they are competing to be the first to write the latest news. Sometimes, they also use hiperbola language to describe the Covid-19 crisis in order to attract the public’s attention.
The study was also pictured on how the executives see media habit during the Covid-19 pandemic era. Sixty percent of the respondents criticized the media as they are “sensationalizing” the COVID-19 crisis. The popular words found on the media coverage were variations of “sensational,” “hysteria,” “panic,” “alarmist,” “overblown,” and “overheated.”
4. 32%
This pandemic era is surely a hard situation for most business players around the world. There are several businesses who cannot survive and are forced to cut off or even lay off their employees. However, there are also several companies or organizations who take advantage of this situation as an opportunity to help those who are affected.
Nearly one out of three respondents admitted that their company has been initiating Covid-19 related programs to help those who are in needs. If there is an employee who was affected by the virus, several respondents commented that they would support that individual.
5. 1%
It is inversely proportional to trust in federal agencies and international health organizations, there are only one percent of the respondents who believe social media as their source of information regarding Covid-19.
Social media is prone to hoax and invalid news. Thus, it is very important to double or triple check the credibility of the news.
Those are several interesting numbers that I found from The Institute for Public Relations (IPR) and Peppercomm study about how businesses are handling Covid-19 crisis. Which finding is the most interesting in your opinion? Share your thoughts on the comment box below!
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