At the beginning of the Coronavirus outbreak, we recognized that our staff and clients were overwhelmed with rapidly changing news. People were asking – Is it safe to leave my house? Do I need to wear a mask? How do I get tested? Our clients need to respond to these questions from the public with reliable and accurate information.
Updates from the President, Governor, and local officials were happening hourly. Information was contradictory, and our clients needed answers.
Our firm quickly realized that having our entire team watching and reading the news was not helpful, it was causing misinformation and mixed messaging among our team and we wanted to convey a clearer voice to our client base. It was decided then that only three people would monitor the news and they would create a daily update to share only the most important information with our staff and clients. This created a streamlined process and unity in our firms internal and external messaging.
The purpose of the daily update is to distill the news – take the hundreds of stories published each day, and choose the five to seven most important for our clients. Whether it be testing sites opening daily, or simplified information regarding grants, loans, and the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP); we cut through the noise and delivered value by saving our clients time and giving them clarity in chaos.
As the crisis begins to calm, we continue to publish the daily update for two reasons. First, it provides value to our clients. As business owners, elected officials, mothers and fathers; our clients time is limited, and every minute spent searching for answers is time wasted. Second, our staff’s time is limited. In one study, it was estimated employees spend approximately 65 minutes each day reading the news. The daily updates save our team time and provides our staff with the key information they need to best advise our clients.
As the Coronavirus pandemic continues, and employees spend hours reading the news each day, your organization will benefit from a news aggregation. To subscribe to Direct Development’s Daily Update, click here.
To start your own internal news aggregation, assign the duties to one person or a small team. From there, determine what information is most crucial to your employees or your client base. For example, if you are a municipality, it is very important your employees are closely following new guidelines from the Governor regarding safely opening town hall, but less important for your employees to know which beaches will be open in time for Memorial Day.
In addition, make it a point to limit the new stories to 5-7 each day. While reading the news, it is easy to think everything is important, but the value of the information is to provide clarity, and save time.
Finally, keep it consistent. Share the information daily, or weekly if your organization is unlikely to be affected by the changing policies. The update will save your employees time, and give them clarity to make decisions during these uncertain times.