Crises Reveal Character

Thanks to the Institute of Public Relations for publishing "Leadership Perspectives: Leading and Looking Ahead Through COVID-19. Here is an excerpt. To read the entire book, reflecting the opinions of 30 CCOs, please visit instituteforpr.org.

Crises Reveal Character

Once in a century

COVID-19 creates a crisis unlike any other, and not just because of its speed and scale, but in the unique way it impacts the physical, mental and financial wellbeing. For corporations to weather these trying times, they must support these three critical needs of all of their stakeholders. In order to do that successfully, they must be in a strong capital position. This is a crisis where compassion and liquidity in equal measure are key.

This is a once-in-a-century pandemic, meaning it’s an opportunity for companies to have once-in-a-century social impact. No function plays a more critical role in determining a company’s post-pandemic success than Communications – the conscience of a company.

Purpose-driven companies are uniquely positioned to enhance their reputations by staying committed to the better angels of their core values. According to The RepTrak Company, formerly Reputation Institute, consumers’ decisions will be shaped by the way a company takes care of their employees and communities, more so than other stakeholders, like investors.

 About Aflac

Fortunately, venturing into the bond market late last year, Aflac raised $1.5 billion dollars. No one ever predicts a pandemic; however, what goes up often comes down, and for the market that means the possibility of a recession. Aflac wanted to be ready for any potential downturn.

With the company in a strong capital position, the Communications team began preparing to share Aflac’s key messages from a people-first perspective, starting with a 30 page stakeholder map, resembling extraordinarily ugly pieces of wallpaper knitted together without skill. What may have looked like bad art, is proving to be a backbone of success.

By starting with the business objective, considering each stakeholder, along with where, when and how each wanted to be met in terms of information, the team scrutinized every element of data and allowed the data to drive the strategy. The team curated and created relevant information for each audience, making the most important strategic decision right up front – provide content and then condition each audience to go to specific locations for the information most helpful to each of them. Teaching stakeholders to pull, rather than forcing the team to push, became a critical advantage in terms of speed of information and message control. This approach is efficient as only a single set of data per audience is being updated, most often housed only in one location. In spite of this, the detailed grid listing the tactics currently exceeds 69 pages – and is growing!

The business, taking a similar approach, has been asking, “How do we ensure all of our stakeholders remain whole, so that when the crisis is over, the business is fully functional and poised for optimum performance? To answer this question and put the answer into action, the company assembled a cross-functional, virtual war room, shifting activities throughout the crisis, moving from driving technology efforts to get people out of the building to return to work activities – all the while ensuring the business runs smoothly. To ensure efforts remain on track, surveying of all audiences takes place frequently and regularly. To the company’s credit, putting people first – the unanimous decision of leadership – has without fail been consistent through all messaging and actions.

The following illustrates how Aflac is preserving its business and reputation through the crisis:

?  There are approximately 5,000 Aflac W-2 employees in the U.S. Through a significant cash investment in technology, 98% of those employees are now outfitted with the equipment needed to work from home. Those employees deemed essential, with a duty to report, receive premium pay, personal protection gear and a safe environment subject to temperature screening and social distancing protocols.

?  There are almost 30,000 independent sales agents in the U.S., licensed to sell Aflac products. They are independent contractors and their tax status is that of 1099. Their primary way of selling in these commission-only roles is through face-to-face engagement. Actually, Aflac’s business model is cluster selling at worksites – not feasible in a pandemic of this nature. Not only did the company provide these agents with information on how to apply for government assistance programs, the corporation is self-funding a $50 million no-to- low interest loan program, with generous repayment terms. Also, the company is absorbing the interest payments where such payments are applicable, which would be on loans greater than $10,000, per Internal Revenue Service regulations.

? Additionally, those 30,000 people would like to be able to sell during this time, so virtual enrollment centers and technology support have been provided by the company for these efforts.

? Imagine being a recruit, waiting to sit for a licensing exam that may not be given for months due to social distancing protocols. By working with state regulators, Aflac’s government affairs team has been able to get many states to grant temporary licenses to new recruits as an important stop gap measure. Also, labs are unavailable for drug screening and I-9 validation is virtually impossible with the emergency orders, adding to the complexity of onboarding.

?  Policyholders are struggling too. Aflac proactively provided a 60-day grace period on premiums so that policies would not lapse and claims could still be paid during the window. Subsequently, some states have mandated grace periods.

? To support small business owners, a microsite through Aflac.com has been established providing need-to-know information about programs to help keep them afloat.

?  The community at large, the recipient of multi-million dollar donations, particularly to aid first responders with mental health and personal protection equipment support, has been incredibly appreciated.

?  Aflac is renowned for its internship programs. The company provides an apartment, social activities as well as a paid work experience. This year’s program looks very different with additional scholarship stipends and a virtual work experience.

?  The shareholders, analysts and investors expect attention too.

? Aflac conducted its first-ever remote quarter-end close and shareholder meeting.

? The company also spent a great deal of time modeling financials, using previous global pandemics, most notably the Spanish Flu. This type of activity is critical to the shareholder community and to leadership in terms of making decisions for capital deployment.

?  Acquisitions happen, even during a pandemic. Post-acquisition onboarding of new employees, making them feel appreciated, is difficult enough during the best of times – almost, but not entirely, impossible during a global shut down.

? By using virtual tools like portals and WebEx, the latter being Aflac’s technology of choice, senior leaders are doing their part to welcome the two companies acquired by Aflac during the pandemic.

?  An interesting and rather non-traditional audience found itself in the form of local internet service providers (ISPs), who had to bolster infrastructure in its rural Georgia locations to meet the demand on capacity created by the influx of remote workers. The company’s Information Technology team worked with the local ISPs to ensure a seamless experience for policyholders and employees.

It’s also critical to look at the future and the challenges it holds, in order to plan for what companies will be up against going forward. That includes the possibility of reinfection spikes.

Conclusion

The workplace will not look the same going forward. With all of the investment in technology as a result of keeping employees productive during the emergency orders, for some companies,  it won’t make sense to hold as much real estate or the overhead costs associated with doing so. Additionally, companies will need to social distance those who do come back into the office, meaning workspaces won’t even look the same post-pandemic.

Return to campus protocols at Aflac are being established to include staggered schedules, masks requirements and temperature detection protocols.

Employees from different locations will return at different times, based on everything from childcare availability, to government restrictions by geography, to the health care community’s surge capability.

Five things that are important to keep in mind:

?  Culture cannot be built during a crisis. This also provides a future challenge as natural attrition happens and new employees come into the fold. How do companies foster and grow culture in a remote working environment?

?  Alignment is a thing of the past. Agreement is required going forward. It’s not enough for Investor Relations and Marketing to align on do-no-harm, lowest common denominator messaging. The functions across companies will need to collaborate until actual agreement is reached and it won’t be as easy as it sounds.

?  Just because the technology creates artificial engagement doesn’t mean that the relationships are artificial. This means technology will need to adjust and so will those using it.

?  When taking care of your people, often the simplest things mean the most. I have food delivered to each member of my team weekly so they always have one hot meal each week, taking something off of the proverbial plate for stressed parents who are now charged with providing home schooling, three meals a day and working a full time job.

?  Finally, and this is most important: crises reveal character, they don’t build it. This is true for Corporate America as well.

Catherine Hernandez-Blades is SVP, Chief ESG and Communications officer at Aflac

Catherine Hernandez-Blades is SVP, chief ESG and Communications officer at Aflac, previously serving in the CMO and CCO roles simultaneously at two Fortune 500 companies. She is in three Halls of Fame, including Women in Communications, PRNews, and the PR Week Hall of Femme; a Forbes Top 50 Most Influential Global CMO; and the first American to win the Relations for the Future Medal at the Communications for the Future awards at Davos.