Of Vampires, Viruses and Videos

You must have read recent articles that the “Vampire cough and sneeze” is the best way to stop the spread of viruses, including the new and scary CoronaVirus. You probably know of the Count from Transylvannia and get the move of wrapping your elbow around your mouth and nose. Most people however are like, “What The Fudge?”.

This video from the Center for Disease Control, Atlanta, US conveys that very important message.  In 18 seconds!

Cover cough and sneezesA picture is worth a thousand words.  A moving picture?  Many more! As this crisis goes global, visual information is far more accessible across language and culture. Everyday, we have news that seems to snowball into one catastrophe to the next. It’s confusing and scary. China appears to be over the hump. The US is getting out of a state of denial just about now. India will face its own unique challenges. Your goal is to help employees protect themselves, and not just cover yourself for liability. We must arm ourselves with the most reliable and useful information.

“What can you do to help your employees
and keep them safe?
They must have so many questions for you…”

What can you do to help your employees and keep them safe? They must have so many questions for you:  How can I work from home? What is non-essential travel at work? I’m sick, where do I get tested?  How does our company health insurance cover me? Who gets me food if I have to self quarantine?

Last week, at kPoint we gave our enterprise customers a playlist of selected videos about the impending crisis.

The uptake was quick. Our customers were motivated to provide reliable authoritative videos to their employees and track who viewed what.  They could follow through to the employees who had not consumed the needed information. They felt good that they did the right thing by not leaving staff to the whims of social media or letting them search in the vast ocean of YouTube.

But that was only the beginning. The basics.  As the next few months roll out, we could be in for a bumpy ride and a lot more focused and pertinent information will be needed.

Here are five things to do today to get your employees crucial information they need:

  1. Appoint a Covid-19 Steward for your company, from your leadership pool. This makes sense for a dispersed workforce and for perhaps 50 employees or more. This person should coordinate communication and be the SPOC externally and internally,  be a calming influence and be savvy enough to sift through the chaff.
  2. You can distribute content produced by reputed organizations like the World Health Organization and the Center of Disease Control. Their videos are made professionally and based on sound science based information and data. You can publish and track their use by your employees on kPoint.
  3. It’s just been 2 weeks and we already have CoronaVirus information fatigue from seeing incessant articles on social media. Good idea to share only vetted information sparingly so employees are more likely to consume it!
  4. Send localized information to teams and groups that alert them about outbreaks.  India is probably just a month away from apps like in China that show Covid-19 cases nearby much like Google maps tells us about restaurants and ATM’s. Quarantines could also spell the need to learn about door to door services.
  5. Gather feedback like a field report from various teams and locations especially if the company is dispersed. You get inputs that could be useful to alert authorities and perhaps get testing done to identify and isolate cases amongst staff.

“It’s quite simple at this initial stage,
Stay away from crowds
and wash hands often.”

It’s not enough for you as an individual to stay healthy; don’t be a carrier! Keep the most vulnerable of us, the elderly and sick, safe from exposure. Don’t panic. It’s quite simple at this initial stage, Stay away from crowds and wash hands often.

We are sure you have been thinking of strategies to stay engaged with your employees during this time.  What are you doing?  Share your ideas here.  We are in this together.

Keep your employees busy,  this might be a great opportunity to learn online,  as work slows down, you can use this time to have them learn new skills and hone existing ones!

If you are an employee , What do you think your employer should do? What information is most critical to your unique situation?  What are you most afraid of?

Write to us if you need specific information and not just about leveraging enterprise video.

Good luck. Stay safe! This too shall pass.

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1 Comment

    • Way to go!

      Abhijit Kulkarni

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