“There’s no playbook for what happened earlier this year,” began Mercer’s Natalie Truong. We’ve heard 2020 often described as ‘unprecedented’ and a ‘year like no other’–but can we use what we’ve learned to chart a course for the year ahead?
At our recent roundtable, ‘Time to Thrive in 2021’, Natalie was joined by Standard Chartered Bank’s Cheuk Shum. They shared their journeys through the pandemic, before the conversation opened up to the floor. As ever, it was a place for a small group to have a big conversation. Here are their ten top tips on what to take away from 2020 and how to build back better in 2021:
Five learnings from the past year:
1. Put your people first. Understand the needs of your team; clear, consistent and transparent communication is vital. At Mercer, a $5M fund was set up to help out colleagues and their families.
2. Global campaigns are not going to work. You must localise your messaging and marketing. The pandemic has affected markets across the world in different ways.
3. You can create new kinds of advocacy. With budgets cut, people have been forced to engage with media/alliance/community partners more innovatively and creatively. How do you spend the money to get the biggest impact?
4. Digital adoption is here to stay. The pandemic has accelerated digitalisation and the behavioural changes that have emerged will remain. Invest in digital.
5. Continue to invest in marketing. At Standard Chartered Bank they continued to invest heavily in marketing. Their ‘Work from Home’ Campaign helped clients to manage financial needs safely from their own homes. They showed that they cared through online demos to help clients adapt to the new situation.
Five tips on moving forward:
1. Enable your teams to be better tomorrow than they are today. How do you grow your people, your brand, your market and yourself? Do regular courses so you are constantly learning and improving.
2. Be consistent, present and show that you care. Your consumers and clients will remember that you reached out to them in the hard times as well as a the good. Identify the best platforms to do this on. Social media is more vital than ever.
3. Focus on high impact over high production. Start small – don’t try to boil the ocean. Genuine depictions of every day life create resonance over slick campaigns.
4. Virtual can’t replace physical interactions. It’s difficult to engage people through screens – we want to interact in person. Just because work can be done remotely doesn’t mean it always should be. Strike the right balance.
5. Keep upping the ante. What worked well this year? How can you make it even bigger and better in 2021?