In the opening weeks of the pandemic in the US, the Harvard Business Review asked more than 800 employees at different companies what they wanted to hear from their firms.
The number one response was not about what employees wanted to hear, but when: Constant communication "reduces fear and uncertainty and ensures that employees have heard the message," the authors found.
"While leaders may experience fatigue from repeating core messages, they need to realize team members need to hear these messages multiple times," the authors wrote.
For billionaire Blackstone founder Steve Schwarzman, that meant starting "Blackstone TV"— a weekly update from Schwarzman and his management team that comes on Monday morning at 8:30.
"We invite everyone, more or less, to attend a management meeting," he said at Wednesday's Goldman US Financial Services conference.
With a majority of corporate workers still clocking in remotely, corporate communication has become critical to keep productivity levels up. Jamie Dimon told Keefe, Bruyette & Woods analysts that JPMorgan Chase employee productivity has slipped since workers went remote, and financial services firms are concerned that the spontaneous interactions that happen in an office are impossible to replicate virtually.
Citadel, for example, pumped resources into making a bubble environment for interns in Wisconsin this summer so the college students could interact with full-time employees and each other in-person.
"There's a need for intensive communication" during a pandemic, Schwarzman said.
But even when employees return to the office, Schwarzman said he doesn't think the "Blackstone TV" will be retired.
"Blackstone TV is not going to shut off, we are not going to get cancelled as a program because people get a vaccine," he said.
The firm, like many alternative asset managers, has done well despite the virus. Blackstone boasts more than $150 billion in dry powder, and its real-estate portfolio finished the third quarter up more than 3% for the year, Schwarzman said — easily surpassing the average REIT, which lost money this year.
Still, he warned at the conference that while the recovery seems to progressing along — and stock prices have already seemed to have priced it in — the US will struggle with unemployment after the vaccine is released broadly, thanks to the permanent closure of many businesses coupled with the trends that the virus accelerated.
"There are companies that are left behind that will stay behind," he said.
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