By Sandra Pinto, Head of Communication Service
Everything happened very quickly at INESC TEC’s Communication Service office, similarly to all the cases we have heard of. On a Wednesday, we were all seating in a room, for our weekly meeting; the next day, more than half of the team started working at home and Friday was the last day at the office for the remaining staff.
We didn’t have time to prepare or to plan this transition. Fortunately, the teleworking got off to a good start, because we had tried it weeks before, during the remodelling of our office. We had the necessary resources and technical conditions, so we promptly activated remote meeting platforms, while preserving team routines. We all had a lot of work to do, and the first few weeks went by quite quickly. But what about communication? Did it remain the same?
The answer is no. Communication has changed. We had to postpone most of the communication actions planned for March, April and May – and who knows for how long. The key words during this phase were (and are) adaptation, flexibility and common sense. In what concerns communication to the outside, the cancellation or postponement of events became quite frequent. We made the decision to postpone some events that we were organising, because times are of great uncertainty. Others were planned as online events. However, while the number of events was decreasing, the need to communicate INESC TEC initiatives related to the COVID-2019 pandemic was increasing.
Initially, we felt a little uncomfortable to communicate pandemic-related issues on the media, website or social media, to avoid the idea that we were taking advantage of a calamity to promote INESC TEC. On the other hand, maintaining the usual record and ignoring the pandemic issue would be completely unreasonable. Faced with this dilemma, our attitude was to convey positive messages of reassurance and hope. For example, we highlighted the development of smart technology to detect cancer cells on social media, with an optimistic lead: “In these adverse times that we’re living, not everything is bad news”.
The truth is that INESC TEC’s participation in initiatives to fight against COVID-19 skyrocketed (and it keeps skyrocketing). In a spontaneous way, but always supported by the Board of Directors (CA), our researchers organised themselves to think about how they could put their knowledge at the service of society and public health, and several ideas started to materialise. For instance, a week after we started teleworking, we began developing a low-cost emergency ventilator pro bono, we supported a project to produce protective visors and we launched two studies related to the pandemic – “Diaries of a Pandemic” and “Measuring the Iceberg”. INESC TEC developed them in record time, with some long-time partners. Other projects were born every day, including an app to track COVID-19 that is now “on everyone’s lips” and, if everything goes as planned, will soon be available to download on our mobile phones.
Suddenly, it became necessary to communicate all this information: elaborate communication plans (at a time when plans are outdone by the day-to-day reality), think about dissemination strategies, harmonise speeches, coach spokespersons, coordinate partners and disseminate coherent and standardised information among the different communication channels, including the media.
Regarding the media, we quickly realised that the focus became the coronavirus and nothing else. When we tried to present a different subject – like the fact that INESC TEC is the Portuguese institution with the largest number of patent applications to the European Patent Office for the third consecutive year – our press officer got this answer: “If it’s not about COVID-19, there is no chance!” As for INESC TEC’s initiatives to address COVID-19, it’s a whole different story. There are more than 100 news pieces associated with the app “STAYAWAY COVID”, and it will surely continue to be a key subject in the media. Our main difficulty has been containing media coverage while we coordinate and prepare ourselves, but we know keeping people aware of our initiatives is very important, since they must participate and get involved – in the studies and the app, for example.
In addition to this, internal communication has also changed radically, due to the lockdown and the adoption of teleworking. In a flash, we stopped seeing each other in person, going to the colleagues’ office to ask a question, having coffee or lunch together. In this unusual context, it became necessary to implement initiatives that could promote socialisation and interaction between colleagues, even at a distance. The communication and human resources services have been working together since the first week, in order to design actions that strengthen the ties between employees, while keeping their spirits up.
Some of the initiatives launched during the first weeks of teleworking were the “Home Logs” and the chat room “INESC TEC @ Home”. Concerning the first, employees are invited to share their daily teleworking experiences, in light and good-natured way. We’re getting a positive response, leading to an average of two journals published each week on the Intranet. As to the second action, employees who joined this chat room were challenged to share a photographs of their last vacation, take a “coffee break”, talk about the books they are reading or show what they see from their windows while teleworking, among many other different ideas that change every day, in order to improve the group’s cohesion.
In the midst of all this, we celebrated INESC TEC’s 35th anniversary, and we were forced to rethink, reformulate or even postpone several of the activities originally planned. This is where the creativity of the communication team comes into play, leading to pleasant surprises. In the end of the day before our birthday (May 6), we came up with the idea of inviting employees to sing “Happy Birthday” via Zoom, and recording a video for social networks. What happened the next day was astonishing to say the least: close to 80 employees joined in at the scheduled time, including the majority of the CA, the current and former presidents, “precursors” who participated in the establishment of INESC at Porto 35 years ago, and even new employees who joined a few weeks ago. For almost half an hour, they talked and shared memories of the early days, before singing “Happy Birthday” to INESC TEC. This was a unique moment for sharing experiences and reinforcing internal cohesion – which probably wouldn’t have happened if we were together in person, at INESC TEC.
Yes, our life has changed, and so has communication. But we remain close.
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