For many organizations, risk communication strategies regarding COVID-19 have been ongoing for most of 2020. This is one of the basic tenets of risk communication 101 – start early.
Tyson Foods (2019 global sales of $42.4 billion; 121,000 employees; 300+ facilities in approximately 125 countries) formed its coronavirus task force in January, according to Gary Mickelson, the company’s director of media relations. The task force’s work developing policies, controls and plant practices has been at the heart of Tyson’s risk communication messaging.
Risk communication is deployed most often during a crisis, such as the pandemic, or in response to the revelation of a hazard, an health or safety incident, and outrage voiced by employees, communities, regulators and other stakeholders. The communication climate is negative, rife with fear, anxiety, panic, anger, uncertainty and unpredictability.
One unintended consequence of risk communication, if executed effectively, is the positives an organization can reap. Implemented with purpose, objectives, clarity and authenticity, risk communication answers the most pressing questions of stakeholders and can enhance brand reputation, corporate social responsibility, trust, confidence, and transparency.
These potential positives are a long way from the old ways of risk communication: Why stir the pot? Stonewall or minimize. Duck. Outright lie.
Tyson Foods’ risk communications during the pandemic have been, in the words of Vice President of EHS Tom Brower, aggressive. Google “Tom Brower Tyson Foods” and these headlines come up:
- Tyson to put health clinics in plants
- Tyson Foods reports 189 positive COVID-19 cases at Springdale Plant
- Tyson Foods releases results from COVID-19 testing at Storm Lake plant
- More than 500 workers test positive for COVID-19 at Tyson Food plant in Wilkesboro
- Mandatory face masks, temperature scanner among Tyson measures
Google Director of Media Relations “Gary Mickelson Tyson Foods” and you get:
• Tyson Foods spokesman Gary Mickelson reports four of its employees dead from coronavirus
• Tyson Foods doubles bonuses, increases health benefits (short-term disability coverage)
Mickelson says about one-third of Tyson’s U.S. workforce has been tested, and currently less than one percent of all U.S. employees have active COVID-19.
Tyson’s aggressiveness comes amid a firestorm of protests, complaints and investigations of the food industry during the pandemic. The Washington Post: “More than 200 meat plant workers in the U.S. have died of COVID-19. Federal regulators just issued two modest fines.” ProPublica: “Meatpacking companies dismissed years of warnings but now say nobody could have prepared for COVID-19.”
This is classic outrage that eminent risk communication consultant Peter Sandman urged organizations for decades to address head on. No ducking or minimizing.
Brower talks openly about Tyson’s “high density situations” with employees working close together. He talks about the challenge of translating risk messaging into 70 languages and dialects. He concedes the pandemic has stoked “lots of fear and mystery.” And he says, “You’ve got to be honest with employees. You can’t mitigate this risk to zero.”
His advice: “You can’t over-communicate. We’re just constantly communicating. Filter out all the noise and stay grounded in the science. That’s essential. Talk about how the situation is changing – or not changing — internally and externally. We take a conservative, defensive approach exceeding CDC, OSHA and the best medically available advice. We are continuously monitoring and updating our protocols. Quite honestly it’s a challenge.”
A risk communication training course offered by the Phylmar Academy covers constraints for the communicator and the audience that companies have had to confront with COVID-19: 1) constant changes in information; 2) disagreement among experts; 3) changes in the knowledge base; and 4) disagreements on the magnitude of the risks (to mask or not to mask). For international companies such as Tyson Foods, there can also be learning difficulties.
Tyson strategically confronts these challenges using various risk communication platforms. Brower holds one or two webinars each week, each 60 to 90 minutes long, to 400 to 500 staffers who work in health services, human resources and plant operations. Digital signage and posting at plants, videos and safety huddles are other communication vehicles. A mobile engagement app is being piloted at seven plants to boost communication to frontline workers.
A scientific advisory panel of five experts with previous pandemic experience meets three to five times a week to keep Tyson “grounded in the science.” The company has partnered with Matrix Medical Network and Axiom Medical to mitigate the risk of COVID-19 spread. It is also ramping up occupational health resources, adding 200 medical staffers and a chief medical officer to its existing staff of 500 health professionals.
Another consequence of the pandemic for Tyson: “Our health focus will be culturally different,” says Brower. Health risk communication (and controls) are being extended off-the-job. It is a version of NIOSH’s Total Worker Health initiative, emphasizing 24/7 holistic health activities. Mickelson says the company has distributed 300,000 cloth masks to employees for their families to use. “PPE for daily use can be hard to find in some communities, so this donation is meant to help give peace of mind to our team members and those closest to them,” he says.
Phylmar’s risk communication course emphasizes there is no silver bullet for risk communication. Strategies and solutions differ from company to company depending on audiences, circumstances and purposes. Several universals are described: be honest about the risk, its relevance and the consequences to the audience; decide on the level of control needed to mitigate the risk; be clear whether or not employees’ families may be exposed to the risk; and to be credible, choose messengers who are viewed as trusted sources of information by the audience.
In risk communication, perception is reality. Tyson Foods, as with many other companies, confronts the pandemic’s realities, and its myriad perspectives, every day.
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