The Covid-19 pandemic have pushed leaders to learn lessons about what their employees need, specially in times of crisis. At the World Gaming Executive Summit (WGES), our lead reporter Becky Liggero Fontana hosted a panel on “Assessing internal corporate communications under these unprecedented times,” and was joined by a panel of three talented women to see what they had to say about those lessons.

Yevgeniya Golovina, PR and Communications Officer JKR Investment Group, expressed how her company saw what was really valuable when times got tough. “When the pandemic happened, we understood that we have to communicate with our people, because as an investment company, people are our most important asset,” she said. “If you invest in people, you actually get a great return.”

The core lesson she has taken away from the pandemic is that people easily get lost when communication is cut off, and they fill the void with whatever information they can, even if it’s unreliable. JKR took measures to stop that from happening:

“What we did, is we set up an initiative called an Inspiration Breakfast, and we actually invited everybody to have breakfast together on Mondays. Just chatting together, catching up, and sharing their experiences through the week. We didn’t talk a lot about work related stuff, because by that point our CEO had a lot of trust with us, so nobody was really concerned about if we’re really doing our job. But what we wanted to do is actually support people and make sure that they feel good about themselves, that they’re positive about the situation, regardless of the negative outcomes, that they’re clear about the division of the company and that they have this assurance that everything is going to be fine and that we have their back.”