Leaked memos and internal documents reveal how executives at top PR firm Weber Shandwick responded to the coronavirus crisis in real-time

gail heimann weber shandwick

Memos and documents from executives at Weber Shandwick to employees over the past month reveal how the second biggest PR firm responded to the COVID-19 outbreak in real-time.
CEO Gail Heimann first emphasized "facts not fear," saying leadership's top concern would always be employees' health.
Over time, the company shifted to more remote work as more employees were exposed to the virus and the communications grew more urgent.
Weber Shandwick has not responded to multiple requests for comment.
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The coronavirus outbreak has touched every business around the globe — and public relations, the industry tasked with handling how companies and people present themselves to stakeholders, is no exception.

Internal memos sent from executives at Weber Shandwick to employees over the past month and obtained by Business Insider reveal how the second biggest PR firm, whose clients include Royal Caribbean Cruises, Verizon, General Motors, and GlaxoSmithKline, responded to the crisis in real-time.

The firm, like many in the advertising and communications fields, has been directly touched by the crisis. To date, two employees at its New York headquarters have come into close contact with an infected person and another later tested positive.

In the memos, leadership at Weber Shandwick, part of holding company IPG, repeatedly stated that the health of staff was their primary concern.

A spokesperson for the firm didn't respond to multiple requests for comment on this story.

Executives emphasised 'facts not fear' as the virus swept through Asia

Global CEO Gail Heimann initially called the situation "unpredictable" and "fluid," stating in a February 28 message that most offices around the world were unaffected but that employees in Asia had already been "heroically and deftly navigating the many emerging challenges" for several weeks.

"Our counsel to our clients during a crisis is to react to facts and not fear and it's important that we do the same," she wrote. "Our collective and number one concern is, always, our people."

Later that day, North American Chief Human Resources Officer Jean Lee Swagert sent an all-staff alert titled "Your Health and Safety: COVID-19 Coronavirus Preparedness."

She wrote that the risk in North America remained "low" but recommended that everyone should take general flu prevention measures. She said the company would make disinfectant, tissues, and hand sanitizer readily available, that all internal meetings would be virtual, and that people who thought they were exposed should "Go home immediately, contact your healthcare provider and inform your local HR partner."

A facilities manager wrote that catching the virus is 'not that easy' as fears of exposure reached North America

As the situation became more serious, the firm sought to balance keeping employees safe with serving clients.

By March 6, the virus had already spread to about 70 countries and territories, with nearly 100,000 confirmed cases and over 3,000 deaths worldwide. Employees got a memo from North American President Joy Farber-Kolo saying San Francisco colleagues may have been exposed to COVID-19 while on vacation.

Staff in San Francisco and Seattle were advised to work from home early that week, and Farber-Kolo wrote that the former office would be closed over the weekend to be sanitized. All non-essential air travel was placed on hold, and employees leading new business pitches were tasked with explaining these changes to current and would-be Weber Shandwick clients.

Farber-Kolo also said the firm wanted to balance "caution" with maintaining client services, writing, "Are we potentially over-reacting?"

That Sunday, March 8, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo declared a state of emergency, and Weber Shandwick New York General Manager Michael Wehman informed employees there that the city and the firm would continue "to operate as normal."

On Monday March 9, Swagert told North American staff about a "centralized tracker" to determine whether anyone had traveled to a not-yet-designated COVID-19 hot spot and asked people to disclose recent and upcoming travel plans to HR immediately while saying the risk of exposure was "still considered low."

"Catching coronavirus (COVID-19) it's not that easy (if we are careful) and we can kill it quite easily (provided we try)," wrote Edwin Polanco, director of facility and office services for IPG's PR division Constituency Management Group (CMG), in a March 9 memo to employees.

The office remained open. Ten days later, a spokesperson confirmed to Business Insider that an employee there had tested positive.

The virus hit home and Governor Cuomo's executive order forced the firm's headquarters to close

The company shifted to more remote work as more employees were exposed to the virus.

On March 11, Wehman wrote to employees at all agencies in the New York headquarters that two staff members were at a conference the week before and came in contact with a vendor who was later diagosed with COVID-19.

He confirmed that they'd been in the office after returning from the conference but were then advised to self-quarantine. In a follow-up email responding to employees' questions, Wehman wrote that they were members of the Healthcare team seated on the seventh floor but declined to elaborate.

On Friday March 13, IPG CEO Michael Roth issued a memo confirming that all agency offices would remain open with "lower population density."

The following Monday, most Weber Shandwick staff in North America began working remotely by request.

That Tuesday, Farber-Kolo mentioned social distancing and parenting from home. She then positioned the pandemic as an opportunity for Weber Shandwick's clients.

"What if our clients redirected their resources and communications to fill a real and new legitimate need? What if we could find a new way to solve a societal problem, a human problem and a business problem at the same time?" she wrote.

As an example, she cited LVMH and Absolut's plans to make hand sanitizer and the media coverage they got for these moves.

On Thursday March 19, Jean Lee Swagert sent an email to all North American employees confirming the first case of COVID-19 at Weber Shandwick New York.

"We will have a small team in place in our offices to handle essential business functions but we are asking all others to work remotely," Farber-Kolo wrote to staff earlier that day. "I believe wholeheartedly that our contributions to our clients and the economy — now and in the weeks and months to come — have never been more important."

Her memo included the below guide to making the most of virtual presentations.

virtual presentations

Employees also got tips for working remotely, like "Be transparent and over-communicate" and "Consider picking up the phone more often, even in cases where you'd typically send an email," and were told to direct clients to the Communicating Amidst COVID-19 website, which aggregates news and research about the virus.

They also were sent a list of internal contacts from Weber Shandwick such as Dr. Michael Merson, an expert on disease prevention at Duke University who the firm has hired as a client counsel, and Weber Shandwick China President Lydia Lee, who the document states will offer "key takeaways and best practices from how different industries in China have responded to the pandemic."

The firm shifts its communications strategy as the new normal sets in

Weber Shandwick locked into a new way of working and stopped sending all-staff memos, according to Business Insider's source.

On Friday, March 20, Swagert told all North American employees again to self report if they were being tested or tested positive, adding that the pandemic will inevitably affect more Weber Shandwick employees.

At just after 11 AM that morning, the company announced via the message below that it would close its headquarters and require everyone to work from home.

Screen Shot 2020 03 25 at 3.46.18 PM

Later that evening, Wehman congratulated the New York team for not losing focus during its first full week as a remote office.

Business Insider published Weber Shandwick's internal guide to pitching reporters during the outbreak on Saturday, March 21. According to the person who provided the memos to Business Insider, Weber Shandwick leadership subsequently abandoned all-staff memos in favor of conference calls and told people not to leak any more information to the press.

Got more information about this story or another ad industry tip? Contact Patrick Coffee on Signal at (347) 563-7289, email at pcoffee@businessinsider.com or patrickcoffee@protonmail.com, or via Twitter DM @PatrickCoffee. You can also contact Business Insider securely via SecureDrop.

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