How CAG staff stay in touch during a time of crisis

May 2021

When Covid-19 hit Singapore in early 2020, one of Changi Airport Group’s (CAG’s) immediate priorities was to ensure the safety and well-being of its almost-2,000-strong workforce. As the Covid-19 pandemic developed, from April 2020 onwards, all CAG employees who were able to do their jobs remotely were required to work from home (WFH), a situation that has continued into 2021. During this extended period of absence from the physical workplace, internal communications within CAG has taken on new importance, with the company utilising multiple channels to broadcast news and information to its employees, as well as to engage them.

One of these channels is the company’s internal social networking app – appropriately named ‘In.Touch’. It enables CAG employees to share information with one another through bite-sized posts, such as the latest innovations being trialed, retail promotions for staff, or simply a beautiful rainbow spotted at one of the airside fire stations. The app is maintained by CAG’s Internal Communications team, part of the Corporate and Marketing Communications division.  

Throughout the WFH period, the team has been curating a constant stream of content for the app to ensure that staff continue to be kept posted on developments at Changi – this included posts on how CAG is responding to the Covid-19 crisis, for example by pivoting to online businesses like iShopChangi and Changi Eats, and on the work done by colleagues who remain on duty at the airport.

Among the content curated for In.Touch was a series of #BusinessUnusual posts featuring the out-of-the-norm work that CAG employees had been doing during the WFH period.

In.Touch is also used as a platform through which important news, like the suspension of operations at Terminal 4, can be shared with employees firsthand. To keep morale up during the more socially distant period of 2020’s circuit breaker, the team also shared light-hearted content like memes and jokes, and was heartened to see other colleagues making posts to encourage and motivate one another.

Motivational and celebratory posts were common on In.Touch during the WFH period, as CAG employees made posts to encourage one another.

With email still being the default mode of work communication for many colleagues, the Internal Comms team also uses emails to disseminate important information organisation-wide. For example, in the lead-up to the suspension of operations at Terminals 2 and 4, the team emailed FAQs to the CAG populace, to explain the rationale behind the suspensions and to provide practical guidance on topics like transportation, directions, and roadway and parking access. 

 

CAG’s People Team also uses a dedicated ‘Your People Team’ email channel to inform staff promptly about the latest COVID-19-related workplace measures, such as changes to working arrangements and safe management measures. This and other critical information, such as changes to CAG and government policies and plans, vaccination and swabbing arrangements, are also communicated through a network of Business Continuity Planning managers in each division. All critical workplace safe management measures, guidelines and standard operating procedures can be found in a live online COVID-19 Manual that is located on the CAG intranet for easy access.  

As many employees were adapting to a new way of working, CAG sought to better understand how to support its employees. CAG’s People Team launched a pulse survey within two weeks of the start of WFH, to gather feedback on how employees were coping, and subsequently tailored interventions that were aligned to the survey insights. One of the main shifts was to have more regular updates from senior management to address the uncertainty that staff might feel.

For the first time, virtual townhalls were held in March and June 2020 via Microsoft Teams, with CAG’s CEO and senior management sharing updates with employees on the organisation’s response to the pandemic and its plans moving forward. 

 

Virtual Townhalls enabled CAG senior management to provide first-hand accounts of the direction of the company, and to respond to questions from staff

Finally, amid changes in work arrangements, employees’ wellness remains a top priority. CAG’s People Team ensured that employees’ wellness needs were met during the WFH period, and the team pivoted quickly from physical to virtual programmes, covering a range of topics like financial planning, as well as physical and emotional wellness. Live sessions conducted via Microsoft Teams and Zoom were also recorded and uploaded to a dedicated wellness portal on CAG’s intranet, enabling every employee to them at their own convenience.

As the Covid-19 situation and working arrangements evolve, CAG will continue to use existing communications platforms, and explore new ones, to keep employees informed and up-to-date on how the company is responding to the pandemic, no matter where they might be working from. 

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