The Reset: Connecting Internal Crisis Communication Strategy with Post-Pandemic Remote Worker Populations Through an Employee Engagement Framework

In the post-pandemic workforce, unprecedented events are the new normal. Although the remote worker revolution has been rumored for decades, in early 2020, the idea became an instant reality when global governments closed their borders, instituted lockdown, and ordered citizens to shelter-in-place (Weideman & Hofmeyr, 2020). Given the global shift in work, organizations have an immediate need to communicate with the crisis-ladened, post-pandemic, remote workforce; however, there is a sizable gap in research between internal crisis communication and the post-pandemic remote worker population. Through a phenomenologically based, interpretive analysis of current strategic and crisis communication research and frameworks, this project provides a starting point for addressing these challenges. It defines and establishes the gap between internal crisis communication and the revolutionized remote worker population and then seeks to bridge the gap by proposing a modified framework for strategic communication rooted in employee engagement scholarship. It concludes with a R.E.S.E.T. strategy that paves the way for practical next steps, future research, and marketplace application