Stay Ahead: Insights from APCO

Celebrating Women's Equality Day: A Discussion on Women, Work, Family and COVID


This year, Women’s Equality Day in the United States honors 100 years since the ratification of the 19th amendment. While we celebrate the suffragettes’ groundbreaking activism, we must remember that the fight for equality for all women carries on.

Join Margery Kraus, founder of APCO Worldwide, and Irene Khan, United Nations Special Rapporteur for freedom of Expression and Opinion, to discuss COVID’s disproportionate impact on women, the changing expectations of balancing work and family life, and the important work ahead to ensure women’s equality around the globe. The webinar will be held on Wednesday, August 26 from 2-3 PM ET. RSVP here.

C-Suites Need Communicators!


Liam Clarke, managing director of APCO Worldwide in Saudi Arabia, and Alexander Wegner, account director, discuss how communicators are needed at the executive level to support company goals:
Conference room
"The current crisis presents organizations across the board with a threefold challenge. First, having to manage the expectations of a wide range of internal and external stakeholders–from employees and customers to shareholders and investors–despite the constantly evolving global health and economic landscape.

Second, adjusting to the changes in consumer behavior the COVID-19 pandemic has caused and reacting to renewed discussions about the future of work. And third, as the pandemic impacts communities differently, accentuating inequalities within and between them, assuming a strategic position vis-à-vis growing societal demands for social justice."

More to UK Health Reforms Than Just Obesity and COVID-19


Three colleagues from APCO Worldwide’s London office, Burhan Al-Gailani, Lisa Neiss and Gabriel Phillips, discuss how two major health reforms will impact the UK health system:
London
"The second major reform, news that the Government is scrapping Public Health England (PHE) and creating a new body to fight COVID-19, had been rumoured for some time after the Prime Minister said that the UK’s response to the pandemic had been “sluggish” and was confirmed this week.

First trailed to the Sunday Telegraph, the new National Institute for Health Protection (NIHP) will be modelled on Germany’s Robert Koch Institute to bring sharper focus to efforts to prevent future outbreaks of infectious diseases and rapidly scale the UK’s test and trace capability. To ensure this PHE’s health improvement responsibilities, which include leading efforts to fight obesity, are to be embedded across the National Health Service."

Some Positive News

  • Culture celebration: Rijeka, the European Capital of Culture 2020, has turned to community-based projects to salvage the city’s celebration of culture, BBC
  • Virtual training: Nike is partnering with NFL stars to offer virtual coaching and training for young athletes, CNBC
  • Rock in the name of science: Researchers in Germany staged a 1,500-person experimental indoor concert to better understand how COVID-19 spreads, CNN

More Tips from Around the Water Cooler

  • COVID-19 has employers asking illegal interview questions. Here is what to say, Forbes
  • A first-time manager’s guide to empathetic leadership, Quartz
  • Will we ever touch (professionally) again? —The future of handshakes, fist bumps and even foot shakes, The New York Times​
  • How to get employees to report their COVID-19 risk, Harvard Business Review

Quotables


"I understand the instinct to keep things simple, but I think we actually do the public a disservice when we assume people can’t handle nuance … when we are overly heavy-handed in our public health recommendations and go beyond what is actually necessary and evidence-based that’s when we start to lose [public] trust."

        - Julia Marcus, professor at Harvard Medical School

"How sad it would be if for the COVID-19 vaccine priority is given to the richest. It would be sad if this vaccine were to become the property of this nation or another, rather than universal and for all. The pandemic has laid bare the difficult situation of the poor and the great inequality that reigns in the world."

        - Pope Francis
The APCO team is working with clients globally to manage this crisis, and we stand ready to support your needs. For more resources from APCO, including our latest research, information on how we can help or to contact us, visit apcoworldwide.com/coronavirus.