The start of 2022 holds a mixed bag of headlines for broadcasters, and some are quite challenging.
- Our news gatherers continue to find themselves needing to define the difference between fact and opinion with a growing number of listeners/viewers. Fake News must turn into Fact News.
- Our sales departments have become more therapists than account executives as our local business community struggle to find workers and product leading even more shoppers to find Amazon.
- Our employees are feeling the crunch of inflation and have been comparing their wages to the higher ones at the drive thru window.
As broadcasters, we will once again demonstrate our resiliency and find working solutions to these challenges. In doing so, I want to make sure we remember the human side to these new challenges. Now it’s time to be compassionate…compassionate about our work family.
As we approach 24-months of “unprecedented times,” we need to remind ourselves that for many of our employees this is all they have ever known. Our employees are mentally fatigued, and as leaders, we need to understand that our behavior must also evolve to help mitigate those feelings. What can we do?
It’s tough. This month, I canceled our stations holiday lunch because many employees told me that they would rather not “mass gather” to be healthy for their own family gatherings. Missing out on these events erodes our station’s culture of caring for our employees.
In lieu of a holiday lunch, I purchased local restaurant gift cards for staff. Rather than a generic “thank you” and my name on the bottom of the gift card, I placed the gift card inside a custom handwritten thank you card. Some of you already do this, but for me it was my way of evolving and doing something different. This didn’t solve all the challenges facing our station in 2022, but it made it clear that I appreciate each of them.
WBA members, while I hope to see many of you at our next gathering, I want to make sure you know how much you are appreciated. Have a great 2022.
