Chad Hatmaker's on-point advice for employers – which PR teams must bear in mind as well as they think through employee-focused communications strategies – spans a diverse gamut, tied to passage of recent COVID-19 Aid legislation. 

Included in the discussion:

• How remote work / virtual team transitions are impacting workplaces in critical ways
• How the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) (signed into law March 18 and taking effect April 1) is already impacting the workplace, in the wake of the COVID-19 Pandemic, with caregiver and emergency paid sick leave components. (FFCRA “provides for expanded FMLA and Emergency Paid Leave in certain limited circumstances related to the Coronavirus pandemic,” as noted on Chad’s blog – tnemploymentlawblog.com)
• The law of unintended consequences?... How the funding of these mandates expected by employers with fewer than 500 employees will impact companies in the short-term versus long-term
• Aspects of consideration for those who are self-employed 
• How much risk employers may be in for, relative to employee lawsuits down the pike
• Anti-retaliation considerations and potential employee claims that employers must bear in mind to avoid legal risk
• A cursory overview of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act
• How recent Pew Research statistics on teleworkers and the COVID-19 “new normal” on Work from Home #WFH arrangements may permanently change the workplace landscape
• Discussion of whether working from home may or may not be a part later of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), relative to a “reasonable accommodation”
• How the public relations profession is well-suited to telework platforms and how the new-normal of work-from-home arrangements may unleash an upending of traditional workplaces, both in the PR profession and in countless other knowledge-based fields
• The Legal Side vs The PR Side: Chad’s take on how both disciplines need to work together, whether in response to COVID-19 or in any crisis
• And much more.

Links:

• Follow the #MsInterPReted hashtag
• Follow Chad Hatmaker of Woolf McClane
  • Twitter: @JChadHatmaker
  • Chad Hatmaker’s blog, “Tennessee Employment Law”
  • LinkedIn
• Discover Fletcher Marketing PR
• Follow Fletcher Marketing PR on Twitter: @FletcherPR 
•  Follow Kelly Fletcher on Twitter: @KDfletcher 
• Follow Mary Beth West on Twitter: @marybethwest