Are You Prepared for a Crisis?

By Vicki Bohlsen
President

Every organization should have a working, well-trained and well-communicated crisis plan in place. According to a study from Capterra, only around 50% of companies say they have a formal or informal plan in place.

Unfortunately, most companies not only underestimate the importance of having a plan should a crisis occur, but also aren’t super familiar with the plan that they do have. If your company has a crisis communications plan in place – bravo! I encourage you to review it at least annually with the key stakeholders involved and update, digest and practice mock scenarios.

An organizational crisis is an event, or a series of events, that causes major disturbance for a business. A crisis typically occurs suddenly and poses intense difficulty or danger for the business either operationally or reputationally.

Cyberattacks are the leading cause of crisis events, with technology failure following closely behind. Other emergent situations include health-related events, public relations issues, financial situations, organizational problems and natural disasters.

Be familiar with the difference between an emerging crisis situation and an actual crisis incident. Don’t underestimate how quickly a situation can turn critical and always be in a prepared state to activate the crisis communications plan that you have in place.

Depending on the crisis-oriented event, there are different stakeholders whom it will be critical to be in communication with during crisis situations: IT management, business operations, public relations, human resources, security, customers, legal/compliance, regulatory affairs, finance, emergency services, board members and staff. At a minimum, you should have these key stakeholder lists updated and available so that you can communicate with them immediately, during the resolution, and following the incident.

Each department should know in advance their role should a crisis occur. It will be different depending on your industry, which is why practicing a mock scenario is critical. Doing so will force management in each department to be on alert and feel more comfortable if contacted about an escalating or emergent situation.

Besides resolving a crisis quickly and efficiently, communication to stakeholders will be extremely important. Honest, open and regular communication is the only option in a crisis situation.

Lastly, once a crisis has ended, it is imperative that you close out the situation by announcing its resolution to all stakeholders. Be sure to instill confidence in this messaging about how you resolved it, will attempt to keep it from happening again, or will make it right.

Without a plan in place, many organizations panic and flounder making a situation hard to manage, costly, and damaging to their reputation.

Should you want to talk about how we can help you prepare for a potential crisis, contact us at info@bohlsengroup.com