Crisis Management Plans: Battening Down the Hatches Part 1

​Crisis can strike anytime, anywhere. Global pandemics, civil unrest, hurricanes, floods, devastating accidents, power outages, cyber-attacks—the list is endless. In times of crisis, your business’s leadership team has the responsibility to make critical decisions about the business’s future under extreme stress and often without all the facts.  Having a formal crisis plan will equip your leadership team with the tools needed to survive a crisis and weather the storm.

Below, we identify the basic elements required to develop and implement a crisis plan and provide some simple tips for smaller- to medium-sized businesses to get this process started.

Strong Leadership In times of crisis, there is a direct correlation between strong leadership and survival. No matter the size of your business, your leaders must act with integrity, consistent with your business’s values and mission—even when it is most difficult to do so.  

Assemble a Crisis Management Team (CMT) When faced with a crisis, the Crisis Management Team is the team that “battens down the hatches” by assisting leadership in implementing and executing a crisis management plan.  If your business has several departments or divisions, your team should include employees from across those departments or divisions. If you are a sole proprietor or small business with few employees, then you may be the only member of your Crisis Management Team. That is fine. In times of crisis, you will wear not only your leadership hat but also your crisis management hat.  
 
Develop a Crisis Management Plan (CMP) A good Crisis Management Plan identifies the potential disasters your business might face and the strategies to deal with them. In creating a plan, your Crisis Management Team should consult with all aspects of business operations to ensure the list is complete and to incorporate all available response strategies.

Here are some benchmarks for a thorough and responsive Crisis Management Plan:

• Establish criteria for determining whether a crisis has occurred
• Establish monitoring systems and practices for early warning of possible crisis situations
• Provide a list of main emergency contacts
• Identify a crisis spokesperson
• Identify who should be notified in the event of a crisis and how the notification should occur
• Identify a process for assessing the potential severity and impact on business and employees
• Identify procedures to respond to the crisis and define safe places to go
• Develop a strategy for posting and responding on social media
• Develop a process to test the effectiveness of the CMP

Certain organizations, such as the British Standards Institute (BSI) or the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) provide crisis management and emergency standards from which any business can develop and create a CMP that fits the particularities of its industry and circumstances.

Train Your Employees Do not simply give your written Crisis Management Plan to your employees. Train them on it. Additionally, empower them to identify potential crises early and safely report those concerns to leadership or the Crisis Management Team. 
 
Communicate Timely and Consistently Develop a communications plan that will produce thorough, simple, and consistent messaging about crises directly from your company’s leadership. Make sure communications are accurate and honest—even if potentially damaging to your company’s profitability.
 
Update the Crisis Management Plan Times change. New crises develop. A Crisis Management Plan is a living document and must be updated. Review it annually to ensure it remains relevant and addresses the potential crises that may have developed over time. 
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To ensure your business can operate smoothly during the next crisis, take the time to create a Crisis Management Team and develop a Crisis Management Plan.  It will be well worth the time spent.