After Hurricane Katrina, a survey indicated that only 67 percent of
communicators interviewed had a formal crisis communication plan. Of
the organizations that had actually experienced a crisis, 42 percent
said they still didn't have a formal crisis communication plan, and
54 percent said they didn't have a plan because they lacked the
support of senior managers.
Do you have a plan? How will you communicate with your employees and
customers if an emergency strikes?
Knowing how to define a crisis and then immediately trigger a
reliable action plan is crucial these days. The health and safety of
your audience depends on the speed and accuracy of your alert
system. Communicators must be prepared to leverage the available
technology to get the word out as fast as possible.
Planning the Plan
A
crisis communications plan outlines what you need to communicate,
how, when and to whom. It is usually a subset of an overall crisis
plan that includes emergency operations procedures and business
recovery tactics.
Developing your emergency strategies has to start at the top, with
executive cooperation throughout the creation, testing and refining
of your crisis plans. Without the support of every senior manager
and department, even a beautifully crafted plan will be ineffective
– and that can cost time, money and even lives.
Be sure that your plan is clear and easy to execute. Each member of
your organization should be able to take action and fulfill the plan
in an emergency without convoluted directions or burdensome
hierarchies to slog through. Emotions often run high in these
situations, so providing simple visual tools to guide users through
the plan, such as checklists, can be extremely helpful.
Be Prepared
A
series of scenarios should be explored and prepared for, with
detailed instructions for each. Consider every possible emergency on
an organizational, local, state, national and global level:
Fire
Severe weather
Power outage
Workplace violence
Terrorist alert
Biological event/toxic spill
Evacuation
Computer virus
National or international breaking news
Physical plant issue
Each
crisis has its own challenges. In some instances, you will need to
prepare to execute your plan without the help of technology, or from an
identified off-site crisis center. All scenarios should have
contingencies built in for the failure or unavailability of any and/or
all communication technologies, such as computer networks, phones and
power.
Time is Essential
The
speed with which you communicate during a crisis can save lives. Your
plan should target four main audiences:
1.
On-site employees, customers and visitors
2.
Emergency workers, such as police, fire and EMS
3.Press
4.
Community at large
People on the premises should be immediately informed of the emergency
and told precisely what is expected of them. When creating and testing
the plan, every available means of communication should be explored to
find the most reliable and efficient delivery method. Starting with the
most effective, each communication channel should be employed to ensure
maximum coverage. Make sure email distribution lists and phone trees are
regularly updated.
A
complete list of emergency contacts should be included in the plan, and
the plan should be readily available at all times to everyone in the
organization. In addition to local fire, police and EMS services, don’t
forget to include less common resources such as Hazmat, FBI, and IT
recovery contacts.
Pre-written statements should be shaped so that only the bare minimum of
factual details need to be added to press releases. Emotions and time
constraints dictate that communicators should not be hampered with
cumbersome writing assignments during a crisis.
Be
sure to include business recovery tactics in your plan. Getting your
organization up and running as soon as possible after a crisis is
critical, as is educating the community at large, such as remote
employees, investors, and customers.
The
first hour is critical. Protocols and timelines for communications to
all groups should be established in advance. Be specific – instead of
just listing the order of contact, set deadlines such as “Call emergency
workers within 5 minutes.” and “Notify all on-site personnel within 8
minutes.”
Try
your plans out BEFORE an emergency happens. Testing is essential to
getting your plan right, so be sure to build in crisis drills during
plan development and on a continuing basis to guarantee that everyone in
your organization is prepared.
Technology Tools
During a crisis, you can get the word out much faster with
communications technologies than without them. Yet, technology should
not be your only tool during an emergency:
Personal contact
– Though it may be unrealistic to rely on mass personal notification in
an emergency, often this is the first means of communication, as well as
the last resort. Individuals should be trained in how to notify people
near them of a crisis. Emergency training courses can help prepare
individuals for leadership under extreme circumstances.
Phone
– Having an up-to-date phone list is essential and you should use mobile
phone numbers whenever possible. Although telephoning is not very
effective for contacting large groups, it is essential to interface with
emergency services.
Email
– Email is not a timely way to communicate during a crisis because it
relies on audience members accessing the information versus delivering
it to them where they are. If you use email, be sure to have an
established emergency email tag in the subject line so it is instantly
recognizable to your audience. Email can be valuable in later
communications with the community at large.
Text
messaging (SMS)
– If your on-site audience carries mobile phones, text messaging is a
very effective way to communicate in a crisis. Distribution lists are
already established through prior subscription, and your communications
are delivered to the person wherever they are. Never rely on one
technology, though; as some people may not have SMS service, their
phones may be off, or the cellular network may be down or overloaded.
RSS
publishing
– RSS publishing is similar to text messaging in that it can
simultaneously reach out to various endpoints that have been previously
established. PDAs, IPods® and Blackberrys® can receive RSS messages. RSS
feeds can also feed web pages on intranets, digital signage displays and
some RSS-enabled mobile phones.
Desktop publishing
– Instant Messaging (IM) to desktops is another fast way to communicate
if your audience is computer-centric. Screensavers can also display
messages with the appropriate software installed.
Digital signage
– Large screen displays are becoming more common in all types of
organizations. One of their main advantages is their high visibility
when placed in public areas. Whatever software you are using to drive
your digital signage should have the ability to interrupt its service
with crisis announcements. AxisTV from Visix provides an alert mode that
overrides scheduled messages to broadcast your emergency communications
immediately and across various channels.
Whatever communications technology you are using, be sure to develop
some crisis cues, such as altered colors, symbols or text codes, so your
audience will immediately recognize emergency communications.
In Conclusion
Events like Hurricane Katrina and the shootings at Virginia Tech show
the need for effective crisis plans. Most executives will agree that
safety comes first – but you may have to work to convince upper
management to commit the time and resources needed to develop and
maintain a proven crisis plan. The best means of persuasion is to stress
the impact of an emergency on the bottom line. The concept of lives
being lost is so frightening and remote that people often can’t commit
to the idea, but the financial consequences of a poorly handled
emergency are fairly easy to demonstrate. It is better to be safe now
than sorry later.
Every
element of the plan should be pre-authorized by management. Executives
and legal departments should sign off on the plan in advance so that
there are no meetings or approval processes to slow execution. Remember
– the worst time to try to make decisions is when emotions are running
high or time is running out.
There
is no time that can better demonstrate the power of effective
communications than during a crisis. If you have laid the groundwork,
developed and implemented a good, organized plan, and have drilled your
staff and audience on using it effectively, you should have few troubles
during an emergency. A well-crafted crisis plan can save lives, money
and lessen the strain of an emergency on both your people and your
organization.
* "Ready
for Disaster?" by Robert Holland and Katrina Gill; CW Magazine;
March–April 2006
**
“Crafting a Crisis Communication Plan” by Gerard Braud; CW Bulletin;
July 2007
