Crisis Communications Planning
OBJECTIVES Crisis communications plans are designed to assess potential risks and proactively prepare for and provide accurate, clear and timely information in the event of a crisis. The goal is to ensure health and safety, protect brand reputation, control false narratives and provide an effective response in critical situations by ensuring timely and accurate communications with key audiences. Ultimately, an effective crisis response conveys to stakeholders that the organization and those in it care . PROCEDURES The responsibility for maintaining, distributing and updating a crisis communications plan should be clearly assigned. Plans should be reviewed annually and updated as necessary (more frequently when required), with specific attention paid to those with responsibilities to manage a crisis and essential contact information. Every organization should establish a cross-functional Crisis Response Team (CRT) of senior leaders responsible for crisis planning and response (e.g., executive leadership, operations, finance, technology, human resources, communications, etc.). The CRT should include the organization’s most senior communications leader, as well as, when appropriate, other members of the communications team (e.g., those responsible for social media monitoring and posting). Everyone in the organization should be familiar with who is on this team and their responsibilities. It also is essential to establish in advance how the CRT will communicate with each other (e.g. Teams channel, email alias, text chain or other methods). It is ultimately the role of the CRT leader to determine when the crisis communications plan is to be activated. If it is unclear whether a crisis has occurred, CRT members should be consulted to help decide whether the incident requires a crisis response.
CRISIS SCENARIOS Every organization should identify a list of potential high impact events that it would consider a crisis and prepare an outline for each that includes a checklist of response steps, a list of key audiences, draft holding statements and communications priorities. Potential crisis situations may include:
• Natural disasters
• Social and political unrest
• Acts of violence or terrorism
• Health crises
• Accidents or safety incidents
• Service or technical failures
• Personnel or financial issues
• Problematic brand partnerships, sponsorships or events
• Pending litigation
• Labor issues
• Issues stemming from social media/customer service issues For each crisis, it is important to determine the role of the organization. For example, there are crises where the local authorities will take the lead and the organization plays a supporting role (e.g., natural disasters, acts of violence or terrorism) and others where the organization must take the lead (e.g., pending litigation, personnel or financial issues). Clearly defining and understanding ahead of time the role of the organization in communicating during a crisis reduces the risk of confusion and delay in responding.
Destinations International CRISIS COMMUNICATIONS HANDBOOK
5
Powered by FlippingBook