Article by: Sara Pantaleo
A crisis management plan is essential for any business, especially dealing with the public. This documents how your company will react to various situations and should be well thought-out to help avoid further damage or loss. An effective, well-crafted crisis plan is the best way to restore operations after a crisis. This may seem like common sense, but it’s essential for any business today, where anything can happen at anytime! A properly designed plan will allow you and your staff members who are knowledgeable about the situation to handle things as quickly and smoothly as possible.
Having a crisis management plan is essential because, without one, stressed people may make poor decisions and unintentionally extend or worsen the situation.
The main steps to create a plan are:
Risk assessment & business impact analysis
You can never be too prepared for anything. Ensure you and your team have identified all possible threats or vulnerabilities that might impact the organisation’s business function and strategic plans.
Think of the worst-case scenario that you think could happen in your organisation. Having this in a more specific sense will guide what steps must be taken next!
Response planning
To ensure that your response plan is activated during a crisis, you must identify what will trigger this activation. To be prepared for any emergency, it’s essential to document how your team will act in various scenarios. This includes assigning responsibility for each task and determining who is responsible. You will also want to plan how you communicate during a crisis to avoid any hiccups in the heat of the moment. To avoid a chaotic situation, crisis teams need to establish systems and backup methods of communication. This includes collecting contact information for all team members and anyone they might need to call upon, including outside consultants or subject matter experts, in case something goes wrong during an emergency.
Review
To stay on top of your plan, you need a structured review process that ensures regular follow-ups and check-ins. Keeping a crisis management plan up to date is essential to running your business. As the environment changes and new risks arise, you’ll need to update this document to reflect any recent developments in risk assessment and how best to prepare for them should something happen.
A business coach can help you with preparing and documenting a Crisis Management Plan. Ask us how.