Issues and crisis communication planning are being embraced by industries and businesses of all shapes and sizes.
In fact, the Business Continuity Institute estimates that 84 percent of firms have an emergency communication plan in place. Three or more emergency communication processes are used by 50% of people.
And yet, almost two-thirds claim they lack confidence in their capacity to respond to a crisis.
Organizations feel just as unprepared as ever despite realising the value of issues and crises communication and making significant investments in related processes.
Let’s look more closely at the fundamentals of issues and crisis communication to better understand the disconnect.
Enhances contentment at work
The tools, procedures, and protocols that enable an organization to communicate successfully amid a serious threat to its reputation or business are referred to as crisis communication.
A wide range of potential crises, such as severe weather, criminality, cyberattacks, product recalls, corporate misconduct, reputation crises, and PR mishaps, must be anticipated by organizations.
By preparing in advance for a crisis, the organisation may immediately correct a situation, safeguard customers, employees, and assets, and maintain business continuity by ensuring that necessary individuals can communicate with one another during times of peril.
Who needs crisis communication?
Threats to businesses of all sizes and across all sectors are on the rise. It is more crucial than ever for organisations to be able to react quickly and decisively when a crisis arises since online news media is immediate. Crisis communication aims to link a range of audiences together, including:
- Employees
- Leadership
- Crisis management team
- PR team
- IT team
- Department heads
- Security personnel
- Local police & first responders
- Government officials
How is effective crisis communication carried out?
Even though each organization’s ideal crisis communication strategy differs significantly, a number of best practises have arisen that can be useful in building your programme:
Real-time communication is ideal
By doing this, it is made sure that when the emergency develops, staff members and other interested parties have access to the most recent information.
- Real-time communication is necessary to give staff members and other interested parties access to the most recent information as the disaster develops.
- Emails and manual phone trees are useless for crisis communications when staff may be gone from their offices, therefore information should be accessible everywhere. Both are useless when there is a power outage. Using mobile technology, which follows the user wherever they go, for communication is more successful.
- Not all employees should hear every message during an emergency; messages should be relevant to the individual. If team members are overloaded with irrelevant information, response times will suffer. Your system should ideally be able to target particular people and groups of people to make sure that the most important information reaches the people who need it the most.
Mobile crisis management apps have made it possible for staff members to get emergency notifications in real-time communication from anywhere and at any time of day thanks to the widespread use of smartphones.
Throughout the duration of the emergency, the crisis management team can instantly update pertinent information.
As a result, everyone in your organization has access to the proper information at the precise time when they need it. This facilitates emergency response, aids in protecting individuals, safeguards physical and digital assets, and reduces lost productivity.