How a Crisis Communication Plan Supports Emergency Management

So far, the 2020s have proven unpredictable and troublesome. The largest global pandemic in a century, political turmoil, natural disasters and environmental decline, and other dangers are forcing individuals and organizations to plan for things they didn’t even think of previously. This led to a difficult realization for many businesses: Their crisis communication plans weren’t sufficient to handle those events. In fact, a recent survey by Capterra showed that less than half of businesses have a formal crisis communication plan, and 23% have no plan at all.

Crisis management requires a mix of internal and external communication—to control the flow of information to outside observers and execute effective emergency procedures. Attempting to navigate a crisis situation without a clear communication plan puts your organization at risk of reputational damage, disruptions to business operations, and harm to your employees. In this post, we’ll discuss what crisis communication is, how it relates to overall crisis management, and the critical components you need to form a comprehensive crisis communication strategy.

Basics of Crisis Communication

Crisis communication refers to the collection and dissemination of information related to an emergency or other situation. Effective crisis communication protects an organization’s business and reputation by providing context and consistent messaging around a particular issue or incident of public interest.

In recent years, organizations have increasingly incorporated crisis communication into overarching business continuity and emergency planning. This is due to the strategic—and urgent—nature of the work and the goal of aligning communication efforts with the organization’s overall emergency response plan.

Why Is Crisis Communication Important?

Most people have heard the adage, “news travels fast.” Research shows that “fake news” travels even faster.

In 2018, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology studied an estimated 126,000 news stories shared on Twitter. They found false or fabricated news stories were 70% more likely to be retweeted than true stories.

During times of crisis, there’s a near-instantaneous and insatiable desire for information, which puts pressure on organizations to use all available communication channels to set the record straight. A well-designed crisis communications plan can help eliminate confusion by clearly outlining how the business responds to the event. A crisis communication plan also helps counter the spread of misinformation before it has the opportunity to trigger real-world consequences.

Beyond information handling, crisis communication helps protect your people and your operations. It offers clarity and direction to key stakeholders and can even inspire increased confidence in the organization. Clear communication with stakeholders during emergencies and critical events strengthens business continuity by ensuring those involved in incident response understand what is needed to resolve the issue when it happens.

What Is a Crisis Communication Plan?

A crisis communication plan is a documented set of procedures and messages that enables your organization to respond to a crisis with speed and accuracy. When an organization encounters a sudden event—whether it’s a physical accident, a publicity issue, or anything else—this plan kicks into action, guiding the organization to take control of the chaos.

When a business encounters an emergency, it’s normal for people to feel confused. Who knows more? What caused this? How do we remedy this? How does this affect the organization and my position here? These are all questions you need to be able to answer confidently, quickly, and uniformly, all of which can be accomplished with a crisis communication plan.

How communication supports overall crisis management

Safety-focused companies are no strangers to ideas like all-hazards preparedness and scenario-specific emergency planning, such as fire evacuation routes and procedures. Being prepared for emergencies requires awareness, vigilance, and careful documentation to ensure teams are ready to act to remedy any crisis situation.

When an emergency materializes, you need a plan to respond immediately to that event. But in high-stress situations, people can forget even the best-laid plans under stress.

Imagine that a gas leak has been detected at your workplace. You prioritize getting everyone out of the building immediately, but in the commotion, your facilities manager forgets to engage the exterior gas shutoff valve, leaving your office unsafe for longer than if the proper procedures were carried out.

In this case and others like it, when you build reminders of proper procedures into your crisis communication plan, you can ensure critical tasks are completed quickly and in the right order. In the case of a gas leak, a solid plan would have specified that an emergency alert should immediately prompt employees to evacuate and another alert should prompt the assigned group—including the facilities manager—to initiate the emergency response plan, ensuring gas shutoff.

Real-life crisis communication plan examples

These real crisis situations show what communication looks like during different disasters so you can understand how to communicate better during a disaster situation or PR nightmare.

The USSR’s downplaying of the Chornobyl disaster

On April 26, 1986, reactor number four at the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant near Pripyat in Ukraine was undergoing a planned safety test. When that test was delayed by the local energy authority, many workers were confused by a shift change and other variables. That, combined with malfunctioning or disabled safety controls and long-term suppression of scientific concern over the design of the RBMK-type reactors used at Chornobyl, led to the most significant nuclear accident in history.

As anyone who’s studied the history of this event—or watched HBO’s Chernobyl miniseries—knows that this tragedy could have been minimized or even averted with proper communication:

• The status of emergency controls should have been reported
• The timing of the test should have been confirmed by internal and external stakeholders
• Soviet nuclear scientists’ concerns should have been taken seriously and resolved
• Residents of towns and other countries in danger of exposure to radiation and fallout should have been alerted and evacuated as soon as the danger was identified

It is impossible to say exactly what would have happened to the Chornobyl reactor had these steps been codified into an authoritative communication plan. The toll of human life and illness is highly disputed, but it’s hard to imagine that proper communication protocols wouldn’t have lessened the catastrophic impact.

Procter & Gamble’s rapid response to the “Tide Pod Challenge”

In early 2018, news reports emerged about an internet trend called the “Tide Pod Challenge.” The social media trend involved someone (typically teenagers) filming themselves biting into one of the laundry detergent pods to document their reactions.

Soon after the trend reached mainstream news coverage, spokespersons for the American Association of Poison Control Centers and the U.S. Product Safety Commission issued statements reiterating the dangers of ingesting the chemicals contained in these products.

• In response to the crisis, Procter & Gamble, which counts Tide among its portfolio of brands, quickly operationalized its crisis communication plan, producing a wide range of content across social media and other communication channels to reiterate what to do—and not do— with its products, likely preventing countless injuries and lasting brand damage.

7 Steps to Develop Your Crisis Comms Plan

Crisis Communication Best Practices

To successfully navigate a crisis, be ready to make quick decisions, align with multiple stakeholders, and coordinate team members’ efforts across the business. While every scenario is different, the following crisis communication protocol best practices will help you coordinate your response—from pre-crisis planning through post-crisis follow-up—to avoid as much disruption to your business as possible when developing your crisis management plan.

Take immediate action

When an emergency occurs, you have to react quickly to remedy those problems. When a hazard is detected, your first priority should be notifying everyone who may be impacted to get them to safety and prevent others from wandering into harm’s way. As if that weren’t enough, you also have to worry about external forces.

With 24/7 media coverage, social media channels, and the ability to share information instantaneously, a crisis demands immediate communication on your part to cut through the noise and help stakeholders refocus on what is known. Even if you don’t have all the details, prepare a holding statement to reassure everyone (employees, customers, press, regulators, etc.) you’re aware of the issue and working to resolve it. Be clear and concise and provide a timeline of when you’ll be able to share another update. Often, simply acknowledging you’re aware of the issue will be enough to ease the anxiety of your employees, customers, regulators, the news media, and your community.

Never take a back seat

In response to a crisis, the worst thing a company can do is nothing. Failing to provide details to your people and the public will appear defensive and may result in key audiences thinking you’re at fault. It also gives other actors the opportunity to control the narrative to their own ends. Instead, be honest and upfront about the facts as you know them. Make sure attribution for your public statements reinforces who is taking charge of the situation internally. If you’re still awaiting more information, provide clarity about the timeline so interested parties know what to expect and when.

Set up listening and communication systems

It doesn’t matter if your team has the communication skills of Abraham Lincoln if they don’t have a way to broadcast their messages. One of the most important elements of any communication plan is a quality two-way emergency communication system so you can disseminate information to your employees while also receiving information from them about emerging situations needing your attention. Of course, collecting contact information like cell phone numbers is required for this to work.

PRO TIP: These systems can be used for internal day-to-day business communication as well. Employees will be more familiar with the system and what to expect if they are using it regularly.

To ensure you have a pulse on any feedback or commentary shared across social media and other external channels, set up a listening and monitoring system. This involves delegating specific people to comb through social media channels, watch the news, and flag any critical items.

Reach out to your safety and security team to also lean on the organization’s threat intelligence and risk monitoring capabilities. Early identification of a threat will give you more time to prepare and help you understand the impact on your people and locations.

Be transparent and authentic

When crafting any response, remember to be human. If you adopt a more corporate, neutral tone, it may come off as uncaring. Instead, be genuine and transparent, admit if you made a mistake, and convey a desire to make things right or resolve things quickly. Nothing will destroy trust in your company or your brand quicker than a response that demonstrates a lack of care or understanding.

Crisis Communication Sample Templates

Every communication plan should be unique to the organization, but here are a few examples of crisis communication templates that are adaptable for crisis comms plans.

Responding to a rogue spokesperson

We’ve explored why it’s critical to channel all public inquiries into a business crisis to trained spokespeople, but occasionally other employees are compelled to speak out on their own. They might misrepresent your company’s position and spread misinformation or express views your organization does not support. Here’s an understanding and firm response that is meant to be deployed as the first step in such a situation.

Sample message:

“We are aware of the comments made by one of our employees on/through [source of the comments/reporting]. [Your organization’s name] wants to make it clear that [relevant claim] is inaccurate and that the situation is, in fact, [correcting facts]. We apologize for the confusion and invite anyone to visit [website or another official source of info] for the latest updates on our efforts to remedy the situation. We appreciate the understanding of our customers, employees, and community during this time.”

Someone is injured due to company activities

Despite our best intentions, accidents can and do happen. When they do, you need to take responsibility for them. Trying to deflect blame or pass the buck never works out in the long run.

In this example, we’re imagining that a driver employed by a delivery contractor ran a stop sign and injured a group of pedestrians. Your company is well-recognized within the community, and attention has started building following the incident. You’ve already reached out to the victims and are offering support. Here’s one appropriate response you might use to comment on the situation and reassure the public that you’re working to make things right.

Sample message:

“[Your company] is shocked that one of our delivery vehicles [overview of injuries]. Safety is our top priority, and the driver in this incident has been terminated. We are committed to assisting authorities in investigating the accident and helping the victims and their families recover.

The largest part of our driver training program is devoted to safety, but clearly, that is not enough. We will implement automated driver safety controls in our vehicles to prevent any mistakes, boost our training to increase driver awareness, and conduct careful reviews of driving performance to identify problematic activity as soon as it occurs.

This event has rocked [company name] to its foundation, and we cannot express in words how heartbroken we are for the victims and their loved ones. Please reach out to [relevant authorities] if you have any information that might help their investigation.”

Take Control of Any Situation With Proactive Communication

The number and severity of crises facing organizations will continue to increase. By taking immediate action and following the guidelines shared above, your organization will be more than ready to respond and recover. A crisis communication plan can help you significantly mitigate any potential damage and keep your organization’s reputation intact. Above all else, remember to act quickly, communicate clearly, and be human.