Setting up an Effective Crisis Communication Strategy
Naro Tri Buwono
Corporate Communications I CSR I Community Development at PT. BANK NEGARA INDONESIA (Persero) Tbk.
Even though many employers are aware of the importance of crisis communication,?not many of them have a clear plan and strategy?about what to do when a crisis happens.
Let’s go over the?13-step crisis management strategy.
1. Create a crisis communication plan
Like any other workplace strategy, crisis communication needs a well-set plan and objectives. Without the proper plan, crisis communicators are?less likely to follow the company rules?and they may not be able to align employees with the overall strategy.
The crisis communication plan should also identify all the possible situations in which crisis communication is needed.
More about how to develop a successful strategy in the following steps.
2. Appoint your crisis communication team and spokesperson
Choosing and appointing the right people?who will be in your crisis communication team is extremely important. Here, it is important to understand that even though the company’s CEO is an important figure, people from other departments such as managers, HR professionals, operations, internal communications, and PR departments should be involved in the strategy.
The person you assign as the spokesperson should be trained and experienced in how to handle crisis and emergency, communicate well with the employees,?react on a timely basis and always be ready?to answer employees’ specific questions.
3. Train communicators and help them develop good communication skills
Same as for many other positions in the organizations,?appropriate training and skill development?are essential to help a crisis spokesperson succeed in their job.
Besides training available to crisis communication professionals, it is extremely important that these people have good communication skills.
Therefore, proper communication skills are the?most valuable skills a spokesperson can possess?as they have a significant impact on how to gain employees’ attention, connect with employees, build trust in the workplace and make employees work towards the same goals.
4. Bring the board members on board
Board members should be well aware of the company’s crisis management strategy and they should be aligned with the rest of the leaders and crisis communicators.
However, research on crisis management by Deloitte?proves that only?49% of board members?have engaged with management to understand what has been done to support crisis preparedness. Only half say that board members and management have specific discussions about crisis prevention.
5. Close the gap between “feeling ready” vs. “being ready”
The same research by Deloitte shows that there is a?significant gap between people feeling and really being ready?to cope with and handle crisis situations.
The research shows that more than?76% of board members?believe their companies would respond effectively if a crisis struck tomorrow. Yet only?49% of board members?say their companies engage in monitoring internal communications to detect trouble ahead.
In addition, only?32%?say their companies engage in crisis simulations or training.
6. Understand your audiences
Same as in any communication strategy such as marketing communications, workplace crisis communicators?need to have a very good understanding?of their audience.
In most situations, there will be multiple audiences a spokesperson would have to communicate and connect to. Therefore, the ability to segment those audiences properly and adjust the approach and messages to them is?crucial for successful crisis communication.
Also, depending on the type of crisis, not every employee may be the right audience to communicate with. In any situation, however, the message needs to be delivered in a timely manner, it needs to be clear and easy to understand.
Timely communication is crucial because?the worst thing that can happen?is for your employees to hear about the crisis from a source different from their own employer.
However,?many employers still don’t have the right communication tools?to really understand and manage their multigenerational workforce.
7. Deliver messages that matter to your defined audiences
Once you manage to define your audiences,?adjusting the internal crisis communication content?is the next important step.
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Remember that not every employee should receive every message during an emergency as this approach just slows down employees’ response time by?overwhelming them with irrelevant information.
Ideally, your internal communication solution should be able to?target specific individuals and departments?to ensure the most pertinent information gets to those who need it most.
Employers that manage to adopt these best crisis communication practices?are more likely to?equip people with important information, optimize employee experience, streamline emergency response, protect people, keep physical and digital assets safe, and minimize lost productivity and revenues.
8. Implement a two-way crisis communication
It is very important to understand that,?during a crisis, employees are a valuable asset?because they are the voice of the company and they can be your strongest advocates.
For that reason, crisis communication should not go one-way. Crisis communication should enable employees to join the two-way conversations, raise their concerns and ask questions.
However, many employers base their crisis communication on employee newsletters and similar ways of communicating that don’t enable employees to share their voice?and thoughts.
9. Communicate in real-time using the right communication channels
Earlier, we talked about the negative impacts of information overloade?on the workplace.
In companies that communicate mainly through emails or even instant messaging apps, it is not uncommon for?employees to miss out on important company updates. During the crisis, employers can not afford this to happen.
Therefore, employers need to make sure to use the right internal communication channels?that will be considered as their main source of information during crisis times.
10. Give special attention to your non-wired employees
Emails?can be very inefficient in providing crisis communications to non-wired employees, remote employess, or employees who may be away from their desks. In addition, they are very ineffective during a power failure.
Therefore,?the most effective way to communicate during an emergency?or crisis is via mobile technology, which goes wherever your employees go.
11. Make sure your messages are accurate and consistent
During crisis, companies are under the microscope of public and media. When communicating with employees,?it is important to deliver the right information?even if that sometimes means answering with “I don’t know”.
Giving wrong information to the employees can cause the spread of misinformation which can significantly hurt employees’ trust and have a negative impact on employee motivation?and engagement.
Messages delivered to employees have to be consistent?no matter which communication channel you use and whether you are communicating with internal or external stakeholders.
Some companies also tend to neglect or ignore the crisis. However, if you don’t comment on the situation, be sure that someone else will.
Therefore, consistent and transparent communication is a must-have during a crisis.
12. Monitor communication and employees’ behaviors and react in a timely manner
Unfortunately, many employers don’t have insights into their employee engagement with the crisis-related content delivered to them. This?causes high levels of uncertainty and fear?that employees haven’t even got or read the critical updates.
13. Perform a post-crisis analysis
When the crisis is over, employers need to ask themselves:?“What did we learn from this?”. Even though these situations are not comfortable to anyone, they should serve as a good learning curve. The?5 questions?every employer should address after the crisis include:
Also, check what crisis experts have to say about building an effective crisis management strategy.