There are no two ways about it. All types of companies should make sure they have a written crisis communications plan.. My background is in the chemical industry. It is easier for them to recognize this fact because they know that there is a possibility that they will some day encounter a situation where a chemical could be spilled, catch fire, explode, or injure employees. But ALL types of companies should be prepared for other things to go wrong:

• an employee injured on site;
• an allegation of sexual harassment, race discrimination or unfair labor practices;
• the misuse of not-for-profit agency funds;
• babies who are switched at the hospital;
• a bank robbery;
• the death of an infant in a daycare center, etc.

Who Needs to be Notified?

Those who need to be notified in case of various types of incidents may change depending on the specific nature of the crisis. One thing for sure - it is always better to work this out in a non-crisis atmosphere when you can think clearly. Don't leave this up to one individual. Hold a meeting within your organization that involves several key people who can see the issues from various perspectives. Brainstorm together who will need or want to know about this incident. If customers are involved, work with your customer to make sure you are meeting their needs for notification as well. (If they haven't got their own crisis communications plan in place, they'll be grateful to you for thinking of it! )

Who in your organization needs to be notified about each type of problem? Does corporate want to be notified in cases of all problems that might become a crisis? (Better to find out now rather than after the fact!) If there are apt to be questions from employees or local residents about health, safety and environmental effects, be sure to include someone with that knowledge base. You will probably want to notify your insurance carrier and your legal counsel. If you have access to communications professionals either in-house or through a consulting agency, you should alert them. (I am not talking here about a marketing/public relations agency, but people who are especially trained in crisis communications.)

(NOTE: When you are thinking about whom to notify, don't forget that you may want to be the one to contact the media. If it's a public health issue, it is your moral and ethical responsibility to go beyond the strict legal requirements to warn people about actions they should take to protect themselves and their families. Beyond that, though, it is often much better for your organization if you are the one to notify the media of a problem. If they found out about it over the emergency scanner or through their other sources, they will make their own decision on whether it is a big story and then approach you with a preconceived notion. Their first thought is likely to be that you were trying to hide something.)

What Does a Communications Plan Look Like?

Many organizations neglect to write a crisis communications plan because they think it will be too hard. It sounds like a daunting task that will require untold amounts of time or need an expert in order to do it. Actually, the format for this crisis communications plan need not be complex at all. In fact, it can be as simple laying out four columns on a sheet of paper. The four columns are:

Vulnerability

List down the far left column all the things you brainstorm with your colleagues that could go wrong: accidental spill, fire, serious regulatory violation, an injured employee, q sexual harassment allegation, etc.

Those to be Notified:

Record all of the people who should be notified in each event. Be sure you make provisions for one, or preferably two, back-ups in case the person you need is not available. Murphy's Law is always in operation and the incident will occur when the person you need to talk to is camping in the woods somewhere inaccessible or home with a fever and laryngitis.

Contact Numbers:

List all of the phone/cell phone/pager numbers where people can be reached - office, home, car, golf club, etc. Include fax numbers where appropriate.

Action Steps:

Lay out the initial steps that should be taken. You don't need to repeat the steps listed in your emergency operational plan. You can simply refer to it. However, if there has been a fatality, for example, this would be the place to remind yourself that you need to:

• notify the local authorities;
• dispatch someone appropriate to personally break the news in as sensitive a way as possible before family members hear it on the radio or TV;
• notify the regulatory agencies;
• call in professionals who can provide grief counseling.

Of one thing you can be sure. In a crisis, people almost always feel that they were not notified soon enough. You have a thousand things to do. Making phone calls to all those who should be notified is a time-consuming process. You are likely to forget one or more people who will resent that fact. Sure, you can assign people to phone duty who are not immediately involved with trying to mitigate the incident. Even if you've been clear in your Crisis Communications Plan who should be contacted, if there are a lot of people on this list, the last ones to be called are apt to be upset with you.
A solution that many companies have found works well for them is to contract with a computerized emergency notification system such as the Community Alert Network (CAN). Simply by placing one telephone call to CAN headquarters, using a predetermined password to prove you are an authorized user, and recording a message with CAN's operations personnel, your staff can get back to solving the problem. They can have confidence that the message with specific information about what has happened and what is being done about it is being sent out to all those who need to know so they can take whatever action is required..
At the chemical company for which I used to work, we had pre-arranged to have on our CAN list some 80 key people - both employees and those in the surrounding community -- who should be activated or who needed to be informed of what was happening. Other organizations arrange for certain geographic areas to be notified based on their zip code. If a plume of hazardous material were released, just certain sectors of a large city could be called, depending on the wind direction.
The families of all employees who were not hurt in an industrial accident could be notified they need not worry. Townspeople who hear an explosion or see a TV news report about an incident at the local company will naturally be frantic. Numerous phone calls made to the plant can overwhelm the company's phone lines and prevent them from being able to make necessary outgoing emergency calls. With over 250 telephone lines available, CAN can make 15,000 calls in an hour. (If you would like to find out more about this highly effective means of speedy notification, call 1-800-848-3907 PIN 2145 for more information.)

The Value of a Crisis Communications Plan

It is difficult to overstate the value of having an effective Crisis Communications Plan in place. The time you and your management team spend putting this together will be repaid many times over when you are called upon to use it.
Time is something that is in VERY short supply when a crisis breaks. In fact, in crisis communications circles, it is said that an organization only has 1-2 hours to demonstrate to the watching public and the media that they are on top of a crisis and can be trusted to control it and protect people. Being able to refer to your crisis communications plan so you can start doing the right things immediately will save you a tremendous amount of time during this critical period.
Without such a plan, you can quickly lose control while you decide who needs to be called, look up their phone numbers, and try to figure out what to do when the person you need doesn't answer the phone. The crisis grows as you look incompetent or uncaring or both.
Those who are looking to see how you respond will not be impressed if you are stumbling all over yourself. Such incompetence will leave them wondering if they should trust youin your business relationship at all. Conversely, an organization that quickly implements a well thought-out crisis communications plan has a chance to take advantage of a limited window of opportunity. Some organizations even come out on the other side of a crisis with a more enhanced corporate reputation than they had going in to the crisis. (Think Johnson & Johnson in the cyanide tampering of their Tylenol capsules.)

Two Very Important Reminders

1. (1) You must frequently review your crisis communications plan. Make sure you revise it regularly to reflect changes in the organization's business. Ensure that the people listed are still there and still in those positions. Double check their phone/pager numbers. It is amazing how often they change.
2. (2) You must also periodically drill this plan. A plan that has not been tested in a year is not a reliable plan. You cannot be sure that you have not forgotten something or someone important until you try it. You may discover that certain things that looked good on paper just don't work out in reality. Better to find out these things in a practice drill than when it really hits the fan!

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