If you consider the approaching first decade of this century, and the number of catastrophic events, I think you will agree: Crisis management planning is critical and essential for any American business.
For Houston and the Gulf Coast area, many of us are still recovering from Hurricane Ike and, already, we are gearing up for the next hurricane season. In the northeast, of course, we had 9/11 and the Northeast Blackout of 2003, and California continues to have its share of earthquakes and wildfires. The list goes on.
While we cannot live in a state of constant fear and anxiety, at the same time, employers are responsible for the safety and welfare of their employees.
Just the word “crisis” can evoke an emotional response, which is why businesses must plan ahead. It’s far better to plan for how you’re going to handle inevitable disastrous events, such as hurricanes, fires, tornados, workplace violence, etc., when the world isn’t spinning out of control around you. You need to be able to ‘roll’ at a moment’s notice.
OK, so once you have your plan and your crisis management team in place, you will want to consider how you will respond in a crisis. First of all, I hope you don’t put your crisis management plan at the bottom of some filing stack. Make sure it is visible and easily accessible. In addition, although hopefully you never need them, I offer the following tips, which can help you gain some extra peace of mind:
- Do not panic. It’s important that the crisis management response team takes charge.
- Convey a sense of calm and confidence throughout the organization.
- Make sure that the company’s leadership team is visible during and after a crisis.
- Anticipate that employee productivity and performance may drop off in the aftermath of a crisis.
- Be prepared to handle more employee administrative details, such as increased absenteeism and family and medical leave requests.
- Treat employees with empathy, and treat them fairly and compassionately. After all, without employee support, business continuity would be impossible.
- Consult with a labor and employment law attorney soon after a crisis. These professionals are trained to help you with legal concerns, such as wage and hour issues, and federal, state and local regulations, laws, etc.
Preparedness is also a practical matter: If a business portrays itself as disorganized and chaotic during a crisis, an employer can, in turn, lose a lot in terms of its reputation—and its valuable employees. A company can see its reputation tarnished if it performs poorly during and after a crisis.
Therefore, to properly manage and control business risks, you will want to take all the precautionary steps you can. As many of us learned in school, while participating in various disaster type drills, organizations should even have catch phrases for their company’s crisis management plan. Do you remember, for instance, the catch phrase we learned in school, “Stop, drop and roll?” What will yours be?
So as we experienced in school, our educational leaders didn’t begrudge crisis planning as something detracting from the educational experience; it was part of the educational experience. This same philosophy can apply to your business strategy. Your crisis management planning should be a part of your overall business strategy.
It doesn’t have to be all gloom and doom either. Some businesses get creative and turn their crisis management planning into employee morale building events. For example:
- A business could plan a fire drill on a hot summer day and, while everyone is together outside, you could serve ice cream to your employees.
- Or, alternatively, on a cold fall day, you could have an evacuation drill; again, while everyone is outside together huddling, you could serve some hot chocolate.
- You could follow the example of some businesses that plan ‘lunch and learn’ seminars. During these occasions, employers can pass out information, for example, about natural disaster readiness or literature about workplace violence.
Unfortunately, natural and man-made disasters happen. You want to avoid going through a crisis event and turning it into an even worse situation. As a final note: Remember, if you keep your employees’ safety and health a high priority during both your planning and execution phases; they, in turn, can better help you when you really need it.