Now that we’re already in mid-February, how are your New Year’s resolutions holding up? What has dropped off the list? Trips to the gym, fewer cups of coffee? A recent Forbes survey of their Young Entrepreneurs Counsel included these resolutions in a top ten list: hiring a more diverse workforce, prioritizing work-life balance, and building a better growth mindset.
Your Crisis Planning Resolution
While this top-ten list has some great ideas, we believe crisis planning should be added the resolutions. The first quarter of the calendar year is a good time for an organization to review crisis planning for events ranging from a cyberattack to natural disasters. This is both a good business practice, and a sound investment. Studies indicate that every dollar spent on crisis communications planning is worth $7 in losses averted.
This can be as simple as an audit update of existing crisis plans, or creation of a new one. An effective crisis communications plan will identify the role of communications in crisis readiness and management, and can help mitigate costs, liability, and reputation damage.
Crisis Communications Plan Checklist
- When was it last updated?
- Does it include organization-wide inputs?
- Is it accessible remotely?
- Who is on the crisis management team? Does it include all major business continuity functions?
- Is there a decision tree?
- Are there internal and external crisis communication templates and instructions?
Finally, it’s a smart idea to plan a tabletop or full-scale simulation. A recent article suggests that incident responders can freeze up when confronted with real life event. That’s the last thing you want to occur.