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.
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 cyber-attack 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. Here is a crisis plan checklist to consider:
- 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.