Communication during a crisis can be thought of on several levels—communicating with internal constituents and staff; communicating with business partners, suppliers and customers; and communicating with the general public, often via the media. We’ll cover these aspects from the inside out.
Internal Communication. The people who work at the organization must be kept apprised, as much as is reasonable, during a crisis. Many organizations tend to keep employees in the dark during a difficult time, and that’s a mistake, said Brit Weber, program director at the School of Criminal Justice at Michigan State University in East Lansing, Mich. “They all have associates who want to know” what’s going on when there’s a crisis, Weber said. “Employees will start calling the media if there’s a major crisis like an evacuation. That’s why it’s vitally important to tell your employees what’s going on,” so they don’t give out wrong information.
Emergency notification systems can use many different means of communication—phone calls, text messages, e-mail—to contact employees, vendors or other critical personnel. A calling tree with home and mobile phone numbers can be a simple first step.
“Although [emergency notification systems] may have slick bells and whistles, I have found that you don’t need them,” ABN Amro’s Smith said. “You need a system that will call a lot of people all at once and have them call into a central conference call number.” He also suggests having an automatic phone forwarding system through your phone company. That way, clients whose only contact is an office phone number can be rerouted to an employee’s cell or home phone.
In some cases, companies also have discovered that portals or intranets have been useful during a crisis. That’s what happened at Gale GFS, anyway. The property management company has an Incident Reporting System that operates as a sort of business blog on its intranet portal. Creating it wasn’t complicated, said Chris Messineo, assistant VP for IT at Gale GFS (a unit of the Gale Company), which manages and oversees properties around the world. Essentially, an employee can log on to the Web-based system with a user name and password and write about a hurricane, an explosion or any other incident. Gale GFS designed and built its system to automatically send out an e-mail notification to everyone in the region. Through an online control panel, administrators can determine who gets notified by region and by company. E-mail alerts pop up on cell phones and smartphones, as well as on computer screens. CSO EXECUTIVE GUIDE The Ultimate Guide to Busi ness Continuity 6 Each case or incident is archived in the system so that others can retrieve them from the database in order to study them. Each session, however, is available for viewing only by the employees working with a specific client so as to maintain security.
External Communication. Keeping employees in the loop is only part of the equation. During an adverse event, the crisis response team will determine the appropriate parties that must be notified both under the law and consistent with corporate values, as many organizations will decide to go beyond the legal or contractual requirements to protect the clients and consumers. The ultimate goal of all crisis communication is essentially to uphold long-standing relationships and assure key stakeholder groups that your company understands how the event impacts them and what you intend to do about it.
When something really bad happens, such as a natural disaster that forces a company to evacuate headquarters or a security breach that results in lost or stolen data, the media will come calling. How organizations deal with the blitz could affect the long-term impact of the crisis. An effective and constructive response might help put the company in a positive light during a tough time. An ineffective or antagonistic reaction might make a disastrous situation even worse. Here are some tips for dealing with the public—and in particular the media—after a security incident or businessinterrupting event.
Be truthful. Honesty really is the best policy. “One of the most important things is to try to understand what the media is interested in. The media is interested in accurate, truthful information—something that will be of interest to their readership [or viewers],” said Michigan State’s Brit Weber. “If you don’t know the answer, indicate that it’s information you don’t know at this point and hope to [provide] later.
Provide useful information. Organizations should be as forthcoming as possible with information about the specific incident, and provide any relevant background information that will help the media put the situation in proper context. “Tell them what you do,” Weber said. “Provide a fact sheet or release that explains what your business does.” If you don’t provide information, reporters will look for other sources inside and outside the company, who might provide inaccurate or outdated information.
Train your spokespeople. In a crisis, many organizations automatically put the CEO in front of the media, Weber said. But if the chief executive or other designated spokesperson isn’t comfortable or familiar with reporters, cameras and microphones, that could backfire. “All spokespeople need to be trained to deal with friendly interviews and in-your face ambush interviews,” said Jonathan Bernstein, president of consultancy Bernstein Crisis Management. “It’s not an intuitive skill.”
Establish an ongoing relationship. Organizations that keep media outlets informed on an ongoing basis will be less likely to have misunderstandings when a crisis arises. They might even rely on the media for help in disseminating information. “It’s very important for corporations to have a collaborative or partnership process with the [local] media,” said Weber. “Don’t wait for an incident to happen.”
Don’t let the media be the only source of news. Consider using communications tools such as employee newsletters, or allowing officials to make personal appearances to groups such as a chamber of commerce or business association.
Build a Crisis Communication Plan
Communication during a crisis can be thought of on several levels—communicating with internal constituents and staff; communicating with business partners, suppliers and customers; and communicating with the general public, often via the media. We’ll cover these aspects from the inside out.
Internal Communication. The people who work at the organization must be kept apprised, as much as is reasonable, during a crisis. Many organizations tend to keep employees in the dark during a difficult time, and that’s a mistake, said Brit Weber, program director at the School of Criminal Justice at Michigan State University in East Lansing, Mich. “They all have associates who want to know” what’s going on when there’s a crisis, Weber said. “Employees will start calling the media if there’s a major crisis like an evacuation. That’s why it’s vitally important to tell your employees what’s going on,” so they don’t give out wrong information.
“Although [emergency notification systems] may have slick bells and whistles, I have found that you don’t need them,” ABN Amro’s Smith said. “You need a system that will call a lot of people all at once and have them call into a central conference call number.” He also suggests having an automatic phone forwarding system through your phone company. That way, clients whose only contact is an office phone number can be rerouted to an employee’s cell or home phone.
In some cases, companies also have discovered that portals or intranets have been useful during a crisis. That’s what happened at Gale GFS, anyway. The property management company has an Incident Reporting System that operates as a sort of business blog on its intranet portal. Creating it wasn’t complicated, said Chris Messineo, assistant VP for IT at Gale GFS (a unit of the Gale Company), which manages and oversees properties around the world. Essentially, an employee can log on to the Web-based system with a user name and password and write about a hurricane, an explosion or any other incident. Gale GFS designed and built its system to automatically send out an e-mail notification to everyone in the region. Through an online control panel, administrators can determine who gets notified by region and by company. E-mail alerts pop up on cell phones and smartphones, as well as on computer screens. CSO EXECUTIVE GUIDE The Ultimate Guide to Busi ness Continuity 6 Each case or incident is archived in the system so that others can retrieve them from the database in order to study them. Each session, however, is available for viewing only by the employees working with a specific client so as to maintain security.
External Communication. Keeping employees in the loop is only part of the equation. During an adverse event, the crisis response team will determine the appropriate parties that must be notified both under the law and consistent with corporate values, as many organizations will decide to go beyond the legal or contractual requirements to protect the clients and consumers. The ultimate goal of all crisis communication is essentially to uphold long-standing relationships and assure key stakeholder groups that your company understands how the event impacts them and what you intend to do about it.
When something really bad happens, such as a natural disaster that forces a company to evacuate headquarters or a security breach that results in lost or stolen data, the media will come calling. How organizations deal with the blitz could affect the long-term impact of the crisis. An effective and constructive response might help put the company in a positive light during a tough time. An ineffective or antagonistic reaction might make a disastrous situation even worse. Here are some tips for dealing with the public—and in particular the media—after a security incident or businessinterrupting event.
Be truthful. Honesty really is the best policy. “One of the most important things is to try to understand what the media is interested in. The media is interested in accurate, truthful information—something that will be of interest to their readership [or viewers],” said Michigan State’s Brit Weber. “If you don’t know the answer, indicate that it’s information you don’t know at this point and hope to [provide] later.
Provide useful information. Organizations should be as forthcoming as possible with information about the specific incident, and provide any relevant background information that will help the media put the situation in proper context. “Tell them what you do,” Weber said. “Provide a fact sheet or release that explains what your business does.” If you don’t provide information, reporters will look for other sources inside and outside the company, who might provide inaccurate or outdated information.
Train your spokespeople. In a crisis, many organizations automatically put the CEO in front of the media, Weber said. But if the chief executive or other designated spokesperson isn’t comfortable or familiar with reporters, cameras and microphones, that could backfire. “All spokespeople need to be trained to deal with friendly interviews and in-your face ambush interviews,” said Jonathan Bernstein, president of consultancy Bernstein Crisis Management. “It’s not an intuitive skill.”
Establish an ongoing relationship. Organizations that keep media outlets informed on an ongoing basis will be less likely to have misunderstandings when a crisis arises. They might even rely on the media for help in disseminating information. “It’s very important for corporations to have a collaborative or partnership process with the [local] media,” said Weber. “Don’t wait for an incident to happen.”
Don’t let the media be the only source of news. Consider using communications tools such as employee newsletters, or allowing officials to make personal appearances to groups such as a chamber of commerce or business association.