The purpose of the crisis communication and media relations action steps are to provide clear, accurate and timely information during the time of a crisis. The following steps need to be taken in the event the organization is involved in a crisis situation.
The purpose of the crisis team is to identify potential crises and establish a standard set of guidelines and procedures to be followed in a crisis.
The team will identify people who will be available immediately to engage in fact finding, damage assessment, selecting and training appropriate spokesperson(s), managing internal and external communication, medical and emergency procedures and evacuation. This team generally is made up of organization officers, public relations and human resources personnel.
Crisis team members are equipped with 24-hour emergency pagers and/or cell phones so that they may be immediately contacted in the event of a crisis. The team will most likely be contacted in the event of Severe or Extreme crisis situations. In some cases, one or more members of the group may be involved in Moderate or Mild in the capacity of corporate or other stakeholder.
Members of the crisis team are: [list names, titles and phone numbers, email, cellphone and pager].
Crisis team members identify members of the crisis management team, supervisors and/or staff members responsible to implement the decision of the crisis team. These team members are responsible for implementing the steps decided upon by the crisis team.
Crisis management team members are: [list names, titles, phones, email, cellphone, pagers]
The crisis team is responsible to meet and designate the levels of severity of possible crises. Examples are:
Extreme: Situation is dire and requires immediate action. Communication with employees, the media and local officials is required.
Severe: A critical situation exists and decisions must be made quickly. This category will likely require communication to several different audiences. It could require the evacuation of one or more facilities.
Moderate: The situation is serious and contingencies must be available in case the crisis worsens. In addition to communicating with the affected audiences, there may also be a need to communicate with the public through the media.
Mild: The crisis does not threaten the public or the organization operation. Often, these crises are isolated to one group within the company and can be handled under general supervision by a supervisor or the director of the group or groups being impacted.
The crisis team will identify the organization spokesperson(s) who will be responsible for communicating with the media. The team will budget money to provide for immediate and continuing crisis training for the spokesperson(s) in order to assure clear, accurate, prompt response to public concern.
Such plans should exist for each facility with practice drills held quarterly. In the event of an evacuation, these procedures will be followed.
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