As observed recently, in times of crisis, a business in times must be able to respond promptly, accurately, and effectively or suffer a major reputational setback. The people in charge of the communication response constitute the crisis communication team.
Who should be on that crisis communication team? Read on to learn the five roles you’ll need.
Defining crisis communication
But first, what is crisis communication? A sub-specialty of public relations, crisis communication is the strategic approach to corresponding with people and organizations during a disruptive event.
Effective crisis communication involves planning and investment in necessary resources.
But neither a crisis communication plan nor crisis communication software works on its own. For either element to work when it matters most, the business will need the crisis communication team to get things going.
The crisis communication plan
So, what does the crisis communication plan say about roles and responsibilities?
Well, let’s start with what a crisis communication plan is first.
The crisis communication plan is a set of guidelines and activities used to prepare an organization for the knowledge sharing aspects of an emergency or unexpected event.
What goes in it?
Audiences and activation criteria are two elements. They include:
Audiences
Crisis teams should know to whom the crisis communication plan is addressed, i.e., its audience. Relevant audiences for a crisis communication plan are likely to include:
- Internal employees and families
- Senior management
- Crisis communication team and other frontline responders
- All staff
- Customers
- News media
- Policymakers and regulators
- Suppliers and other partners
- The community
Activation criteria
Crisis communication plans sometimes form important supplements (or annexes) of larger incident plans. That means they are only activated when the incident in question requires communicating.
Organizations must, therefore, consider the kinds of incidents that typically trigger the need to communicate with the public. Examples might include:
- Public health crises
- Active shooter incidents and/or other workplace violence incidents
- Natural disasters
- Cyber incidents
- Civil unrest where the organization is directly impacted
- Toxic material release
Responsibility of the crisis communication team
Beyond audiences and activation criteria, the crisis communication plan will also lay out a chain of command. Implicit are the crisis communication roles needed to activate and enforce the crisis communication plan.
The people who fulfill crisis communication roles are members of the crisis communication team.
The team’s key responsibility is to clarify reporting relationships to eliminate confusion and ensure that everyone can control the actions of personnel under supervision.
5 members of the crisis communication team
But who to tap for your crisis communication team? Certain best-practice standards recommend putting senior managers from the company’s most important business units on the crisis communication team, as well. Those managers often come from the following departments:
- Finance
- HR
- Operations
- IT
- Communications
- Legal
However, here are the five most important crisis communication roles:
1. CEO or Crisis Leader
Crisis management leaders have a wide range of crucial crisis communication responsibilities that start with pre-crisis planning and end with post-crisis identification of lessons learned. Further responsibilities include:
- Develop crisis communication plans and playbooks, set up roles, and oversee crisis simulations.
- Activate the crisis communication team and assign and track tasks.
- Coordinate with internal stakeholders to ensure accurate and consistent communication of information.
- Evaluate the crisis response and identify ways to improve it, both during and after the crisis.
2. Legal
General Counsels spot issues and resolve problems. They provide advice and mitigate risk. Further responsibilities include:
- Spot potential legal and public policy exposure in crisis communications, including duty of care, liability, and compliance.
- Participate in core Crisis Communication team meetings.
- Deliver accurate information to relevant stakeholders, e.g., executives, boards, outside counsel, insurers, etc.
- Provide day-to-day tactical execution.
- Help develop public statements and review media coverage.
3. Public Information Officer (PIOs)
PIOs verify, coordinate, and disseminate accurate, accessible, and timely information on the incident’s cause, size, and current situation, for both internal and external use. Further responsibilities include:
- Gather information about the incident.
- Gather information related to the type of incident from professional sources, such as response agencies, technical specialists, and emergency response guidebooks.
- Verify the accuracy of the information gathered by consulting with the Crisis Chair/CEO, other crisis communication team members, response agencies, and/or technical specialists.
- Coordinate dissemination of information internally to response teams and related resources.
- Coordinate dissemination of information externally to key stakeholders, media, and the public.
4. Communication Manager
Corporate communications managers defend their internal clients in the court of public opinion. Further responsibilities include:
- Figure out what’s being said, by whom, and on which platforms.
- Coordinate messaging with internal stakeholders to ensure consistency.
- Disseminate statements to external audiences.
- Mitigate serious reputational damage by responding swiftly to rumors and innuendos.
- Field constant requests for information from internal and external stakeholders.
5. Business Continuity Manager
Business continuity professionals are always thinking about and preparing for events that might disrupt business operations. They are often on crisis communication teams, as well. However, their core responsibilities include:
- Identify probable disasters — including accidents, emergencies, and threats — and assess the potential business impacts of those events.
- Develop disaster recovery strategies and plans.
- Test plans through multiple means, including training employees.
- Design and document procedures for disaster recovery.
- Make sure the company has sufficient resources to ensure its key operations continue even if disaster strikes.
- Activate and coordinate the disaster recovery team.
Finally, deft crisis communication, in this era of ever-increasing and highly mediatized crises, has never been more important. However, corresponding with people and organizations during a disruptive event requires a finely-tuned crisis communication team.
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