The Issue
A poor communications response can completely undermine an otherwise effective recovery effort, especially in the modern context of 24 x 7 social media scrutiny. A properly designed crisis communications plan will allow the organization to respond efficiently and effectively with timely, consistent messaging to all internal and external stakeholder groups.
What You Should Know
A comprehensive crisis communications plan will include a description of communication specific roles and responsibilities, communications policies, a list of stakeholder groups, and message templates (geared to both formal communications and social media) that enable timely and consistent communications. As with any other business continuity plan, the crisis communications plan must be trained and exercised before they face a real emergency.
How EMSS Can Help
EMSS can assist in all phases of developing a crisis communications plan, training the organization’s crisis communication team, and designing exercises that will build team competencies and enable full integration with other elements of the business continuity program, with particular emphasis on executive management and the organization’s incident management team.