Welcome to Spring in Wisconsin where a cocktail of ice, snow, rain and winds could knock us off the grid at any time.
Most businesses don’t consider man-made or natural disasters in their annual planning, but ignore at your own peril. Not only do we live in a world of instant business, we live in a world of instant news. If disaster hits your business, there’s a good chance it will be on a media website or blog before you notify your employees or key customers.
The people who are in the business of covering disasters have crisis plans in place. When 9/11 stopped Americans in their tracks, most newsrooms across the country had “plan A” and “plan B” in place and put reporters and editors on 24/7 call. When storms hit, local TV stations are live from multiple locations immediately. The media is ready to cover you if you are the center of a disaster—are you as ready as the media?
The worst time to plan for a crisis is when you’re knee deep in one. There are a few common sense things to plan for—and a few things you might not readily think of.
Define your crisis: Before an emergency hits, determine what types of crises require you be ready for media response. Tornadoes and fires are an easy call—but does a robbery or an employee theft warrant a full-scale crisis response?
Prepare your team: Identify a first response team, usually key executives in your business and a communications or PR professional. If you don’t have PR counsel on staff, consider outsourcing this function during a crisis
Plan your communications: Determine what you will say to your employees, your customers and the media. Identify a spokesperson, but make sure all members of your crisis team are briefed.
Be up front with your team: Make certain all employees know where they can call or check in if there is a disaster so they can stay informed with factual, up-to-date information. In a disaster or crisis, a good reporter will not politely call the receptionist and leave a message for your spokesperson. A good reporter will wander around to the loading dock, start talking to your drivers, call surrounding business neighbors and put your janitor on camera. How do I know this is true? Because I did each one of these things to get a story.
I wouldn’t advocate adding a “disaster” column to your monthly spreadsheet, but a little pre-planning can avert some big problems. And for those of you who are still saying it’ll never happen here; just remember that Noah built the ark before it started to rain.
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