In today’s environment, it is important that businesses prepare themselves for a crisis.
There are many ways to do this, but one of the most overlooked ones is having a crisis management team in place. The five steps to creating a better prepared crisis management team starts with understanding the current capabilities from what training is carried out to the state of planning and resource documentation. The other four equally as important steps are highlighted within this blog post!
Evaluate the Current State of Crisis Team Training and Crisis Planning Documentation and Resources
The first step to creating a better prepared crisis management team starts with understanding the current capabilities from what training is carried out to the state of planning and resource documentation. The way this can be done at an organizational level includes:
- Carrying out a risk assessment of all possible crises that could occur and how the company would respond
- Determining what type of training is required for the various teams responsible for responding based on their role in relation to preparedness
- Comparing the current state against best practices and make recommendations for improvement
It is important that a company takes an all-encompassing approach to crisis planning and team training. Too often, businesses focus on one or two potential crises and do not plan for other possible scenarios. This can lead to confusion and chaos in the event of an actual emergency. By carrying out a risk assessment, companies can get a better understanding of all the possible crises that could occur and how they would respond. This will help to ensure that all bases are covered in terms of crisis planning and training.
Related: Ashley Goosman: A Collaborative Crisis Management Approach for Large Organizations
Develop a Comprehensive Crisis Management Training Program
Once the current state has been evaluated, it is time to develop a comprehensive crisis management training program. This should include training for all members of the crisis team, from senior management down to frontline staff. The training should be tailored to their specific roles within the company and cover all aspects of crisis preparedness. It is important that everyone is on the same page when it comes to responding to a crisis. This can help to minimize confusion and chaos during an actual emergency.
Create and Deliver Crisis Simulation Exercises
The next step in the five steps to creating a better prepared crisis management team is carrying out regular simulation exercises. The frequency of these can be based on how often each scenario occurs within your organizations industry, but they can also be customized further by incorporating additional exercises at specific times during the year. This will help prepare crisis management and other response teams as well as employees identify any weaknesses or gaps in their knowledge and skills. It also allows for feedback to be provided by all team members, which can help improve crisis response training and capabilities as a whole within the organization.
Related: PX Podcast – Cybersecurity Simulation Exercises an Interview with Heather Engel
Make Changes to Crisis Plans and Capabilities Based on Results From Simulation Exercises
As mentioned earlier, carrying out simulation exercises will help to identify any weaknesses or gaps in knowledge and skills. We call these gaps, lessons-to-be-learned. It is important that these findings are analyzed and changes made to crisis plans and capabilities based on the results. This will ensure that the company is always prepared for a potential crisis situation.
Monitor Crisis Management Team Performance
The final step in creating a better prepared crisis management program is to monitor the performance or the crisis management team as well as the processes, procedures and resources they utilize. This should be done both during and after simulation exercises as well as actual crises or incidents. By doing this, you can identify any areas that need improvement and make changes accordingly.
Monitoring the crisis management program is an advanced capability that you should consider.
Summary
The five steps to creating a better prepared crisis management team are:
- Carrying out a risk assessment of all possible crises that could occur and how the company would respond
- Determining what type of training is required for the various teams responsible for responding based on their role in relation to preparedness
- Comparing the current state against best practices and make recommendations for improvement
- Carrying out regular simulation exercises
- Monitoring crisis management team performance and making changes to plans and capabilities based on the results.
If you would like more information on how PreparedEx can help your organization become better prepared, please contact us at info@preparedex.com or visit our website at www.preparedex.com