Tweet

“Crisis Management Planning – What’s Happening Where We Work?”

Written by: Glenn Ebersole

Article Overview: Crises continue to be in our newspaper headlines and the lead stories on radio and television broadcasts. And crises continue to affect businesses in many forms and continue to occur without notice. But what’s happening where we work in response to this continuing trend of crises? Are businesses preparing for crises by developing crisis management plans? Do you know if your company has a crisis management plan or a business disaster recovery plan? Do they have a crisis communication plan? The American Management Association did a survey in August & September 2005 and what that survey revealed is summarized below.

“Crisis Management Planning – What’s Happening Where We Work?”

“Crisis Management Planning – What’s Happening Where We Work?”
By: J. Glenn Ebersole, Jr., Chief Executive of J. G. Ebersole Associates and The Renaissance Group ™

Crises continue to be in our newspaper headlines and the lead stories on radio and television broadcasts. And crises continue to affect businesses in many forms and continue to occur without notice. But what’s happening where we work in response to this continuing trend of crises? Are businesses preparing for crises by developing crisis management plans? Do you know if your company has a crisis management plan or a business disaster recovery plan? Do they have a crisis communication plan?

The American Management Association did a survey in August & September 2005 and what that survey revealed is summarized below:

AMA surveyed 105 Executive Members and customers during the months of August and September 2005 to determine if crisis management plans were, indeed, in place. According to the results, more than half (60%) of all U.S. companies surveyed have crisis management plans, a downward trend since 2003 (64%). Among those companies that do have crisis management plans, they have also addressed concerns different from those of previous years. The greatest concern in 2005 was for natural disasters (77%), followed by more traditional risks such as technology system failures (73%), and industrial accidents (65%), as well as risks from crime (31%), terrorism (46%) and major fraud (18%).

When planning for a crisis communication plan, companies are focused more closely on their senior management team (79%), and employees (84%), than on
family members (38%).

More than half of all respondents say that their organization has designated a crisis management team (56%) and half have conducted crisis drills or simulations (50%). And 38% have trained key personnel in crisis management skills.

Nearly half of the companies surveyed offered employees formal training on
security procedures (52%), and most of those that do (90%), receive training once
a year or less.

The survey also reveals that companies are also concerned with employee
screening and selection (27%—a high level of concern) and business resumption
planning (34%). They are less concerned about travel (13%) and parking lot safety
(10%).

After reviewing the results of the AMA survey, the most striking things to me that should cause at least attention, if not alarm, are the following:
+ Only 60% of businesses have a crisis management plan and that is less than in the 2003 AMA survey.
+ Only 56% of the businesses with a plan have designated a crisis management team
+ Only 50% of the businesses with plans have conducted crisis drills or simulations
+ Only 38% of the businesses with plans have personnel trained in crisis management skills
+ 90% of the businesses with plans have formal training only once each year


My professional experience is that more than 90% of the businesses I have contacted or have had some business relationship with since 1982 did not have a crisis management plan when I met them. And the companies that have followed-up on developing a crisis management plan did so after some crisis occurred or after serious discussions about the value of a crisis management plan and the risks of not having a crisis management plan. What about your company – do you know if it has a crisis management plan? If it does have a plan are you familiar with any part of it?

The AMA survey results are cause for alarm, in my opinion, and many more businesses need to be aware of what is happening with crisis management at work today. Ownership and senior management must recognize the problem and the risk factors and then develop and implement a strong crisis management plan for the organization. Without a strong crisis management and crisis communications plan, businesses can become frozen with indecision during a crisis. The company can become paralyzed without a strategic organized framework to respond to the crisis. And the company can literally be devastated and actually fold due to a lack of crisis management planning.

Do you know where your crisis management and crisis communication plans are? If you answered NO, then you and the plans will be missing in action when the next crisis occurs. If you are interested in learning more about the importance of crisis management planning and crisis communications planning to address the major impact a crisis can have on the short and long term performance of your company, please contact Glenn Ebersole through his website at www.crisismgmt4business.com or email Glenn at jgecoach@aol.com

Related Articles
  Do You Know Where Your Disaster Recovery Plan Is
  Managing Crises Before They Happen
  Crisis Communications Planning or What To Do Before During Or After It Hits The Fan
  In a time of crisis, PR is your greatest asset
  The Fundamentals of Crisis Communications

Article Tags:



Related Forum Posts
HRPreneur - Hi everyone, I am new to the forum and I recently started my own Human Capital (HR) consulting firm called HRPreneur Inc. HRP focuses on making human capital a strategic differentiator for SME's. Below is a summary about HRP; Who We Are: HRP is a Human Capital consulting firm with 30 years of experience that becomes an extension of your company by providing a full array of services to help you create a highly engaged workforce focused on achieving strategic results in order to build a long lasting great company! Mission: HRP provides small and medium sized businesses a Strategic HR Business Partner to increase employee engagement, resulting in cost savings, increased productivity and results at an affordable rate! Vision: To inspire and warrant SME's reach their full competency! Cost Effectiveness: We provide over 30 years of experience at a fraction of the cost at a strategic executive HR business level You will save between 50% to 60% in costs per year on salary, bonus, benefits, training, office space alone We will provide you additional cost efficiencies through our services Services: • Strategic Human Resources Planning • Organizational Redesign • Change Management • Organizational Culture Development • Employee Engagement Programs • Leadership Assessment and Development • Compensation Design • Talent Acquisition • Assimilation and On-Boarding • Performance Management • Talent Management & Succession Planning • Human Resources Due Diligence • Human Resources Audit • Full Service HR Outsourcing
Books for Women Entrepreneurs - There's a thread for good books in the Resources folder, but it doesn't target books for businesswomen particularly, so I figured I'd start such a thread here. It doesn't matter how successful you are in your business - it's always possible to learn something new. In subsequent posts I give Table of Contents and brief descriptions for various titles - most of them devoted to the businesswoman - and sometimes a review. If anyone else has read a review, or has read the book and found it useful, please comment! 1. The Old Girl's Network 2. Mother's Work 3. The 7 Greatest Truths About Successful Women 4. Pitch Like A Girl 5. Workplace Warrior 6. Treasure Hunt: Inside the Mind of the Modern Consumer 7. Contingency Planning & Disaster Recovery 8. She Wins, You Win 9. Napoleon On Project Management 10. Why Good Girls Dont' Get Ahead, But Gutsy Girls Do 11. Comeback Moms: How to Leave Work, Raise Children, and Restart your Career even If you Haven't Had a Job in Years 12. The One Minute Millionaire 13. Talking From 9 to 5 14. Soloing: Realizing Your Life's Ambitions 15. 101 Best Home Based Businesses for Women: Everything You Need to Know About Getting Started on the Road To Success 16. Work With Passion: How to Do What You Love for a Living. Revised and Expanded 17. Fail-Proof Your Business: Beat the Odds and be Successful 18. Confidence: How Winning Streaks and Losing Streaks Begin and End 19. Women Don't Ask: Negotiation and the Gender Divide 20. Millionaire Women Next Door: The Many Journeys of Successful American Businesswomen 21. Start Small, Finish Big: Fifteen Key Lessons to Start - and Run - Your Own Successful Business 22. Rewired, Rehired or Retired: A Global Guide for the Experienced Worker 23. The Martha Rules: 10 essentials for achieving success as you start, build or manage a business 24. The Essentials of Entrepreneurship: What it takes to create Successful Enterprises 25. Net Ready: Strategies for Success in the E-conomy 26. The Promotable Woman 27. Leave The Office Earlier: The Productivity Pro shows you how to do more in less time and feel great about it 28. The Work At Home Balancing Act: The professional resource guide for managing yourself, your work, and your family at home 29. Secrets of Six-Figure Women
Seek Venture Capital & Funding - Hello, Greetings from India. I am Seeking Venture Capital for Offshore Software Company Start-up. Need advise along with Business Model Sample. I have a basic outline for an offshore company. 1. Technology - like Microsoft Dot Net, Java, LAMP 2. Talent Team - Found Good Technology Developers. 3. Where I can get the leads/potential customers - Leads have been identified who are willing to move forward offshore projects. 4. I do not have resources like funding. It is a very critical factor to me Industries: Manufacturing, Real Estate, Retail, Insurance, Distribution & Logistics, Healthcare, Industry Associations and Software Product Development, Agricultural Industries and Etc. Services: Offshore Software Development Company. Offices to be located: Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India and USA. Products/Services/Applications in areas like POS & Billing, Sales & Distribution, Production Planning, Material Management, Inventory Control, Plant Maintenance, Purchasing, Accounting and Logistics. Dynamic Web Programming with Database Driven Content Management Systems, Online Stores for E-Commerce, B2B Solutions, Community Portals, Website Redesign and Development, Custom ERP with Enterprise Wide Functional Modules such as Marketing, CRM, Accounting, Inventory Control, Sales & Distribution, Production Planning, Purchase & Stores, Logistics and Supply Chain. Seek your further questions and help. Thank you, Best Regards, Jayapratap.
Re: Hello from a San Diego-based marketer - Welcome Aaron! Whats the next stage for your business? Ben
Re: New, young entrepreneur - Congrats H20ismyLife! Do you have a website so we can see any of your work? Whats the next step for you?


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Executives and Elevators Perfecting That Pitch

Unspoken Yet Important Rules for Book Proposals

Working Across Borders

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.