Tragedy can unfortunately strike anywhere at any time. A crisis affecting your employees requires an immediate discourse in the business world. Shocking and discomforting, in the event of a terrorist attack, a natural disaster, or a company scandal you must bring forth a response to your company’s investors, executives, customers, and particularly your employees as soon as it is possible. The following six tips will help to manage the after-effects of an emergency as they relate to your company’s stakeholders.
Communication Direction
In the wake of adverse events, the first step is to inform all necessary parties as everyone will need to receive information about the impact of the situation. Ideally, you would also send updates on any follow-up activities in the aftermath of a company death or insider stock trading. Companies will also need to communicate with the public about the event, whether it be a driver’s accident or a warehouse collapse if it is in the public interest. It is best to complete and preserve a press release template in times such as these so that you will not need to recreate the wheel to respond to every occurrence.
Care Direction
Team members are the crucial element of any corporation. Before, during, and after a tragedy, you must protect these individuals. There are multiple ways to be present for your employees in their time of need, including:
- evacuating the building and having a designated meeting space
- providing medical or ambulatory assistance
- offering counseling and support
By prioritizing your team’s needs and concerns, you become a brief consolation in a difficult circumstance. In this regard, you will be more likely to retain your team members over their turnover, despite your cumulative losses.
Crisis Direction
Another step to supporting your business during a disaster is to appoint a crisis management team. You will require a dedicated team that consists of a few of each of your represented stakeholders. These individuals will be senior executives, attorneys, public relations experts, and any other professionals that will be of assistance. They must be able to communicate effectively to the company as needed as well as being transparent and timely. An entity such as this may also be the point of contact for any investigators looking into the catastrophe, like law enforcement or regulatory agencies,
Cost Direction
As a major corporation, it is an obligation of your corporate social responsibility to be available financially after a crisis. For instance, counseling services will be pre-paid on behalf of your team members so as not to place the burden of health as well as finance onto their shoulders. You’ll want to provide personal protective equipment in the event of an epidemic outbreak. If the investigation shows your company to be at fault, you will need finances for fines and fees. Furthermore, if there are any charitable organizations or disaster relief efforts, your company will want to be a benefactor of these as well.
Change Direction
Upon the release of information pertaining to the investigation, you will want to shore up any defects to your safety systems or cybersecurity if your firm experiences a black hat hacker. By reviewing the root cause of this incident, it is possible to prevent it from happening again. Or, in some instances, lessen the unfortunate consequences of an act of God-level trauma. Some of the ways you can utilize the feedback to make improvements are:
- update policies and procedures
- provide additional training and resources to employees
- make changes to the physical environment or equipment
Control Direction
Your company will want to stay in control of the response and its effects going forward. By monitoring the impact of your response, you will gain insight into how your customers or potential customers act and think. At the same time, You can try to solicit feedback from stakeholders through surveys or user testing of your application to confirm whether your information is secure.
For better or worse, tragedies are commonplace for humans. It is how you respond to these traumatic incidents that will separate you from other organizations. Acknowledging your role in the problem will also go a long way to maintaining the trust your employees, stakeholders, executives, and customers place in your hands. Furthermore, you may be able to emerge an even better company because of the challenges.
