A crisis management plan helps ensure the safety and security of your people, facilities and business operations. During a crisis event, your plan becomes your crisis management playbook to help you respond. Here are topics to consider as you build your plan.

PRIORITIZE YOUR BUSINESS THREATS

Your crisis management plan should address all types of possible events. Determine which events could be the most damaging to you and match your resources to these threats. There are many types of crisis events, including novel viruses, natural disasters, data breaches, epidemics/pandemics, acts of terrorism and fires. A good crisis plan ensures a swift, effective response to the event, whenever and wherever it might occur.

PUT DETAILS INTO YOUR CRISIS MANAGEMENT PLAN

Companies approach crisis management in different ways. Here is how you could organize your plan:

  1. Plan activation: Clarify when the plan should be implemented.
  2. Roles and responsibilities: Identify hazards, and the actions and responsibilities of team members.
  3. Response procedures: Prepare for what you can control and understand what you can’t control.
  4. Appendices: Report templates, employee contact information, benchmarking and sharing.

CREATE AN EVACUATION PLAN

All employees, including associates and managers, should know how to exit the building and where they should meet up once outside. In the case of tornados or other storm events, employees need to know where to find safe shelter.

PROVIDE CLEAR COMMUNICATIONS

Communicate during and after the event with your employees affected by a crisis event. Make sure you have current contact information available for all your employees. You could communicate via many channels: phone, email, text, Facebook Messenger, mail, etc. Clearly state what employees should be doing and not doing, based on the situation. As a best practice, only designated people within your company should interact with the media. Find out more about how to lead during a crisis.

PREPARE FOR WHAT COMES NEXT

In the case of a financial loss, utilize your partners, such as your insurance company and your financial and legal advisors. There are also resources for information on small business grants and loans. A leading resource is the Small Business Administration (SBA). You can find information at https://www.sba.gov/.

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An overview of Synchrony’s® Crisis Management: Awareness And Response resource.

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