What is a Crisis Management Plan?

A crisis management plan (CMP) is a comprehensive document that outlines how an organization will respond to a crisis that could negatively impact its operations, reputation, or financial stability. The primary purpose of a CMP is to minimize damage, protect stakeholders, and restore normal operations as quickly as possible during a crisis.

What is a Crisis Management Plan Template?

A crisis management plan template is a framework used by a crisis management team (CMT) to serve as a guideline on every step that needs to be taken during a crisis. It helps ensure all critical elements are included when preparing for and responding to potential crises.

The Importance of Crisis Management Plan

Bolstering a company’s ability to generate income is understandably at the top of most organizations’ priority lists. The problem with this prevalent model, however, is that crisis management plans are not given the attention they deserve; this could lead to avoidable losses that could easily be prevented by good crisis management planning and implementation.

Good crisis management planning and implementation help organizations:

• minimize total losses and damage to the organization and its employees in the event of a crisis;

• avoid legal issues since local authorities often mandate crisis management plans for certain crises and non-compliance can lead to fines and penalties; and

• prevent a complete operational shutdown.

How does Crisis Management Work

Crisis management is a structured approach to addressing and mitigating the impacts of unexpected events that threaten an organization. It involves a series of stages and actions designed to prepare for, respond to, and recover from crises effectively. But before action could be taken, it’s important to understand the types of crisis that can be encountered at work :

• Financial Crisis : Occurs when a company’s assets and earnings cannot cover its costs and debts, often due to poor investments or mismanagement.

• PR Crisis : Happens when events damage a brand’s reputation, such as product defects, scandals, or employee mistreatment.

• Natural Crisis : Involves unavoidable events like hurricanes, earthquakes, or pandemics that disrupt operations.

• Organizational Crisis : Arises from internal conflicts or inefficiencies that affect the company’s ability to produce expected output, meet organizational goals, and deadlines.

The appropriate steps to take when encountering these types of crises in your organization should first start with acknowledging that a crisis management plan is needed. Build a crisis management team (CMT) that are responsible for identifying potential crises, assessing needed resources, and implementing countermeasures to minimize impact.

Roles within the CMT :

• Team Leader : Leads the crisis response, making final decisions. This role typically goes to a manager with appropriate seniority, leadership, and skills that drives action.

• Secretary : Documents meetings and progress to track overall crisis management efforts.

• Communications Coordinator : Keeps internal and external stakeholders informed about the crisis and actions being taken.

• Finance Officer : Manages the budget for crisis-related activities and ensures funds are used efficiently, especially during financial crises.

• HR Representative : Supports employees during and after a crisis, handling staffing and assistance programs.

• IT Consultant : Ensures internal systems and data are secure and develops contingency plans for IT-related crises.

• Legal Advisor : Ensures that crisis management actions comply with legal requirements and regulations.

What to include in a Crisis Management Plan

When a crisis occurs, the speed at which crisis management plans are implemented can mean the difference between failure and success. Crisis management plans should be simple enough so that people who have never read them can easily comprehend and implement them on short notice.

Below are some of the items that should be included in your Crisis Management Plan

Start with an organizational guide map A guide map outlines the organization’s departments, their functions, and breaks them down per role and responsibility. Having a clear guide map is important since it makes cooperation between teams easier by promoting accountability and ensuring everyone knows who’s responsible for what. If your company already has a guide map, ensure that it is updated before using it for your crisis management plan.

Include a process flowchart To make your plan easy to implement, make sure to include a process flowchart. Having your recommendations laid out in a chronological sequence with if/then scenarios can be the simplest way to make personnel comprehend and implement your crisis management plan right away.

Create an adaptable design For crisis management plans to stay effective, they need to stay updated. Several factors including a change in the organizational structure, service, or process, not to mention external elements beyond the company’s control, can affect the relevance and potency of crisis management plans. For this reason, crisis management plans need to be adaptable.

Other Items to Include in a Crisis Management Plan

1. Conditions for Activation : Define clear parameters to determine when a crisis management plan should be activated, ensuring it’s only rolled out during a true crisis.

2. Links to Supplementary Documents : Attach essential documents and resources to streamline the implementation of the crisis management plan.

3. Contact Information : Provide contact details for crisis management team members and key personnel to facilitate quick communication during a crisis.

Crisis Management Plan Example

To give you an idea of what a crisis management plan should look like, we’ve created a simple design.

Crisis Management Plan Template Sample Report | SafetyCulture

In this sample crisis management example, contains 3 main sections which are:

• Scope of Crisis Management Plan – As its name suggests, this section provides the specific crisis that the plan is trying to manage. (e.g., earthquake, tornado, COVID-19, typhoon, etc.)

• Communication Response – In this section, personnel of contact in case of an incident or emergency is listed down by order of priority. This person may be a key official, legal counsel, or advisors. It is essential that this section be able to provide the personnel’s full name, position title, and their contact number.

• Action Plans – This section contains instructions for the containment and management of the said crisis mentioned in the plan. The emergency protocols provided in this section have been carefully thought and put together by the crisis management team. It is expected to be carried out should the crisis arise, to prevent the situation from further escalating.

• Sign off – Lastly, a crisis management plan should be validated by the crisis management director or other relevant stakeholders with a signature to officiate the information and guidance provided.