The Three A’s of Effective Crisis Communication and Management

Table of Contents
    Restrata Team
    Restrata Team

    Alert, Act, Assess

    In today’s fast-paced digital landscape, businesses like yours are constantly navigating unforeseen challenges. From sudden supply chain disruptions to unexpected PR disasters, the way you communicate during a crisis can significantly impact your reputation. The three A’s – Alert, Act, and Assess – offer a structured approach to crisis communication and management, ensuring that you’re well-equipped to handle any situation with poise and professionalism.

    1. Alert: Stay Informed and Keep Your Stakeholders Updated

    The initial step in effective crisis management is to remain alert. This means you should be well-informed about potential risks and ensure that all stakeholders, from your employees to your customers, are kept in the loop. A recent report by Capterra revealed that less than half of U.S. businesses feel adequately prepared to communicate during a crisis1. This statistic is concerning, especially when you consider that effective communication is the foundation of crisis management.

    For businesses like yours, involved in journey management and people travel management, being alert also means tracking employees and stakeholders while they’re in transit. In our globalised world, where your employees often cross borders for work, their safety and accounting for them during emergencies should be paramount.

    2. Act: Implement Your Crisis Communication Plan

    When a crisis strikes, it’s time for you to act. This involves rolling out your crisis communication plan and ensuring that all messages are clear, concise, and consistent. An Axios study underscored the importance of countering misinformation online, especially in our current social media age2. You need to be proactive in setting the narrative straight and providing accurate information to your stakeholders.

    For companies like yours, involved in people travel management, acting also means ensuring the safety of employees in transit. Whether it’s a natural disaster, political unrest, or a health crisis, having protocols in place to ensure the safety and well-being of your travelling employees is crucial.

    3. Assess: Review and Learn from the Crisis

    After managing the immediate crisis, it’s time for you to assess. This involves reviewing how the situation was handled, identifying what went well, and pinpointing areas for improvement. Research by Haiilo indicates that fewer than half of businesses have a “playbook” for specific crisis scenarios3. Your post-crisis assessment is an opportunity to develop such a playbook, ensuring that you’re better prepared for future challenges.

    Gathering feedback from stakeholders, especially your employees, can offer valuable insights during the assessment phase. For businesses like yours, this could mean revisiting travel protocols, communication channels, and safety measures to ensure that your employees are always protected, even when on the move.

    In conclusion, effective crisis communication and management are pivotal for maintaining your business’s reputation and trustworthiness. By staying alert, acting decisively, and assessing post-crisis, you can confidently navigate challenges. Remember, it’s not just the crisis that defines a company, but how you respond to it.

    You can book a demo on resilienceOS here to see how it can help you alert, act and assess crisis communication and management better.

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    1. Capterra’s 2023 Crisis Communications Survey ↩
    2. The modern crisis communications playbook, Axios ↩
    3. Crisis Communication: Definition, Importance and Best Practices, Haiilo ↩