TWO THIRDS OF UK’S LEADING COMMS PROFESSIONALS SAY THEY ARE ‘MOSTLY PREPARED’ FOR A CRISIS
October 15th, 2014, Question & Retain Ltd (Q&R) released the latest results from its online Pulse Check™ showing that 67% of the UK’s leading lights in the Communications Sector confess to being ‘mostly prepared’ for a crisis in their business.
Out of the 175 + Senior Communications professionals who were pulse checked, 18% claimed to be ‘not as prepared as we should be’ when asked – ‘A crisis hits your business tonight. How prepared are you?
As one respondent put it, “We have disaster recovery protocol but tests don’t always work,” with another adding, “We run a well-rehearsed crisis comms work stream with representatives from relevant parts of the business/functions. Each situation is different – our ability to be very prepared would depend on whether we had considered the crisis event in planning. And there are always outside influences like news flow on any given day.”
Others pointed to the arbitrary nature of crises in terms of how you can never be ‘totally prepared,’ whereas one Managing Director noted, “We have the processes in place but probably don’t revisit them nor ‘practice’ so that we are equipped for a crisis.”
The findings were discussed over a round table dinner co-hosted by Farrer & Co. and Q&R, 15th October 2014
Speakers: Ben Matthews, Head of Strategic Communcations, eBay and Grant Fisher, NHS Business Director, Aurora Health PR
Discussion points included:
- Three things to consider with crisis comms = morale of staff, ensuring internal and external communications functions are joined up and appreciate the value of community messaging – friends and family spread the messages and more credibel than reading it in the papers
- When a crisis occurs, it is too easy for a business to start internalising it and forget about the day to day running of the company – will lose market share
- Need to have the right tone of voice depending on what comms channel you are using and understand who you will reach with it
- Think about how the media channel will work for you
- Don’t get hung up on apologising – it is often your corporate lawyer or insurers that ask you to stay silent
- Key to also focus on the morale of staff and to ensure external communications functions are joined up and appreciate the value of community messaging – friends and family spread the messages and more credible than reading it in the papers
- Your own work force can cause a crisis in your business – how do you measure the impact of culture on business performance? When a crisis occurs, it is too easy for a business to start internalising it and forget about the day to day running of the company – this means it will lose market share
- Need to have the right tone of voice depending on what comms channel you are using and understand who you will reach with it
- Think about how the media channel will work for you
- Don’t get hung up on apologising – it is often your corporate lawyer or insurers that ask you to stay silent
- Reputation & risk are board Agenda items – it’s all about authenticity and risk
- Consider your crisis approach in different scenarios, plan ahead but need good comms in place as by its very nature a crisis can be unpredictable and hard to genuinely plan for
Annabel Dunstan, Co-Founder at Q&R observed, “A crisis can hit a company at any given moment of the day. And every crisis comes with specific challenges. The key is to be nimble, act on what you know rather than on assumption and your communications strategy will bear fruit.”
Farrer & Co Pulse Check™
Results
Q. A crisis hits your business tonight. How prepared are you?
15% Very prepared, doors checked and to manual
67% Mostly prepared, a few things would be addressed in situ
18% Not as prepared as we should be
0% Think this is something we need to address