Crisis communications preparedness checklist
A crisis communications plan needs to give the people using it a workable route from an initial report to checked information, approved decisions and updates for those affected. A preparedness review should test that route with the people who would carry out the work.
This checklist is SCA's suggested approach to reviewing communications arrangements before an incident. It supports the organisation’s operational response and emergency plans. Those plans, and advice from the responsible specialists, determine safety actions and any notification obligations.
Establish when the plan starts
Describe the circumstances that require an issue to be escalated and who decides to activate the communications arrangements. Connect these triggers to the organisation’s existing incident and management processes so staff know where to report a concern.
Record the first contact and a deputy, along with the arrangements for reaching them. Check the availability that has actually been agreed for employees and external advisers. An out-of-hours number is useful only if someone is assigned and able to respond.
Assign authority and deputies
Name the roles responsible for confirming operational facts, drafting communications, providing specialist advice, approving statements and publishing updates. Identify the spokesperson and the person who handles enquiries while that spokesperson is being briefed.
Test the approval path with the people named in it. They should understand which decisions they can make, which require referral and what happens if the usual approver is unavailable. Record deputies and access arrangements before a time-sensitive statement needs approval.
The Australian Government's emergency management planning guidance recommends clear team responsibilities, training, regular review and rehearsal. Apply that discipline to the communications work as part of the wider response arrangements.
Keep a record of confirmed information
Prepare a shared record that separates confirmed facts, information awaiting verification and questions that remain unanswered. Each entry should identify its source, the time checked and the person responsible for confirming or updating it.
The record should make it possible to establish:
- what has been reported and what has been confirmed;
- who is affected, to the extent this is known;
- what action the organisation has authorised and taken;
- which information may be released and who approved it;
- what has already been communicated, to whom and when;
- which questions remain open and who is following them up.
Agree where the current record will be held and how authorised staff will reach it if normal systems are unavailable. Avoid copying sensitive information into channels that the organisation has not approved for that purpose.
Prepare statements that require facts
Draft a structure for an initial statement and later updates. Leave prompts for the confirmed event, its known effects, the action being taken and where people can obtain further information. Identify the facts needed to complete each section and who can verify them.
Templates should make uncertainty visible. A statement can acknowledge that a matter is being investigated without supplying an unconfirmed cause or promising an outcome the organisation cannot control. Have the people who approve communications review the templates and their limits before they are needed.
Set a process for agreeing the next update and maintaining it. If there is no material change, the team still needs to decide what to tell people who are waiting for information. Keep a dated copy of every approved version so corrections can be traced.
Plan for affected people and staff
Identify the groups that may need direct communication, including employees, contractors, customers, neighbours and other affected stakeholders. Record who will contact each group, through which channel and using what approved information. Confirm notification requirements with the relevant specialists and include their advice in the sequence.
Check how staff receiving questions will find the current briefing and refer enquiries they cannot answer. Prepare for a channel becoming unavailable, and consider the accessibility and language needs of the people relying on an update. Assign someone to identify recurring questions and pass them to the response team.
Rehearse the approval and update process
Run a discussion exercise using a plausible incident chosen from the organisation’s own risk assessment. Label the exercise clearly and keep test material within the agreed exercise environment. Ask participants to work through the contact list, confirm a set of facts, prepare an initial statement and approve an update.
Include an unavailable approver or conflicting report to test the arrangements. Note where participants need information that the plan does not provide, where responsibilities overlap and where access fails. Brief the spokesperson using the same confirmed information available to the rest of the team.
Close the gaps and maintain the plan
Turn the exercise findings into an action list with an owner and due date for each repair. Retest the steps that failed, then issue a controlled version of the plan and tell participants where to find it. Review it when key personnel, operations or communication channels change.
SCA's issues and crisis management work includes reviewing communications plans, preparing templates and briefing or rehearsing spokespeople. The scope and availability of support during an actual incident are agreed separately. A preparedness review should leave the organisation clear about the arrangements it has in place and the gaps it still needs to address.
Start with what
you need to decide
SCA defines the engagement or corporate affairs work the decision ahead needs. The first conversation establishes the issue, timing and information available.