A crisis management and risk consultancy has published the results of its Crisis Management Survey 2014.
In an unpredictable and crisis-prone world, characterised by an increasingly inter-dependent threat landscape whether from geopolitical unrest, extreme weather, cyber or supply chain failure, there is clear evidence that being prepared to manage a crisis is imperative for the success of an organisation, says Steelhenge Consulting. The aim of their survey was to build a better picture of how organisations are preparing themselves to manage crises effectively, to protect reputation and performance. It asked the 375 participants from organisations around the world, what they are doing to prepare to manage crises, the challenges they face in creating a crisis management capability and to assess their overall level of crisis preparedness.
Over half rated themselves as less than very well prepared, with 13pc responding that they were either not well prepared or not prepared at all.
The crisis communications function was shown to be lagging behind when it comes to crisis preparedness; while most, 84pc of organisations surveyed had a documented crisis management plan, over a quarter of respondents recorded that they do not have a documented plan for how they will communicate in a crisis and 41pc responded that they do not have guidance on handling social media in a crisis. Other results from the survey include:
Embedding
Less than half of the respondents had a programme of regular reviews, training and exercising that would help embed Crisis Management within an organisation and create a genuinely sustainable crisis management capability.
Engagement
In the face of high profile crises befalling major organisations year after year, 29pc of organisations taking part in the survey still waited for the brutal experience of a crisis before creating a plan. Crisis preparedness is still a work in progress, particularly with regard to crisis communications planning.
Ownership
Ownership of Crisis Management at the strategic level amongst the survey population lay predominantly with the Chief Executive. However, responsibility for day-to-day management of the Crisis Management capability was spread widely across a broad range of functional roles.
For the full survey – visit http://www.steelhenge.co.uk.
