Education

How Effective Is Your Crisis Communications Plan?

When a crisis hits your campus, whether it is related to abuse, scandal, violence, death or natural disaster, your school should be prepared to act quickly and decisively to mitigate potential reputational and financial risk. While many schools have a crisis communications plan in place, however, the response and outcome, as illustrated by the recent events at Penn State University, do not always produce the most effective results.

Effective crisis communications requires thoughtful and continuous planning, as well as having clear and defined responsibilities for those who are responsible for executing the plan. There are seven key components to building an effective plan:

  1. A statement of the plan's objectives
  2. A list of key audiences
  3. A multidisciplinary crisis communication team
  4. Anticipating Crises and Audiences
  5. Formulating Messages
  6. Media Training
  7. Insurance & Risk Management

1. Setting Objectives:

A statement of the plan's objectives is important since objectives guide decisions made during a crisis and provide standards to measure the plan's success. All crisis communication plans should include as an objective the dissemination of factual, timely, and accurate information. Rumors spread quickly in the initial hours of crisis. To combat the flow of inaccurate and unflattering information, the school must be ready to promptly circulate facts

To formulate additional objectives ask, “In a crisis, what action steps should we take to communicate effectively?” Following are examples of action steps which can drive objectives:

  • Ensure the timely release of accurate information.
  • Communicate verified facts rather than speculative information.
  • Facilitate the flow of information.
  • Promote and protect the welfare of involved personnel and their families.
  • Retain employee, student, public and news media confidence in the school.
  • Use a crisis, when appropriate, to educate the public on broader issues raised by the crisis.

2. Identifying Audiences

To emerge from a crisis with the public's goodwill intact, schools must communicate effectively with the wide variety of people that encompass their key audiences. A crisis plan should identify all potential stakeholders the school may need to reach in a crisis. Generally, this list includes:

  • Students
  • Students' parents
  • Prospective students
  • Alumni
  • Donors and prospective donors
  • Faculty and staff
  • Board members
  • Media
  • Crisis victims and their families
  • Surrounding community
  • Government officials

3. Creating a Crisis Communication Team

A multidisciplinary team is important for planning and advising communications in a crisis. Effective communication with school stakeholders during a crisis requires coordination and input from many campus departments. For example, if a natural disaster causes a campus evacuation, providing accurate and timely information to key audiences would require collaboration among campus security, police, public affairs, facilities, information technology (IT) staff, the head's office and potentially others.

Team composition will reflect a school's culture, needs, and personnel. An institution should consider including the following individuals:

  • Director of Public Affairs or Communications (chair)
  • Head of Campus Security
  • Dean of Students
  • Head of School
  • Head of IT
  • Legal Counsel
  • Crisis Communications Firm
  • Insurance Broker/Risk Management Consultant
  • Ad Hoc Participants

Team effectiveness - Once the team is selected, consider these actions to ensure its optimal function:

  • Identify at least one back-up for every team member.
  • Consistently update contact information for team members and their backups.
  • Use technology for quick team communication.
  • Meet periodically when there is no crisis.
  • Practice execution of the plan through table-top exercises or live drills.
  • Assess the team's handling of past crises.

4. Anticipating Likely Crises

Crisis communication professionals have a saying, “You can anticipate 90 percent of all crises—the timing is the only unknown.” Once formed, the crisis communication team should create a list of the school's most probable crises. The list does not have to be exhaustive and should include at least a dozen potential crises. Consider these actions for identifying likely crises:

  • Review local, national, and education-specific media.
  • Identify geographic-specific risks.
  • Identify any internal problems or issues.
  • Seek input from peer schools, insurance company, broker and risk management consultants.

Anticipating target audiences

Successful communications result from a team's ability to understand and identify the institution's key audiences. For each anticipated crisis, refer to the list of potential audiences (see “Identifying audiences”) and highlight those audience members most pertinent to the crisis. For example, if the potential crisis was the suicide of a student, the school's target audiences might include the student's family, witnesses, other students and their parents, faculty, staff, the local community, and the media. An institution should focus its communication efforts on the target audiences.

5. Creating Messages

Effective messages result from accurately anticipating the audience's questions. One approach is to have team members imagine that one of their close family members, such as a spouse, parent, or child, has been directly affected by the crisis. If this occurred, what would the team member want to know? Another method is to study past coverage of similar incidents and identify people's concerns. Below are some likely initial audience questions:

  • What happened?
  • When did it happen?
  • Where did it happen?
  • What was the cause?
  • What actions has the school taken and what actions does it intend to take in response to the event?
  • How will the school express concern or condolences for what happened?
  • When will more information be available?
  • Could the crisis have been prevented, and what actions did the school take to prevent it?

Planning should also include questions that are likely to occur as the situation progresses and more information is known. There are differing opinions regarding the use of these questions for creating crisis messages. Some schools use the questions before a crisis to develop messages they can have on file should a crisis occur. Conversely, others prefer using the questions as a prompt for drafting communications during the midst of a crisis.

6. Identifying and Training Media Spokespeople

A primary media spokesperson enables an institution to better control the flow and content of information. Moreover, a single spokesperson dissuades other employees from speaking on the institution's behalf in a crisis. The ideal candidate for the role of spokesperson is generally the Head of School, Associate/Assistant Head of School, Board Chair or Vice Chair.

All potential spokespeople should undergo the following training:

  • Media training and relationship building: Use a reputable public relations firm with significant media experience to train institution spokespeople. Experienced media professionals can share valuable insights regarding best practices and potential pitfalls for handling the media. Also, before a crisis occurs, introduce school spokespeople to media contacts. Building a rapport will facilitate media cooperation during a crisis.
  • Legal training: Engage the school's counsel to train spokespeople on how laws affect the type of information that should be shared with the media. Good spokespeople balance both the courts of public and legal opinion.
  • Internal procedures training: Potential spokespeople should understand any internal policies affecting their authority to serve as spokespeople in a crisis. Spokespeople should also know whom they need to coordinate with before going public with a statement. For example, in the case of a student death, the school’s media spokesperson usually speaks with the deceased student’s family before talking to the media.

7. Insurance & Risk Management

Meeting with your insurance broker or risk management consultant to assess the potential for crisis communications insurance and insurance carrier resources can represent a key component of the development and execution of the crisis communication plan. Steps to include are:

  • Review insurance program for Crisis Communications Coverage
  • Coordinate strategy with your broker/consultant
  • Seek out insurance carrier resources
  • Pre-select Crisis Communications Consultant

Finally, schools should consider reviewing technology platforms as part of their crisis management and communication strategies. While some crises occur in an instant and require the appropriate response (natural disaster, accidental death, etc.), others may be mitigated (abuse and molestation, potential for suicide, bullying, etc.) by early discovery and attention. Internet based programs are available at a reasonable cost to facilitate the reporting, either by name or anonymously, of incidents or events that are likely to have serious consequences. These platforms not only facilitate early reporting, but assist the crisis team in managing information, timelines, responsibilities and integration of third parties (police, fire, etc.).