Crisis can strike at any time – whether it’s a supply chain disruption or an unexpected data breach. But having the right crisis management plan in place can help ensure you’re prepared for every eventuality.

It can help you work out your immediate response as an organisation should a crisis occur, as well as the next steps to help you take control of the situation. Your plan should also consider things like the training, testing and any teams involved.

Ready to get started? Find out how to equip your organisation with a crisis management plan that’s ready to put into action when it really matters.

What is crisis management?

Crisis management is an organisation's strategic process for identifying and effectively responding to threats to the business itself and its stakeholders. They can be self-inflicted or caused by things beyond the organisation’s control.

Some examples of crisis might include:

• Natural disasters. These are naturally occurring external events, caused by things beyond your control. Think floods, tornadoes and earthquakes. These can physically damage buildings, impact your operations and cause safety issues for employees and customers.
• Tech outages. A technological failure could cost your business money, time and trust. For example, if you have a data breach or get hacked, you could end up paying hefty GDPR fines and lose credibility. Other issues, like an IT system failure, might impact your business operations, which could affect the customer experience.
• Financial downturns. If the market crashes or a recession occurs, it’s important you have a crisis management plan in place. You’ll need to consider how you’ll cover business expenses, rent and employee salaries.
• Changes to law. Legal or regulatory changes can force you to make changes to your business. You might need a plan in place to respond to these changes, so your business can react quickly without risking its compliance.

How to create a robust crisis management plan.

Creating a crisis management plan requires a few key components and steps.

Key crisis management planning components.

Every crisis management plan needs to factor in the following features:

• Personnel. This covers everyone from your employees to your customers. Make sure your employees are safe and protected and find out if the crisis could impact your customers or visitors – either physically or financially.
• Infrastructure. Monitor facilities to see if they’ve been affected by crisis events or would be in such instances.
• Systems. Keep your tech safe during crisis – always back up your data and have it somewhere that’s easily accessible if something happens.
• Organisation. Consider how operations could continue in such crisis events. Who might be impacted? The show must go on even if things go wrong.
• Public perception. Consider the potential impact on your brand reputation. If things go wrong, it’s how you respond that truly matters – so make sure you have your crisis communications ready.

Crisis management planning steps.

Ready to make your own plan? Follow these five steps to build your crisis management plan:

1. Appoint a team. Elect people to be in a crisis management team. They can help you plan and carry out your strategy should a crisis occur.
2. Evaluate the risk. Identify where the risks are – this can vary from business to business. For example, if you have several store locations, you might have to factor in different risks than a purely e-commerce company.
3. Assess the impact on the business. Determine how different crises could affect your business – consider the different strands of your operations and which areas would need extra attention.
4. Develop a response strategy. See what steps need to be taken in crisis situations. You might want to prepare crisis communication templates or communications for different channels – both internal and external.
5. Establish the plan. Make the plan ‘action ready’, with infographics outlining the order of events, alongside informational guides and emergency contacts.

Building a crisis management team.

The best way to build a crisis management team is to have the right people in the right place, at the right time, with the right resources. Here’s how you can do this:

1. Pick crisis team representatives. Choose members from senior level positions, such as upper-level management and key stakeholders. Think operations, HR, legal, and the like.
2. Pick a crisis manager. Appoint someone to lead your crisis management strategy. This person carries out the plan and manages the organisation’s response.
3. Allocate the right people, for the right things.

Assign team members whose expertise aligns with critical areas:

• IT for digital infrastructure and cyber resilience.
• HR for addressing employee and visitor needs.
• Legal for ensuring compliance if regulations change.
• Senior leadership for maintaining alignment with company objectives and signing off on communications.

Business crisis management testing and training.

Crisis management is strategic, meaning it should be systemised and practised so it can be applied in real life. Just having the theory is not enough; you need to be able to implement it. That’s where testing and training comes in.

Here are some ideas to implement in your business:

1. Regular crisis management training. Implement a training programme that helps your employees understand their role in a crisis. It should also give them a clear plan to follow should one occur.
2. Host group exercises to hone certain elements of your crisis management plan. Begin with tabletop exercises, presenting simple scenarios to test awareness, roles, and response protocols. Then try functional or command-post exercises, where participants respond and work together in more realistic situations.
3. Full-scale emergency drills. Train your crisis management team with a mock disaster or emergency that could occur on your business premises. Carry this out with physical setups, communication challenges, and fast decision-making under pressure to ensure your team is fully prepared.
4. Debriefing session. Review every test and drill to identify what worked well and what could be improved. This gives you an opportunity to smooth out any rough edges in the process.

How can Adobe Express help with your crisis management planning?

Crisis management training involves lots of documents to help your team get prepared for crisis situations. Adobe Express makes it easy to create these.

1. Make your own crisis management plan.

Choose from a library of free plan templates or start from scratch to create a crisis management schedule. This way, there’s a timely structure to your strategy.

2. Craft branded press releases with ready-made templates.

No PR crisis management plan is the same without the right press releases in place in case such an event happens. Have ready-made crisis templates in your pocket in case you need to share an update or protect your public image.

3. Save your crisis management templates for speedy responses.

Create once, then save to use again if needed. There’s no need to keep creating from scratch; save your favourites to make the process more efficient. Save assets and templates with Adobe Express

Generate social media templates fast with the AI Template Generator.

If you’ve not found a template that tickles your fancy, you can create your own. This way, your design can have the nuances that make it unique and specific to your organisation.

A specific logo, things linked to your brand or industry – all these can be included in your design. Simply input your commands in the AI Template Generator and watch your design come to life.

If you’re not completely happy with what it creates, you can keep refining until it aligns.

Try Adobe Express for free now

Good to know.

What are the five steps of crisis management?

The five crisis management steps are:

1. Detect. Look for early signs that a crisis could occur.
2. Prepare. Create a plan to prepare or prevent the crisis.
3. Contain. Keep the impact of the crisis to a minimum – where possible.
4. Recover. Use your crisis management strategy to build your brand back up.
5. Learn. Learn from what happened to prevent a similar crisis in the future.

What should you not do in a crisis?

In a crisis, don’t delay action or communicate poorly. Be transparent, don’t withhold information as this can damage your reputation and make matters worse. Don’t play the blame game – instead, communicate the situation clearly to stakeholders. Give timely updates and respond properly to protect your people and reputation.

Is Adobe Express free?

Yes, our free plan offers many core features including thousands of templates, photo editing and effects, animation, and 5 GB of storage. See our pricing page for details and to compare plans.