Protecting business in the wake of COVID-19

Crisis management to help you navigate the ‘new normal’

Crisis management in the aftermath of COVID-19

COVID-19 has left many businesses around the world in a significantly weakened state. Without additional crisis management planning, training and exercising, the pandemic also presents increased secondary risks, for example, from cyber-attacks, leaving organisations particularly vulnerable.

It is vital your organisation undertakes crisis management planning now to ensure you are ready for the new risk landscape. This means learning from your COVID-19 response, evaluating critical risks, enhancing your crisis management plans and giving your crisis management team the capabilities and confidence to mount a successful crisis response. Not to do so risks further – potentially terminal – harm.

The culture, capabilities and confidence embedded through crisis management planning, training and exercising meant we were able to respond to the COVID-19 outbreak in a timely, well organised and purposeful manner.

Jim French, Vice President Health, Safety & Risk, Lundin Mining

THE FOUR STEPS TO A SUCCESSFUL CRISIS MANAGEMENT RESPONSE

Insignia’s crisis management services protect business value, reputation and stakeholders’ lives and livelihoods in the ‘new normal’.

Covering four core areas – assessment, planning, training and exercising – our crisis management services give business leaders the capabilities and confidence to safeguard their organisations in the challenging times ahead.

Workshops and training can be delivered virtually, or face to face if lockdown restrictions allow.

1. ASSESS

Review your COVID-19 response to identify learnings and any gaps that need addressing.

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2. PLAN

Develop a robust plan to give you the resources you need to mount an effective crisis response.

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3. TRAIN

Ensure your team has the capabilities and confidence to respond under pressure.

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4. EXERCISE

Rehearse your response to further waves or a secondary crisis

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1. Assess

COVID-19 crisis management review and lessons learned

Your response to COVID-19 will have revealed flaws, gaps and areas for improvement. If these are not addressed now, you risk further damage to your business reputation and maybe even your long-term viability.

Our COVID-19 crisis management review workshop will ensure your organisation is prepared for future crises.

Risk assessment

Coronavirus has dramatically altered the risk landscape, creating new threats which could bring an already weakened business to its knees.

Insignia’s post COVID-19 risk assessment will help you make sense of this new world and the risks it presents.

COVID-19 crisis communication review and lessons learned

Maintaining stakeholder trust and confidence is critical if you are to emerge from this crisis strongly. Without it, your business may not survive.

Understanding whether your COVID-19 communication hit the target is key to this. Insignia’s post COVID-19 crisis communication review includes a 60-minute interview with your communication lead and an analysis of the communication materials you issued.

The six point crisis management planning process shared by Insignia was extremely useful and practical for our 100+ managers in the region as they built individual plans for their teams and stakeholders. The framework has served us well throughout the pandemic and we continue to use it as a guiding principle as we move forward.

Subin Somanathan,
Regional Security Director,
Schneider Electric

2. Plan

Crisis management plan

Organisations without a well-conceived crisis management plan struggled to mount a purposeful response to coronavirus. Unless this failing is addressed, the damage could be irreparable when faced with future crises.

Insignia can develop a robust crisis management plan to give you the framework, principles and resources you need to mount an effective crisis response, whatever the situation.

Crisis communication plan

Research by Edelman shows that 71% of people who believe a company is placing profits before people in the COVID-19 crisis will lose their trust forever.

Retaining the trust of your stakeholders is essential if you are to survive and prosper in these challenging times.

A pre-prepared crisis communication plan gives you the framework, principles and materials to do this.

Enhancing existing crisis management and communication plans

Even if you had crisis management and communication plans in place before COVID-19, they will have been tested to the limit during the outbreak.

By combining our expertise with your learnings, we can address gaps, flaws and areas for improvement within your existing plans so you are fully prepared to respond to future challenges.

Scenario planning

Coronavirus has brought into sharp focus the need to think the unthinkable and plan for the worst-case scenario.

Insignia’s scenario planning workshops will enable you to identify and prepare for your critical crisis scenarios, including further waves of COVID-19.

The plan, training and advice provided by Insignia before and during the Coronavirus outbreak were hugely beneficial in protecting our business and retaining the trust and confidence of our stakeholders. The work we put in beforehand meant we were ready to do and say the right things when the crisis broke.

Richard Masters, Managing Director, Master Yachts

3. Train

Crisis management / communication plan briefing

Where new crisis plans have been developed, a plan briefing workshop is required to ensure your team is able to deploy the new procedures under pressure.

Participants are trained on key processes via facilitated discussions and interactive mini exercises.

COVID-19 crisis communication training

Your initial response to coronavirus may have identified skills gaps within your current communication team.

Our half day communication workshop will give your team the capabilities and confidence they need to communicate with stakeholders in a way which reassures them and retains their trust.

It’s so easy to get communication wrong in a crisis and suffer a devastating loss of reputation as a result. Our foundation of crisis communication planning, resources and capability meant we could communicate quickly, effectively and empathetically when COVID-19 emerged, and so retain the trust of our stakeholders.

Jo Lumani, Head of Reputation,
NFU Mutual

4. EXERCISE

Rehearsing your response to further waves of COVID-19

As coronavirus has shown, when your business is on the line, you cannot afford any missteps.

In advance of further waves of COVID-19, or a secondary crisis occurring during the pandemic, we are offering a three-hour crisis exercise to rehearse your response to current challenges.

Faced with an unfolding scenario and based on your COVID-19 crisis management plan, you will:

Develop your crisis strategy
Make decisions
Determine communication tactics

The exercise is available in two formats:

As a bespoke session tailored to your organisation
As an open course against a generic COVID-19 scenario

This exercise provides reassurance that any future response will stand up to stakeholder scrutiny and protect your business from further harm.

We were so pleased we ran a detailed crisis simulation less than a year before the coronavirus outbreak. The lessons we learned were incredibly helpful for our real world COVID-19 response. It helped plug gaps, clarify priorities and responsibilities, and refine our communications in a crisis.

Steven Stewart,
Director of Communications, Stagecoach Group