Crisis Management Team – Meaning, Role and its Function

Sequence of sudden unwanted events leading to major disturbances at the workplace is called crisis. Crisis arises on an extremely short notice and triggers a feeling of fear and uncertainty in the employees.

It is essential for the superiors to sense the early signs of crisis and warn the employees against the same. Once a crisis is being detected, employees must quickly jump into action and take quick decisions.

What is a Crisis Management Team ?

A Crisis Management Team is formed to protect an organization against the adverse effects of crisis. Crisis Management team prepares an organization for inevitable threats.

Organizations form crisis management team to decide on future course of action and devise strategies to help organization come out of difficult times as soon as possible.

Crisis Management Team is formed to respond immediately to warning signals of crisis and execute relevant plans to overcome emergency situations.

Role of Crisis Management Team

Crisis Management team primarily focuses on:

• Detecting the early signs of crisis.
• Identifying the problem areas
• Sit with employees face to face and discuss on the identified areas of concern
• Prepare crisis management plan which works best during emergency situations
• Encourage the employees to face problems with courage, determination and smile. Motivate them not to lose hope and deliver their level best.
• Help the organization come out of tough times and also prepare it for the future.

Crisis Management Team includes:

Head of departments
Chief executive officer and people closely associated with him
Board of directors
Media Advisors
Human Resource Representatives

The role of Crisis Management Team is to analyse the situation and formulate crisis management plan to save the organization’s reputation and standing in the industry.

How does Crisis Management Team function ?

A Team Leader is appointed to take charge of the situation immediately and encourage the employees to work as a single unit.

The first step is to understand the main areas of concern during emergency situations.

Crisis Management Team then works on the various problems and shortcomings which led to crisis at the workplace. The team members must understand where things went wrong and how current processes can be improved and made better for smooth functioning of the organization.

It is important to prioritize the issues. Rank the problems as per their effect on the employees as well as the organization. Know which problems must be resolved immediately and which all can be attended a little later.

A single brain cannot take all decisions alone. Crisis Management Team should sit with rest of the employees on a common platform, discuss prevailing issues, take each other’s suggestions and reach to plans acceptable to all.

One of the major roles of the Crisis management team is to stay in touch with external clients as well as media. The team must handle critical situations well.

Develop alternate plans and strategies for the tough times. Make sure you have accurate information. Double check your information before finalizing the plan.

Implement the plans immediately for results. Proper feedback must be taken from time to time.

Crisis Management team helps the organization to take the right step at the right time and help the organization overcome critical situations.