Internal communication during a crisis is the method of implementing a communication plan during an emergency situation, crisis, and disruption to avoid any type of misinformation from spreading out. Often, businesses and companies overlook internal communication due to the pressure of communicating externally outside the organization. Today, we’ll discuss internal communication crisis management; benefits and reasons, channels, and tips for internal communication during crisis.
Reasons and Benefits of Internal Communication During Crisis
- Bringing employees, partners, and leaders on the same page to focus on productivity and internal strategies
- Ensure employees from the overload of information
- Encouraging employees to openly share their ideas and thoughts
- Improving the employee experience and the retention rate to send a positive signal to all the stakeholders
- Giving the roadmap of your business; goals and objectives of the company
- Putting emphasis on the company’s strategy to guide everyone in the right direction
- Employees are willing to respond quickly if the management is easily accessible
- Quick and speedy communication with employees decreases their stress level
- The right flow of information could avoid negative events and situation
Tips for Internal Communication Crisis Management
Some of the main tips for internal communication during crisis management are as follows;
- Developing a proactive communication plan for the disruption and crisis
- Having a team in crisis and emergency situation with clear roles and responsibilities and they should know what to do when the crisis happens
- Send a quick notification message to all the employees with the right information and clear instruction
- Give employees the right and correct information on time; discussing it on social media is dangerous
- Speedy crisis communication is the key, but it should compromise the correct and right information
- If the company is not ready to talk; they should let everyone know that they’re collecting information
- Develop a communication plan and keep adjusting it relevant to the situation
Channels of Internal Communication Crisis Management
Let’s discuss the channels of internal communication crisis management and they’re as follows;
Notification Alert
Pop-up notification messages are like short tutorials and they’re a great method and channel of information about the emergency situation. They compel employees and workers to read all the instructions before performing any of the activities. You can personalize them with the help of any user profile.
One-time Alert
You should consider creating a banner and posting it on the home page of the intranet, it allows you to communicate with the entire organization at once. Along with banner messages over the intranet, you should consider integrating it with mobile push notifications, alert messages, and general notification messages.
Virtual Meeting
While hosting a virtual town hall, Businesses and companies should share their content and information with all the employees and workforce at once. It is significant to gather feedback from all the employees scattered in various geographical regions and areas. You should allow them to ask questions and answer their queries.
Article
In order to provide detailed and clear information about the crisis, you should post a comprehensive article and blog about the disruption. The blog should cover all the details and relevant information on how and why you have developed a crisis management plan. Don’t forget to mention all the measures, protocols, and processes that the company needs to take in order to deal with the crisis.
Mobile Application
While preparing for the crisis, you should make sure that your intranet is responsive and accessible to all mobile devices during the crisis situation. Intranet mobile communication is the perfect method of communicating with all the employees and workers in the remote location and updating them about the latest information.
They would receive the notification and the updated information on the mobile device even if they were away from the computer system. The push notification gives them instant information about the latest developments.
Dedicated Pages
Here, the employees and workers would receive the context and background of the crisis event; various external links, and source references to provide them supportive information. The company should regularly update its dedicated pages.
Dedicated Community
A dedicated community is the platform of the company where employees and workers should share and exchange information, and express their concerns about the crisis event. The dedicated space is a great platform for the company to collect the feedback of employees; the company should closely moderate such dedicated communities.
Social Advocacy Dashboard
The dashboard of social advocacy platforms should update information about the crisis and the steps the company is taking to manage the crisis. It allows employees and workers to share the right information with external sources and networks. For instance, the company has recalled all the defective products; the support line is active in the crisis, and successfully managing the crisis.
Conclusion: Internal Communication During Crisis | Internal Communication Crisis Management
After an in-depth study of internal communication crisis management; we have realized that internal communication is highly significant during an emergency situation. If you are learning about the channels of internal communication during a crisis; then you should keep in mind the abovementioned benefits, reasons, tips, and channels of internal communication.
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