The Ultimate Guide to Crisis Management

As an Operational Fire Officer with 30 years’ experience I attended many large incidents at various sized industrial/ oil and gas/ petro chemical/ ports and Hazmats premises as the OIC or as part of a larger reinforcing management team. Although it was pleasing to see that most companies make an effort to comply with their legal, financial and moral obligations and instituted a company crisis-hazard management and emergency response procedure, it was obvious that the key players in their management team had not been trained in their various roles.

The result of this is still apparent today some years after I retired from front line roles in the large spaces these company installations and facilities once occupied and which employed thousands of people, are now large car parks or Tesco superstores etc. The recovery statistics for any company that has any type of crisis level “event” are still highly negative. I would often be met at the gate by a marshalling officer wearing a high viz coat, and directed to either the Works Main Control (Silver) or to the Forward Incident Control (Bronze). The company would often utilise Gold – Silver & Bronze Command & Control systems with an identified leader in each control and with each control having dedicated roles to deal with the various issues they are required, be strategic, tactical or operational. Without a plan and a team to deal with the initial event before the emergency services arrive, lives and assets can be lost and the environment damaged.

Often local authority’s Fire and Rescue are ill equipped to and/or not legally required to train your company’s Emergency Response or Crisis Management Team which requires a ‘site specific’ training programme to effectively deal with the immediate and escalating nature of an event. Usually, by the time the local authority reinforcing support arrives it is too late to either:

• Save Life
• Save the asset
• Protect the Environment

Leaving only a large mopping up operation causing:

• Loss of production
• Loss of client confidence
• Large Legal Costs
• Loss of Key Workers
• Total or partial loss of the facility
• Government Enquiries
• Negative press
• Employee discord

I have seen this many times and sadly any company that has a medium to large event caused by:

• Fire
• Gas Leak
• Explosion
• Product Loss
• Environmental Incident
• Terrorism
• Employee Issue

Over 70% of these businesses either close down straight away or never recover their former status.

After retirement I worked at a number of world renowned Fire and Emergency Response training colleges in the UK and overseas as a Training Consultant. Yet it was obvious to me that the key people training, leader and team training employees were receiving, although often of a very good standard, was actually generic in nature. The site specific and on site requirement for these various teams from a wide variety of companies and installations have different products and uses. This was not being addressed with a structured and targeted training programme to meet their needs. For e.g. ‘Fire Team’ in a remote facility is required to deal with far more than just fires:

• Snatch Rescue of Casualties
• High Pressure Gas Release
• Confined Space Rescue
• Rescue from Height
• Hazmats Incident
• Transport Incident
• Environmental Incident
• Product Release and Spillage

After considering this, I decided to try to fill this need. It seemed to me that what was needed was to develop a training system and then deliver the training to recognised international standards with the required accreditation. The best and most renowned Industrial Hazard accreditation is a JOIFF qualification. The Joint Oil & Gas Fire & Safety Forum are now recognised as the global body as the International Organisation for Industrial Hazard Management.

Participants who attend the 5-day Emergency Response Planning: Crisis Management for Hazardous Environments training course, conducted by PLUS Specialty Training will also receive a JOIFF certificate. The training course is designed primarily to train managers and supervisors with any role within a company crisis management system. This is a much neglected area as often a manager will be promoted into a position that requires competency of this additional role. You may be:

• Liaison Officer
• Communications Officer
• Equipment
• Forward Incident Controller
• Casualty Handler
• Engineering Isolation
• Product Manager
• Operations Manager
• Emergency Response Team Leader
• Public Relations Liaison Officer
• Community Liaison Officer
• Recorder in Gold/Silver or Bronze

Organisations which have nominated emergency responders often regard these persons as their crisis management team. Whilst it is important to give priority to maintaining the competence of emergency response personnel within the organisation’s emergency response plan as their priorities in an incident will be save life, mitigate damage to property and the environment and reduce loss, in major crises, there are other issues that must be dealt with such as business continuity, legal and engineering issues, inter-agency liaisons, dealing with the media, casualty management and dealing with the families of casualties, welfare and many more.

Skills in analytical and dynamic risk assessment are essential when dealing with crises as the subsequent downstream effect of decisions taken or not taken at this level can paralyse an entire system.

At some time or another, nearly every manager can expect to be faced with the sudden challenge of responding to a fire, explosion, product spill, hazardous materials spill, gas leak, roof collapse, structural failure, BLEVE, Slop-Over or Boil-Over hurricane, tornado, flood, power failure, transportation accident, forklift accident, bomb threat, terrorist attack, fatality, security breach, employee discord, workplace violence, litigation, government investigation, quality control issue, or management problem. The failure of management to react promptly, responsibly and appropriately in such circumstances can cause unnecessary human, property and business loss. Preventing a crisis is central to the crisis management process.

When preparing for a crisis, ask yourself these questions:

• What do I do as a first response?
• What do I tell the employees?
• What do I say to customers?
• How do I respond to the news media?
• What are my legal obligations?
• If there are fatalities, how will that be handled?
• How does insurance play a role?
• How do I minimize the company’s loss?
• How do I preserve goodwill with customers and the public?

If a crisis hits your facility, the reality is:

• You may receive negative publicity;
• There will be some level of government involvement;
• If fatalities are involved, you likely will be sued by victim’s families;
• The potential loss of customers is very real;
• There may well be a political backlash;
• There will be some level of emotional trauma to employees.

Above all, expect the unexpected!

Managers may already have taken some steps to mitigate a crisis situation. If you manage a U.S or UK company with any hazard or off-site potential then you are required by law to prepare a written Emergency Action Plan. And, for some, that may be adequate. But, there is a lot more to crisis management than that. This Crisis Management Manual takes you well beyond the requirements of OSHA or the UK COMAH reg’s and will help you develop a comprehensive and meaningful crisis management plan for your facility.

Effective crisis management can be viewed in three phases – prevention, preparation, and response. We’ll start at the beginning.

The vulnerability analysis must determine the impact on the facility, personnel within the facility and around it, and the surrounding property as well. The impact on business operations is a critical factor since even a relatively minor incident may cause a considerable interruption to normal business operations. Consider the possible impact when a traffic accident knocks down a telephone pole carrying overhead power and telephone lines to your facility. The event could cause a power outage or interrupt communications with off-site computers. Any interruption of power could cause computer systems without backup power supplies to lose data. If the duration of the outage is short, then the impact is minor. However, if your business processes involve long-term batch operations that must be started over if there is not any interruption, the mi-nor outage could result in many days of business interruption until the process is restored.

An analysis of a hazardous materials spill must determine the area which could be affected by the spill or release. The size of the area may be restricted to the room or immediate area of the spill. If the quantity of materials typically handled is large, then the spill may affect the entire building, surrounding properties, rivers, and streams, or a wider area if a cloud of toxic vapours are released. Depending upon the scope of the release, only the employee handling the material would be affected, or a whole community could face evacuation if a major tank ruptured.

The bottom line is have we done everything in our power as a company to prevent a crisis from occurring?

Since 2015, I’ve held a number of successful JOIFF accredited seminars on “Crisis Management & Emergency Response” in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Oman, Texas, and in London. The seminar delivers a best practice solution to the creation of a toolbox Crisis Management system using the wide range of knowledge and experience gained during the 35 plus years engaged in Crisis/ Hazard Management and Emergency Response Industry to develop the curriculum for this seminar.

The subject matter of the course highlights the role of a crisis management team which is to analyse a crisis situation and formulate an appropriate crisis management plan to save the organization’s reputation and standing in the industry. It also focuses teaching participants on how to detect the early signs of crisis, identify the problem areas, and work with the organisation’s employees to prepare them, encourage them and motivate them to get through the crisis, with a view on what happens to the organisation after the crisis. In major crises, all levels of an organisation need to be involved in the Crisis Management Team, including the Chief Executive Officer and his/her team, the Board of Directors, Heads of departments, Media Advisors, Human Resource Representatives and all employees.

The team need to work on the various problems and shortcomings which led to the crisis at the workplace, gaining an understanding of where things went wrong and how current processes can be improved and made better for the smooth functioning of the organisation in future.

Issues need to be prioritised as those which must be resolved immediately and those that can be dealt with later and they should be ranked as per their effect on the employees as well as on the organisation.

You should consider the following topics, at a minimum:

• What is your vulnerability to natural disaster? Depending on your operation’s geographic scope you may be subject to hurricanes, earthquakes, tornadoes, floods, ice storms or all of the above.
• How would your company continue to operate in the midst of a pandemic situation?
• What hazards are introduced by your operation, and who may be impacted from a fire, release of hazardous material, oil spill or explosion?

Consider various events involving similar types of operations in other entities, not the fact that it may never occur in your company.

• In the event your primary or corporate office becomes uninhabitable due to fire, flood, hurricane, earthquake, power failure or other event, could your company continue operations?
• What are your company’s security vulnerabilities?