International SOS highlights ‘gaps’ in crisis management

International SOS has highlighted some of the key crisis management ‘gaps’ companies face. Among the major weaknesses in preparations are:

• Lack of clear roles and responsibilities in times of crises (overlap and confusion between HQ’s and local sites) leading to ineffective crisis response
• Delayed response time (HQ, local-sites).
• CM strategy not including secondary security incidents arising from events such as natural disasters, pandemics, etc
• No clear de-escalation plans in place can lead to organisations being stuck in a ‘crisis loop’, unable to travel a pathway to recovery.

James Wood, head of Security Solutions at International SOS, commented, “Robust crisis management processes sit at the core of business resilience. Many organisations were unprepared for the global pandemic, shining a spotlight on limitations in crisis management preparedness.

”These limitations potentially put employees and assets at risk, while also creating operational continuity exposures.

“As we begin to move beyond the pandemic, organisations should learn from this disruption, and review existing crisis management guidance and modify their planned responses.

”This process should be supported by identifying trusted and reliable support services, accounted for at the initial planning stage and on hand to provide support at a moment’s notice.”

International SOS has launched a Crisis Management Gap Analysis Solution, delivered through its consultancy practice.

The analysis is built by conducting technical evaluations, document analysis and review of existing processes by our security and health experts to enable organisations to:

• Build / rebuild corporate resilience: anticipation and mitigation of workforce risk exposure
• Reduce the impact of a crisis on business activities
• Support (crisis) leadership: empowering decision-makers with support and adapted techniques
• Demonstrate a commitment to Duty of Care