CRISIS MANAGEMENT REPORT 2021TOP FIVE FINDINGS

The BCI survey findings suggest that COVID-19 has helped to propel the discipline of crisis management into a much more collaborative, inclusive, and dynamic discipline. The below are key shifts organisations are making globally to ensure their resilience.

Crisis management is becoming increasingly centralised within organisations – which is leading to greater success:

80% A purely regional approach in a global organisation is much less likely to be successful:

81%

1

Does your organisation manage crisis management through a centralised crisis management structure or is responsibility handled primarily at regional or business unit level?

% of organisations reporting “good” or “excellent” crisis management capabilities

Crisis management is no longer purely about best-in-class processes – the people in your organisation are integral to a good crisis management programme: The two leading working practices which practitioners indicate will change post-pandemic are;

2

% of respondents rating how working practices will change in their organisations post-pandemic

of organisations have either entirely centralised their crisis management processes or have adopted a hybrid approach where regions/sites are allowed some degree of autonomy to manage their own events.

of organisations that had a centralised or hybrid approach to crisis management reported “good” or “excellent” crisis management capabilities, compared to 68% who adopted a regional approach.

Centralised or hybrid Regionally-led or business-unit led

60%The organisation will be more collaborative in its

approach to crisis management

% of organisations “agreeing” or “strongly agreeing” with criteria relating to crisis management processes (top five responses)

88%

Sta� health and wellbeing is a key consideration of the crisis management team

2.

1. A more collaborative approach to crisis and;

57%Sta� health and

wellbeing will be an integral part of the

response

53%Crisis management

and businesscontinuity will work

better together

51%The board/senior

executive team will be better promoters of

organisational resilience

49%

Crisis management is led and championed by

the board/senior executive team

Crisis response will be able to be managed

within an entirely remote environment

The crisis team can be mobilised

quickly

External communications and PR are

considered in the crisis response

The team can adapt quickly to a rapidly changing scenario

87% 82% 81% 80%

81% 68%

Sta� health and wellbeing will be considered as an integral part of the response. These responses indicate how many organisations have realised that without healthy sta� who are fully engaged in the response and have good channels of communication, a response is much less likely to be e�ective.

37%43% vs

Hybrid Regionally-led or business unit-led

Centralised

16%

Good crisis management needs strong leadership: Senior management lead crisis management in four out of five organisations. The engagement of senior management within the crisis management process helps to ensure every worker in an organisation is aware of the importance of crisis management and also appreciative of their own role in a crisis. This is not true in every sector, however: in further education, for example, it is frequently senior academics who are in charge of crisis management which can lead to much slower response times.

3

Crisis planning is becoming more agile and adaptive: Many organisations found that lengthy pandemic plans were not fit for purpose over the past 18 months: less than half of organisations reported their crisis plan was e�ective during the pandemic. However, three-quarters of those who had an ine�ective plan reported they were able to quickly adapt and either wrote a new plan at the start of the pandemic or modified existing plans to make them more relevant to COVID-19.

4

Business continuity is starting to take a more strategic role in crises: The pandemic has helped to propel the importance of having a good business continuity programme to senior management – and this has led to many business continuity professionals being brought in to help advise on whether a new strategic direction is viable from a business continuity perspective. Some management teams have also realised that due to business continuity’s holistic view of the whole organisation, they are well-placed to help guide the organisation in strategic planning.

5

The extracts are taken from the detailed BCI Crisis Management Report available on internationalsos.com/crisis-management-report-2021.

Numbers are rounded.

8% At the beginning to share their vision and in the end for the final decision

7% Only in the end of the process, to validate the proposed options and decision

49.0% Yes, it was very e�ective

10% We did not have a plan

19% Yes, but it was not very e�ective

14% Yes, but we did not use it as it was not fit for purpose

Which region are you based in?

Purely operational Purely strategic

33% Europe

22% Asia

16% North America

14% Australasia

11% Middle East & Africa

4% Latin America

About the survey

Survey conducted: 24 May 2021 – 18 June 2021

636Respondents

76Countries

Effectiveness of organisations’

plans during the pandemic

How much are the board/senior executive

team involved in the decision-making process during

a crisis?

18Sectors

18Respondent Interviews

39% All along the process, taking a controlling role until the final decision

42% At points during the process and in the final decision

To what extent does business continuity become involved in the strategic response in a crisis?

70%