HR's role in crisis management
Fraud, workplace accidents, cybercrime, whistleblowers and shitstorms affect your organization and employees and can have catastrophic consequences for operations, profitability and reputation.
In other words, crisis situations occur at any time, and the challenge of identifying, preventing and managing these incidents has therefore become a major concern for many organizations.
HR's role in crisis management:
In these situations, the HR function has a crucial role, not only in protecting the welfare and safety of the employees concerned, but also in supporting organizational efficiency and execution.
Why? The simple and obvious reason is that there are always human aspects to a crisis, as people are likely to be harmed physically and/or psychologically. Unfortunately, one of the critical flaws in crisis management planning is the strong tendency to focus attention and efforts on strengthening systems, operations, infrastructure and PR, with HR often so far down the list that it is completely forgotten.
But organizations should not wait for the crisis to occur to recognize how unprepared they and their employees are. The lack of focus on HR's role in crisis management is a serious problem, as organizations need to pay more attention to the effect of critical incidents on their employees, their families and the organization's productivity. Effective HR crisis management is central to the company's survival and recovery and requires well-prepared and motivated employees.
If effective crisis management is not in place, the effects will be severe.
Effects of ineffective crisis management:
- Effect on the individuals
- Physical injuries that can cause disability and/or death
- Psychological trauma which can affect personality and values
- Effect on the organization
- Loss of core employees and intellectual knowledge
- Absenteeism and high staff turnover
- Poorer performing employees due to trauma, low morale and motivation
- Rising costs of healthcare schemes
- Lawsuits and legal proceedings
- Negative publicity about the organization, top management and a damaged reputation
Presenter – Deloitte:
At the meeting, Søren Friis Larsen , Senior Manager from Deloitte's Risk Advisory team, will give us insight into how we in HR prepare for crises, manage the crisis when it occurs and deal with the damaging effects of the crisis. At the meeting, we will test crisis management in a simulation exercise that provides first-hand knowledge of the dilemmas and challenges faced in a crisis situation.
Company case – FTF:
FTF – the Joint Council of Civil Servants and Servants – was a Danish main organisation for 450.000 public and private sector employees. FTF ceased to exist in 2018. In April 2018, FTF and LO approved the establishment of a new, joint main organisation – the Danish Trade Union Confederation (FH).
In 2016, Luisa Gorgone was head of HR in FTF and an active part of the crisis management group, on a crisis that affected all three central levels of the organization:
- Political and board level
- Top management/Head group level
- Employees level
Luisa will explain how HR must actively seek its role in crisis management. Following an order from the Norwegian Working Environment Authority, she worked with the organization for more than a year to rectify and deal with all the effects that a crisis has in an organisation, such as increased media attention and increased uncertainty among managers and employees. The result was a huge cultural change, where identity crisis, power and powerlessness put all emotions into play.
Luisa will also share her learnings about focusing on the organizational problems, as it is difficult to deal with individual problems in a crisis management. In this specific case, HR's role was crucial for the organization to get through the crisis in a way that prevented paralysis of action and suspicion of single individuals.
Come along and get answers!
The participants of the event will be invited to discuss and contribute to the solution of, for example:
- How do employees handle the potentially bad publicity about their workplace?
- How do you ensure that the employees remain the company's ambassadors internally/externally?
- What to do about potential loss of customers
- How does an organization maintain their position in the market after a crisis?
- Should you have a risk and crisis management strategy?
- Can a crisis be turned into something positive about the organization based on how we handle the situation?
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