Here are the five key steps toward building a strong plan for handling unexpected events.
1. Understand risks and define crisis types
First, conduct a risk assessment specific to your organisation’s destinations, activities, and participants. Identify potential crises, from natural disasters and political instability to health emergencies and traffic safety. Recognising the most common and likely risks helps to categorise incident types by severity, enabling a clear response strategy for each type. The U.S. Department of State and other government websites offer regional advisories, which your team can use to inform your assessment.
2. Establish a Crisis Management Team
Appoint a crisis management team with clearly defined roles. The team should include members from various departments, such as programme managers, health and safety officers, and local coordinators. This ensures that when a crisis hits, there’s a quick, coordinated response, with tasks assigned according to expertise. Make sure expectations for who is on call after normal work hours are clearly established.
3. Develop communication protocols
Transparent, consistent communication is key during a crisis. Create protocols for contacting participants, staff, and families using a range of methods. Pre-prepared templates help ensure that essential information is shared swiftly and accurately. It’s also useful to set up emergency hotlines or mobile alerts to ensure participants have a direct line of contact with support staff. Ensure that the Crisis Management Team knows where to find emergency services contact information in the locations where your travellers will be visiting.
4. Create an Emergency Action Plan (EAP)
The EAP should include step-by-step instructions for specific scenarios, such as medical emergencies, evacuation, or shelter-in-place orders. Train staff to understand their roles within the EAP and conduct periodic drills to build familiarity with procedures. Your EAPs should be easily accessible from anywhere in the world, including local coordinators having offline access.
5. Review and update regularly
Crisis management plans must evolve with the times. Regularly review your plan, ideally annually or after any incident, incorporating lessons learnt and industry best practices. Professional organisations such as NAFSA have excellent resources that can help you keep abreast of best practices.
Effectively handling health and safety crises is crucial to your organisation’s reputation. A well-managed crisis not only protects your participants and prevents catastrophic outcomes, but it is by far the most impactful way to build trust and loyalty among your participants and their families.
