Businesses are susceptible to certain forms of crises. Because the occurrence of the crises is so sudden, many businesses are left reeling without a guarantee of being able to recover. Crises, in whatever form, can trigger fear and uncertainty in employees and may affect their morale. To prevent any crisis from affecting the business to a point of severe damage within the organization, it is important that superiors are able to sense its early signs.

Business leaders should also have a crisis management plan in place to ensure business continuity despite the catastrophes that might happen. Along with a crisis management plan, a crisis management team should also be created.

Why Form a Crisis Management Team?

A crisis management team (CMT) is a group of people who are tasked to respond to warning signals of crisis immediately. These people will plan and execute strategies that may be able to overcome any emergency situation. Basically, these people prepare the company for any inevitable threat that can happen at any time.

Who Are in the CMT?

A CMT is mostly comprised of the following:

• This person manages the CMT. He or she acts as a team facilitator, encouraging debate and discussion to ensure that important matters are given attention. The leader also drives the team forward, making sure that the business operations will resume in a timely manner to minimize the impact of the crisis on both the customers and the shareholders.
• Administrative support. The primary responsibility of individuals who are delegated to be in the administrative support team is to provide support to the leader of the CMT and its members. These individuals keep a record of all plans and the activities that have been done or about to be done by the CMT. They keep everything moving, making sure that all plans are executed at the right time and as planned.
• Finance and administration. People delegated to handle this role in the CMT are responsible for keeping the organization’s financial status stable during the crisis. They know the impact of the crisis on the company’s financial standing. People in the finance and administration role may make decisions regarding regulatory compliance and company reporting. They can also make decisions regarding raising the credit limit of the company.

• Human resources. People with this role are responsible for developing and implementing services meant to support the affected employees during the crisis.
• Information technology manager. The primary responsibility of people having this role in the CMT is to supervise the employees in the IT department as they work to restore or keep the IT systems of the organization functioning well during the crisis. They help to minimize the impact of the crisis on the IT systems of the organization.
• Legal specialist. This person is responsible for providing legal advice and support to the entire CMT team. They give the CMT team insights on which strategies are permissible or not permissible by law and many other legal matters.
• Operations and business recovery manager. This person may restore or shut down operations during a crisis. He or she is also responsible for coordinating the efforts of the staff who are working on strategies that can help the business recover.
• Health, safety, and environment manager. This person is responsible for managing the risks to the employees’ health and safety during the crisis. The health, safety, and environment manager may also assess the damage of the crisis not only to the employees and the company but also to the environment as well. He or she is also responsible for providing or planning training for emergency response and for overseeing these areas when a catastrophe occurs. Because of the nature of the job of the health, safety, and environment manager, it would help if the person in charge of this position is a medical practitioner or has taken at least a health and social care certificate course online.
• Facilities support group. People having this role are responsible for making assessments on infrastructure and identifying how much damage has been caused by the catastrophe. They are also responsible for making decisions on whether it is necessary to move employees and operations to another facility.

All the people in the CMT work together to make sure that the impact of the crisis on the organization is minimized. They study all possible strategies together, making sure that every step they take will benefit the organization in the most positive way. As every crisis can vary from one another, people in the CMT may create customized strategies for every type of crisis that can happen to the company. This will ensure that the business will continue to thrive even during the hardest of times.