Recommendations on why diversity practitioners should be part of Crisis Planning and Management Inititiatives

1. Nereida (Neddy) Perez
D&I Creative Solutions
Neddyperez@dicreativesolutions.com
Phone: 832-216-8836

2. Neddy’s Background
Gender/Race/Brand Crisis
Blizzards, Supplier
Diversity & Cultural
Integration
Hurricanes & Work
Stoppages
Company Shut Down &
FL Department of Labor
Gender and Cultural Integration
University of Florida
Native American Protests

3. About You
 Haw many of have dealt with
a corporate crisis?
 How many of you know your
company’s crisis
management plan?
 How many of you serve on a
Crisis Management Team?
 Haw many of you are part of
ethics and compliance
teams?

4. Our Objectives:
 Understand what constitutes a crisis
plan
 Learn the components of building a
plan
 Not just tell but work on real scenarios
 Become part of Crisis Planning Team
or build one
 Walk away with a Crisis Plan Checklist
 Co-create Action Plans
 What this session is not about:
 How to engage and deal with
employees who have lived through a
crisis
 EAP
 Mary Frances
 Mark Fowler
 Howard Ross

5. Why prepare for a Crisis
 If you haven’t
experienced a crisis yet
you will.
 The question is will you be
ready to maneuver
through it?
 Is your company ready?

6. What is a Crisis?
 Any situation that puts employees in
harms way
 Any financial situation that causes a
negative spike in the stock
 Any situation that results in an
investigation of the company (i.e. safety
violations, immigration audit, fine of
business operations by a federal
organization.

7. Types of Crisis
•Loss of Life
•Injury/Accident
•Damage to
equipment
Safety Compromises
•Loss of life
•Loss of property
•Impact to
business
operations
Natural Disaster
Government Decision &
Impact
Extreme Human Action
•Loss of
Credibility
•Financial
Impact
Corporate Decision
Goes Array
• Federal,
International
Legislation may
impact your
ability to
operate
• Can include:
tampering,
shoot out,
endangerment
of life
• Class action
lawsuits from
clients or
employees

8. How Leaders May React to a Crisis

9. Key Components of Traditional

10. New Approach is on
Risk Reduction & Prevention
Crisis situations have increased
by more than 300 percent
over the last 5 years.
More and more crisis have a
diversity component:
• Religious persecution
• Gender Orientation
• Race Focuses
• Gender Focused (India)
• Safety from a Diversity
Lens (Fox Industries)

11. Typical Crisis Management Committee
• CEO/COO or CFO (Executive
Sponsor)
• General Council
• Public Relations/
Communications Leader
• Marketing
• Safety/Security
• Human Resources
• Information Technology
• Investor Relations
• Diversity & Inclusion

12. Components of a Crisis Plan
Identification
of Scenarios
•This should include evacuations; active shooter; natural disaster; etc.
Assessment
Checklist
•Checklist of all key points that should be covered
Spokes-
person ID
•Communications Leader
•Subject Matter Expert (Plant, Operations, D&I)
•Executive (CEO/COO/CFO/ General Council)
Communications
Plan
•Speaking points
•Relevant Fact Sheets
•Controlled photo release if possible
•Press Release
•Social Media Plan

13. Know & Prep Your Leader
 It is important to know your
leaders’ styles under stress
 Understand their comfort with
media
 Understand the degree of
prepping needed
 Identify spokes people in your
organization based on specialty
and the issues to be address as
well as the severity of the situation

14. Crisis Scenario Planning
• An out growth of wanting to be
prepared.
• Practice sessions designed to test
your systems and resources for
readiness
• Critical to come up with
scenarios that are relevant to you
company
• Practice doesn’t makes perfect
There is NO Perfect Scenario.
Just gets you comfortable
with being uncomfortable.

15. Role of D&I Leader
• Review scenarios from a diversity
angle (i.e. how evacuate people
with disability)
• Come up with potential scenarios
• Areas to influence:
• Who is the spokesperson to
what community
• Is messaging multi-lingual
• Is the media training
culturally sensitive

16. External
Relations is not
a Fix All
 Some organizations may try to
increase positive media impressions
by leveraging community relations.
 Short term fix - if you don’t
address key challenges
 Need to align with broader
strategy of the organization and
values
 Engage employees as
advocates locally, national,
globally
 Leverage modern social media
to come up with creative
solutions (i.e. #Hashtag,
hackathons, crow source ideas
to find a solution (Quirky))

17. Real World Cases - Action Studies
 Review case study
 Designate a recorder
 Designate a speaker
 Use Check List to
come up with action
steps and
recommendations

18. D&I Crisis Plan Template
Action Item Process
Owner
Key Message Communications
Vehicle
Resources
Needed
Sign-off/
Approvals
Key Messages
Who is
communicating
What are the
diversity angles to
be considered
How are we going
to engage a
conversation
internally
How do we create
a space for
people to cope
emotionally and
intellectually with
the disaster.
What the post actions
we are taking
What are we doing
for families
How are we
incorporating cultural
sensitivity into
messaging

19. Questions