Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
The Incident Management Plan should provide sound and reliable guidance
and roadmaps for most of the decisions that will have to be made very quickly. And
even with all the tools in place, it is possible to skip a step or deviate from the plan
under pressure, so regular review and revision is essential, even during the moment
of crisis.
Incident Management Plans come in many variations, but in developing such plans
you should begin by taking a comprehensive look at your business and consider the
kinds of incidents that could potentially disrupt its activities. The Incident Management
Plan described in this chapter focuses on the critical communications during an inci-
dent: internal and external communication about the issue, what the public and
employees should do, what the company should do, and how the issue has been
resolved. Other aspects important to the Incident Management Plan include delineat-
ing the processes for the product recall as well as changing a process or the manage-
ment. This includes standard operating procedures or programs such as a Recall
Program, a Change Management Procedure, or a Succession Plan. These documents
should be in place prior to development of the Incident Management Plan. Developing
these procedures while working your way through a crisis will likely lead to misman-
agement of the event.
Managing a crisis can take minutes to years, depending upon the nature and
magnitude of the issue. An incident can be as routine as the loss of a key employee
or as rare as a product recall. When considering whether to activate your Incident
Management Plan, you should evaluate your situation and determine the degree to
which your company could be affected by an incident. No matter how well prepared
you are, a signifi cant crisis will affect your day-to-day business.
Crises come in two main categories: crises with people and crises with products.
People crises usually impact the company's productivity and generally relate to
employee matters and include, but are not limited to, personal injury, threats, dis-
gruntled employees, strike, work stoppage, facility issues, and changes in manage-
ment. In most cases, communication will be internal with employees and external with
customers concerning how their orders will be affected. Product crises usually impact
the company's brand and relate to the products' quality or safety, which can include
product tampering, contamination with an adulterant, and packaging and product
defects. In most cases, communication will be with employees, customers, and con-
sumers (the public). Many of these incidents will involve some level of communica-
tion with local, state, or federal authorities or regulators.
This chapter provides the tools and a process for developing an Incident Management
Plan. The success of the plan depends completely on a company's willingness to
embrace and support the plan from the company's top leadership on down. If key
decision makers and role players do not understand the relevance and value of invest-
ing in and practicing such a plan, it can undermine the entire effort, thereby leaving
you as unprepared as if you had no plan at all.
Defi ning the Incident Management Plan
Some critical prerequisite programs must be in place before developing an Incident
Management Plan to help guide how to address an incident that causes the crisis, such
