Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
communication with the media, customers, consumers, and the government to the
forefront, it is important not to forget the importance of having a strong communica-
tion plan for employees.
The Incident Management Team
The next step is to assemble the Incident Management Team. This team should be a
cross-functional group that includes key decision makers from all areas of the busi-
ness, including operations, sales, human resources, communications, and the executive
committee. Additional team members could include, but are not limited to, legal
counsel, external communications counsel (e.g., an experienced public relations/crisis
management expert), a situational expert (depending on the on-staff expertise, a food
safety expert, microbiologist, or security expert may be needed) and a historian. The
historian can play a crucial role in any crisis management scenario, being the eyes
and ears of the process as it is happening and unfolding. The historian documents
meetings, discussions, inspections, Q&A between inspectors and the company, etc.
This chronological account of events will be helpful as a reference for what was said
or submitted and will be crucial in the event that the crisis leads to regulatory enforce-
ment and/or litigation.
Appointees to the Incident Management Team should be decision makers that
possess suffi cient knowledge and expertise to understand the impact of their decisions.
In addition, each team member should have an alternate who can assume the respon-
sibilities in the event that the primary member is unavailable. The alternate should
have the same level of knowledge and familiarity with the plan as the primary member.
Members of the team must understand the importance of their input in the develop-
ment of the plan and their role and responsibilities as team members. Team members
must understand that, depending on the business, they may be required to be accessible
any hour of the day, any day of the week.
The Incident Management Team members are usually selected by the CEO, presi-
dent, or owner of the company. Regardless of how the team is chosen, each member
must understand the responsibilities associated with a position on this team. These
responsibilities should be emphasized at the time the request to join the team is
extended and they should be reemphasized at every meeting. Any team members who
are reluctant, not motivated, or who may need some additional encouragement to make
relevant contributions should be identifi ed and replaced.
Developing the Incident Management Plan
At the fi rst meeting of the Incident Management Team, roles should be clarifi ed and
details of the plan should be reviewed so that everyone understands them fully. A
brainstorming session to identify incidents that could rise to the level of a crisis and
affect the business is a useful team development exercise. Several techniques to brain-
storm the situations can be used as long as everyone participates, and they should
include as many potential situations as possible.
This list of scenarios can be used as incident drills to practice team and company
responses, providing the team opportunities to discuss them and better understand its
role in each situation. This conversation should be thorough, including as much detail
