Internal Crisis Communications
Private Sector
Jacobs
When Jacobs, a global Fortune 250 engineering and construction firm, began deploying new applications that employees relied on to do their jobs, they also needed new protocols for sharing information should issues—like an unplanned outage—arise.
The Strategy
The strategy: Especially since many of these applications were new, we couldn’t risk losing trust with users. Keeping that in mind, we brazenly designed the strategy to first, maintain and even build trust with end users by showing them that we were acting in their best interests and second, to use these crises moments as opportunities to create and deepen understanding in the ins and outs of technology.
Additionally, because of the company’s scale and vast geographic presence, we employed a three-tiered approach to communications: leader to leader, people leaders to team members, and product to team members.
The Tactics
holding statement templates
designated crisis response team with roles and responsibilities
communications workflow and assigned owners
people leader messaging and talking points
technology terminology explainers and definitions
A full internal audit was conducted across IT and corporate communications to inform the recommended strategy and processes for the crisis communications protocols.
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Dynamic process flows were constructed and agreed upon to establish information flow during a crisis.
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