A crisis may crop up anytime in a workplace, and hence it is advisable to empower the staff with certain guidelines or skills which they can effectively use to mitigate the effects of the crisis.

Any good HRMS system should take into account the role of its employees when there is a crisis or an emergency. It is imperative on the part of the corporate leadership to understand the value of a trained staff during the moments of acute crisis. A crisis can hit any moment, and to avoid it, deftly is a good feature of human resource management. Crisis management is a process by which one deals with an intense, challenging, dangerous, and disruptive event. Your employees must know what to do to respond in an emergency.

Crisis Management Training

An effective HRMS portal will know the value of crisis management training. A crisis can take many forms and may affect us personally or professionally. An organization should be Structured such that it can respond to any unforeseen crisis, and employees could benefit from some basic training. The corporate goal should be to carry out business functions as much as possible and to lessen the impact of the crisis. Crisis management usually covers topics such as:

• Planning
• Planning for Crises
• Responding to Natural disasters
• Responding to emergencies
• Business continuity
• Media Enquiries

Different categories of Crisis

Broadly a workplace may face the below-mentioned categories of crisis, for which proper training must be provided to the employees. HRMS systems should accordingly gear up for the challenges.

Behavioural Crisis: Mostly cases of sexual harassment or racial discrimination falls under this category. One way of avoiding this kind of unpleasant situation is to invest in compliance training and creating a safe and inclusive culture.

Natural Disaster: Employers should take responsibility in educating their employees with some necessary skills and knowledge, should a disaster strike a workplace. They may be educated on the following topics:

• First Aid
• Emergency Exits
• Fire Extinguisher
• Preparing for crises

Pandemic: In light of the current Coronavirus outbreak, it has become all the more important to train employees on the precautions that are needed to be taken at such times for the continuity of the business. Pandemic planning and training may include topics related to:

• Coronavirus
• COVID – 19
• Common Sense Hygiene
• Preparedness
• Travel
• Preparing for a Pandemic
• Communication – both internal and external
• Dealing with illness at the workplace
• Business Continuity

Workplace Violence and Accidents

Both these factors are often responsible for disruptions at the workplace, and hence, suitable training may be provided to employees to deal with such unpleasant situations as and when required. The following topics may be covered to empower your employees.

• Slips, trips, and falls
• Ladder Safety
• Electrical Safety
• Safe driving
• Confined Spaces
• Personal Protective Equipment
• Alcohol Abuse
• Stress and Burnout
• Bullying
• Active Shooter Situations
• Human Trafficking

Project Crisis

This kind of an unpleasant situation may crop up when a key stakeholder quit or a vendor misses a deadline as you are in the middle of an important project. At such times project management training topics such as:

• Project Management
• Change Management
• Time Management
• Persuasive Communication
• might help the employees to tide over the unfavorable situation successfully.

One of the key features of human resource management should be to empower the employees so that they are in a better position to handle any crisis or unpleasant situation that may arise at one time or the other in their workplace.