This article distils practical guidance on effective crisis response, cross-border people management and organisational preparedness in high-risk scenarios. Those that navigate crises most successfully are the ones that invest early in their people, partnerships and planning.

At our recent Managing an International Workforce conference, we convened a panel that drew on perspectives from in-house employment law, intelligence and political risk, operational and travel security and crisis communications who highlighted the following insights and practical “do’s and don’ts”.

Know your crisis team before the crisis

When a crisis arises, a crisis control team must be assembled quickly. Relevant functions typically include risk management, business continuity/resilience, communications, HR, legal, security and (where needed) specialist advisers such as medical professionals. There is rarely a full playbook, but organisations must know who needs to be in the room, who makes decisions, who owns budgets and approvals and who is responsible for each workstream.

When asked whether they had a clear picture of who their crisis control team would include, 58% of our conference attendees indicated they did not have a defined team - highlighting a widespread gap in preparedness.

Do:

• Map your crisis team now. Determine roles, decision rights and escalation paths before the next crisis forces you to improvise.
• Understand whether you have crisis insurance and what it covers so that you know the scope and limits of any crisis response providers before a crisis arises.

Don’t:

• Avoid decision paralysis. Delay can damage reputation and, in serious situations, put lives at risk. Clarity on “who decides what” is essential.

Geopolitical risk: anticipate, don’t react

Effective organisations invest in horizon scanning, intelligence monitoring, scenario mapping and external advisory relationships. The panel described how their planning for the Russia/Ukraine crisis began approximately three months before the invasion, with evacuation routes, communications and contingency plans prepared in advance. Similarly, Middle East planning involved advance monitoring of key developments, identifying affected locations, mapping boat and road routes out of the region and tracking border-closure information.

When asked how their organisation assessed geopolitical risk, 45% of attendees confirmed that they relied on an in-house team and 2% used an external provider, leaving 22% of organisations not routinely carrying out this analysis and 32% not knowing how their organisation assessed the risk. The panel observed that even sophisticated organisations could do more and that assumptions such as “it will never happen here” no longer hold.

Do:

• Consider your organisation’s approach to geopolitical risk assessment.
• Prepare communications drafts ahead of time so decisions under pressure are calm and considered.
• Set evacuation thresholds and trigger-points before a crisis begins.
• Identify all available options in advance (road, rail, sea, air routes; safe locations; border-crossing requirements).
• Consider the use of external intelligence advisers to supplement in-house capacity and address blind spots.

Don’t:

• Wait until a crisis is under way.
• Rely on a single exit route or assume borders will remain open.
• Assume that past stability guarantees future safety.

Be prepared

Desktop exercises – discussion-based crisis simulations using realistic scenarios - can be extremely valuable. They test processes, expose gaps and build confidence. Employers should consider running exercises periodically with the full crisis team, including senior decision-makers and treating lessons learned as action items, not just observations.

Manage people with care and intent

The panel’s experience of the Russia/Ukraine crisis illustrated the breadth of people-management challenges: locating remote workers, supporting cross-border relocations, dealing with military call-up of staff, managing exits from affected countries, maintaining regular contact with local workforces, handling blackouts and navigating political and religious sensitivities in the workplace.

Employers should:

• Treat safety of employees as your “north star”. Every decision should be tested against this.
• Know where your people are; maintain up-to-date records, especially for remote and hybrid workers.
• Establish temporary cross-border working arrangements quickly for those who wish to relocate.
• Use clear policies on political/religious debate, social media and acceptable use to maintain a firm, consistent line and keep disputes out of the workplace.
• Plan for long-running crises: shift from urgent decision-making to business-as-usual management with regular touchpoints so staff feel supported.

Keep plans confidential

Crisis plans can themselves create risk if they fall into the wrong hands - they may identify key people, critical locations, evacuation routes and other sensitive arrangements.

Things to consider include:

• Restricting access strictly to those who need it.
• Considering what would happen if a plan were found by the wrong person (e.g. in a displaced employee’s belongings or on an unsecured device).
• Where appropriate, using agreed safety words or codes.

Get the tone right and lead with empathy

Crisis communications should reflect the organisation’s values at speed. The panel emphasised the need for authenticity, authority and empathy. Cold, corporate language damages trust; saying sorry (where appropriate) can go a long way.

Do:

• Involve communications experts and where needed, lawyers, early - ideally as part of the core crisis team from the outset. Build that relationship in outside of crises.
• Be honest and transparent with the comms team; they cannot help if they do not know the full picture.
• Identify all stakeholders: employees, customers, leadership, shareholders, regulators.
• Adapt tone and messaging to local culture - what resonates in one jurisdiction may fall flat or offend in another.
• Remember your frontline staff (call centres, retail colleagues) - who can be your ambassadors and need honest and consistent messaging, support and flexibility when facing distressed, inquisitive or abusive customers.

Don’t:

• Downplay what has happened or use sanitised, corporate language.
• Allow local teams to issue crisis communications without core-team approval, where this risks alarmist or contradictory statements.
• Fail to pause scheduled social media, advertising or LinkedIn content that may be inappropriate in the circumstances.
• Use AI-generated statements - these can appear insincere.

Carefully manage communication channels

Crisis response goes well beyond a press release. Think about every channel through which your organisation communicates.

This could involve:

• Updating your website with clear FAQs, reactive statements and accurate information - AI summaries and search outputs draw from your website, so a well-written response can correct misinformation.
• Monitoring for and responding to disinformation, which can compound crisis-management challenges.
• Considering who your spokesperson is and whether they are trained. Using an external adviser to help senior leaders prepare for any public statement can help to ensure they receive honest feedback about their chosen words and style which may be more difficult for someone internal to deliver.
• Considering whether a short, factual holding statement will be more effective than engaging with public anger.

Ensure legal and comms align

Bring the lawyers and communications experts together early - ensure legal advice enables clear, empathetic communication without creating unnecessary paralysis, and supports proportionate, informed messaging across all stakeholders. Give external advisers the full business context and push back if their advised response does not fit the organisation’s values.

Also remember that internal emails and documents may ultimately become public (inquiries, regulatory investigations, litigation); draft accordingly but do not let this prevent essential communication.

Top 10 tips

Before the next crisis, consider:

1. Do you know who would be on your crisis control team? Are roles, decision rights and escalation paths clearly defined and documented? Is there a strong, pre-existing working relationship between all of the team members?
2. Do you know what insurance you have, what your insurance covers and what any insurer’s crisis responders can and cannot do for you?
3. Have you identified your organisation’s geopolitical risk exposure and the thresholds at which you would escalate or evacuate?
4. Do you have access to verified, accurate intelligence, whether in-house, external or a combination?
5. Have you run a table-top crisis exercise in the last 12 months?
6. Do you know where all of your people are, including remote and hybrid workers in higher-risk locations?
7. Are your crisis plans stored securely and restricted to those who need access?
8. Have you future‑proofed your contracts, policies and processes to ensure you are well prepared for the next crisis?
9. Have you stress-tested your communications approach across jurisdictions for cultural tone and legal requirements?
10. Are your frontline teams (call centres, customer-facing staff) included in crisis communications planning?