Organizations today face constant stress, and when a crisis hits, leaders must communicate quickly to reduce harm and facilitate recovery.

Most organizations understand this, and many have plans in place to help them do it in an effective and empathetic way. Yet these plans often focus outward and make only passing reference to employees and contractors as critical crisis stakeholders. They rarely define specific or flexible internal crisis communication objectives or strategies, and they rarely discuss how they will understand and meet multiple complex employee and organizational needs as the situation evolves.

External communication is essential in challenging times – it signals a commitment to transparency, and it shows the organization is caring, competent and in control. Yet a carefully crafted media response can only take any company so far, especially when what is said outside the organization is not experienced inside it, so carefully tailored and strategically considered internal communication is equally important.

When a crisis strikes, employees often feel the impact more personally and more directly than many other stakeholders. Their roles and relationships in the organization mean that their physical and psychological crisis experience is different to that of everyone else. They have unique needs, expectations and responsibilities, and they are high power/high interest stakeholders whose words and actions have demonstrable impact on crisis outcomes.

Whether they’re directly harmed by the crisis or working behind the scenes to fix it, employees will observe and interpret every piece of information available to them as they quickly form an opinion about what is happening, why, and with what effects. All of this will shape:

• How they think and feel about the crisis
• How they think and feel about the organization
• How they think and feel about themselves
• And what they say and do next

In short, employees can either support or stall organizational recovery. If we want to secure their trust, support and advocacy, we need to become more intentional about internal crisis communication.

Letting people know what is happening and ensuring their physical and psychological safety when a crisis strikes are critical starting points. But if we want employees to advocate in even the most difficult times, we must also recognise that building trust and enabling mutually supportive employee-organizational relationships is a long-term and ongoing strategic investment.

That means embedding robust two-way communication infrastructures and psychologically safe cultures in our organizations on an everyday basis; it means putting robust and adaptable internal crisis communication plans in place; and it means tailoring our internal communication approach to meet multiple complex and evolving employee and organizational crisis needs.

A new framework

My 7 S of Internal Crisis Communication is a new framework designed to help internal communicators take a more structured approach to understanding and meeting the key human and organizational needs that emerge through the full lifecycle of crisis, rather than just at the point of crisis impact, and to better support and enable employees as they move from shock to stability to action and advocacy.

The framework begins with three essential human crisis needs and progresses toward four additional needs that enable organizational capability and renewal. It creates conditions that make employee trust, support and advocacy possible: first by restoring safety and clarity, then by building understanding and confidence, and finally by enabling meaningful involvement in crisis recovery.

1. Surviving needs

Our first crisis responsibility is to minimise harm, and this means that in the earliest moments of a crisis, we must plan for internal communication to be simple, direct and unambiguous, enabling employees to protect themselves and those around them. Messages must quickly disclose what is happening and advise how employees can protect themselves and others.

2. Supporting needs

Once immediate risks are addressed, employees will look to the organization for emotional, psychological and practical support. Their experiences at this time will differ, so communication support must be tailored and responsive to multiple emerging needs and expectations. It’s important to offer channels for questions and conversation, and to differentiate support for differently affected groups.

3. Sensemaking needs

As the initial shock subsides, employees naturally begin to interpret what has happened and why. If leaders, line managers and communication professionals do not help them do this, they will fill the gaps themselves, often in unhelpful ways. Allowing people to discuss what has happened and facilitating clear, honest and contextual sensemaking communication is necessary as it helps employees align their own understanding with the organization’s intentions and actions, and this paves the way for supportive talk and behaviour.

4. Stabilizing needs

When employee’s surviving, supporting and sensemaking needs are met, we can begin to stabilise the organization. Stabilizing communication should be led from the top and reinforced by leaders and line managers at a local level. It confirms what has happened and it evidences a will and ability to put things right. It reassures people that the organization is confident and competent as it steadies, and it tells them that their contribution is visible and valued. This is important, because when employees feel that they remain part of an organization that is coherent and credible, they are far more likely to stand by it publicly and privately.

5. Stimulating needs

With stability returning, it’s time to re-energise and re-engage people in the practical work of recovery. Genuine advocacy comes from involvement and ownership so employees should not only receive updates about the situation, but they should now also be invited to contribute insight, share stories, and propose solutions.

6. Sustaining needs

Crises ripples last far beyond the moment of impact and the journey to recovery can be exhausting. Sustaining communication protects against employee burnout and maintains a sense of team progress. Communication that continues to recognise effort and highlight small wins helps teams to stay committed and gives them positive news to share.

7. Strengthening needs

Eventually, the crisis fades and communication becomes about learning, improving and coming back stronger. Strengthening communication builds long-term capability and enables advocacy by showing employees that their experience has shaped the future and helped their organization emerge stronger, more united, and more respected inside and out.

Ultimately, the advocacy advantage is earned long before a crisis appears, and it is activated through considerate, intentional communication when the worst happens. By planning ahead and taking a deliberate, long-term approach to meeting both human and operational needs, organizations can turn moments of disruption into opportunities for learning and renewal. In doing so, they help their people not only withstand the crisis but actively contribute to the organization’s operational and reputational recovery.

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