by William F. Badzmierowski, M.Ed., CSW

Director of Instructor Services—CPI’s Prepare Training^® Program

CPI’s Prepare Training^® program helps organizations reduce the frequency and severity of situations involving workplace issues such as discourtesy, disrespect, intimidation, incivility, bullying/harassment, retaliation, verbal assault, and even physical violence. Despite these specific focus areas, the concepts and skills we teach can be adapted to many types of crisis responses.

A crisis involves a situation or event that is experienced or perceived as an intolerable difficulty that may exceed typically available resources, personnel, procedures, and coping mechanisms. Many types of crisis situations can occur in the workplace. These range from medical-, legal-, financial-, and weather-related emergencies to hazardous materials spills, equipment failure, property impairment, and even extremely irrational internal or external customers.  

Crisis response plans should provide direction to involved stakeholders during and after a crisis event. Plans should include procedures for the rapid identification of potentially harmful situations and the methods for responding to situations quickly and efficiently.

During crisis situations, simple and clear guidelines for directing our decisions and actions work best. Therefore, CPI offers the following checklist [PDF] to assist organizations in designing simple and clear crisis response procedures.

Download our free eBook, Proactive Strategies for Promoting a Safe and Respectful Workplace.

Already an Instructor or Site Member? Login to access your free resource.