1. Construction Jobsite Fatalities – Tragic, But Real

In a recent report, OSHA [CN1] cited that stronger enforcement of jobsite safety regulations and collaboration with labor and management are mitigating the two leading causes of death: high-risk falls and trench collapses. However, although mandated investigations for fatalities on construction sites have been declining since 2022, according to the OSHA report, there were 826 investigated deaths in 2024, and more than 5,000 fatal incidents that still occur annually. Is your team prepared to address fatalities and serious injuries with your employees, their families, and authorities?

2. Data Breaches – Deeply Disruptive and Costly

According to Cybersecurity Ventures [CN2], a leading global cybersecurity research and publishing firm, approximately 50% of the world’s data is now stored in cloud-based systems, up from 25% in 2015. That means more data is vulnerable to attack from cybercrime, which has an estimated $10.5 trillion global cost for 2025. How will your team respond if your firm experiences a client data breach?

3. Severely Damaging Weather – Increasing in Frequency

According to the USAFacts [CN3] think tank, the number of natural weather disasters with damages of more than $1 billion has increased over the last 40 years. From 1980 to 2024, the U.S. averaged nine major events per year. The annual average for the most recent five years is 23 major events per year.

The timing of a crisis is unpredictable. However, a sensible internal crisis management plan can help your team quickly deliver calm clarity when it happens. What is the full cost of a crisis? There could be several impacts: direct revenue loss, operational disruptions, crisis mitigation expenses, and reputational costs. Therefore, it is critical to prepare your team to handle a variety of crises.

Here are three steps to build or enhance your firm’s crisis management plan.

Research the Trends That Impact Your Firm & Market

When researching crisis situations that could impact your firm, make an inventory of current trends. They could include internal workplace trends, but also technological, political, environmental, social, and regulatory trends. Some of these scenarios were mentioned in the lead-in to this article, but here are more examples to explore with related resources.

Align Firm Values with Crisis Scenario Planning

In our media-heavy society, news of a crisis can travel faster than wildfire and cause just as much damage. Actions by the company or its representatives that do not align with the values an organization espouses can severely damage the company’s reputation. For example, a firm that promotes integrity will be at odds with an executive who is caught moonlighting with a co-worker who is not their spouse. A firm that upholds safety as a core value will be at odds with multiple safety violations that go unchecked. Crisis scenario planning and communications should align with the firm’s messaging: what the firm stands for, how it helps people and society, and what will not be tolerated. With this strategy, firms can make quicker decisions about how to approach a crisis when it challenges core principles and values.

Designate a Crisis Team for Strategy and Efficiency

Who should be on your firm’s accountability team? Surprisingly, marketing and growth professionals can be left in the dark during the initial response. Why? Leaders at A/E/C industry firms may define marketing or client relations as roles that are engaged after the crisis is “handled” by decision makers. Rather than include marketing in crisis planning, they may deploy marketing or growth professionals as a secondary team to disseminate information. Marketers and growth professionals may also underestimate their skills for crisis communications. While it is valuable to seek outside guidance in an acute crisis, marketing and growth professionals can play an essential role in crisis management planning. Marketers have their ears to the ground in all firm communications channels. They are the protectors of the firm’s reputation. Growth professionals understand the context of client and referral source concerns and their potential correlation to a crisis. With that in mind, here is a recommended crisis accountability team: