How Assistants Support Crisis PR Coordination and Outreach

Many executive leadership teams face operational bottlenecks during crises, such as data breaches, product recalls, and leadership controversies. Each minute an executive spends drafting a crisis PR outreach email instead of focusing on strategic decision-making reduces the leadership team’s wiggle room to contain the situation.

However, CEOs and C-suites who partner with executive assistants have a reliable partner who can own the coordination layer and streamline information flow between departments. 

This guide covers how assistants support crisis PR coordination and outreach, including the tasks they can handle and how to set them up for success.

TL;DR: How Can Assistants Support Crisis PR Coordination and Outreach?

While executive assistants don’t make PR strategy decisions, they play an integral role in building and maintaining workflows that remove logistical bottlenecks and increase response speed. 

An EA’s responsibilities during crisis PR coordination include:

• Updating the stakeholder outreach list.
• Screening incoming media inquiries and directing them to the right decision maker.
• Coordinating internal communication to relevant departments.
• Managing version control on statements by the executive before the final message is published.

Executive assistants who own the coordination layer track all PR outreach tasks, ensuring even the smallest ones do not fall through the cracks. 

What Makes Crisis Communication Difficult to Coordinate

The main reason crisis communication overwhelms most organizations is that it does not follow traditional workflows and protocols. For most companies, press releases are drafted and reviewed in advance and then scheduled when they should go live. 

However, during a crisis, everything happens simultaneously, making the coordination burden unmanageable.

Some of the main reasons organizations struggle with crisis communication include:

• Information Changes Rapidly: Issues such as conflicting reports or unexpected stakeholder concerns often mean organizations must continually update their messaging. This often causes a communication breakdown as teams must balance the need for quick responses with ensuring information accuracy.
• Tailoring Messages to Different Stakeholders: Most PR crises affect multiple stakeholders, meaning the organization must communicate simultaneously with clients, employees, and regulatory bodies, among others. Failing to update some stakeholders or sending messages in the wrong context can sour relationships, worsening the crisis. 
• Information Silos: During crises, each department usually has a different priority. For example, the operations team may focus on rectifying the system glitch or product defects, while the legal team focuses on risk reduction, which makes coordination challenging.
• Decision-Making Bottlenecks: During a PR crisis, most organizations require the legal team to first review the messaging before it is forwarded through a long chain of command for approval. This often results in missed media deadlines and delayed stakeholder notifications. Long approval processes can be frustrating for EAs, as shared by Reddit user FeralSandwichGoddess in a recent thread:

“…Usually our 1:1s get pushed back or replaced by more urgent appointments, don’t happen, or other appointments run long over those times, and things awaiting approval sit longer than anyone intends/wants. Since I’m the one who receives and tracks these, it can look like the delay is on my end, even when the item is just waiting for review from the Exec…”

Tasks Assistants Own During Crisis Coordination

Elite EAs improve crisis coordination by creating workflows and systematizing outreach tasks, ensuring the executive doesn’t skip any steps that could lead to a PR disaster.

An executive assistant’s most essential duties during crisis coordination include:

Stakeholder List Management and Outreach

The executive assistant creates a master list of every stakeholder and group that requires notification during crisis coordination, including:

• Board members
• Investors
• Clients 
• Employees
• Vendors
• Regulatory bodies

They also update the list regularly to ensure the stakeholder information is accurate and matches the new context.

Inbound Inquiry Triage and Routing

EAs can become the primary point of contact for the executive when journalists, analysts, customers, and other external parties contact the company during crises. 

The EA will not communicate the company’s position; rather, they will acknowledge the inquiries and immediately route them to the responsible decision maker.

They may also document the questions and track whether response deadlines were met.

Internal Communications and Team Updates

Executive assistants can coordinate internal communication and ensure all departments and employees get consistent messaging simultaneously, including sending updates as situations develop. 

This avoids unfortunate situations in which employees learn about the company crisis from social media, which often creates fear and damages morale. 

Document Tracking, Version Control, and Approvals

The legal and communications teams often revise press statements multiple times for language changes or to refine the tone. As such, without disciplined version control, the executive may end up approving the wrong statement or duplicate releases, creating confusion about the official company position.

EAs maintain version control by having clear version numbers and timestamps after each revision, ensuring only the final copy is sent to the PR coordination team. 

Schedule and Logistics for Press Calls

PR crises can be overwhelming for executives, considering they may be required to attend media briefing meetings while also providing strategic direction. 

EAs support their executives by streamlining their schedules to ensure they are available for critical meetings. They may also time-block the executive’s calendar so they can focus on the most important tasks.

How Assistants Keep Crisis Communication Organized

Experienced executive assistants create workflows to streamline communication during crises, ensuring nothing slips through the cracks. 

The workflow’s main components include:

• Stakeholder Tracking: The EA creates and shares spreadsheets showing the various stakeholders, primary contact channels, and notification status. This ensures the PR outreach team can quickly identify which groups have not been engaged or where follow-up is needed, without having to ask.
• Media Inquiry Log: The EA records external inquiries, highlighting the interested parties, submitted questions, and timestamps, to avoid duplicate responses or missed deadlines.
• File-Naming Protocols: The EA uses a standard naming format for all statements, indicating version numbers, stakeholders, timestamps, and approval status for easy tracking and retrieval. 

Reddit user lynnwood57 shared some practical tips for naming documents in a recent thread about file organization:

“…I think you can assign Keywords to Documents when you scan them, not sure. It’s a lot to set up, but it makes finding something incredibly easy. I also recommend using file names like this:

YYYY-MM-DD – Type – Memory jogging title —— “Type” could be Letter, Photo, Declaration, Court Order, Contract, etc, specific to your industry and data…”

• Internal Communication Checklist: The EA creates a checklist for tracking notifications to different teams and to help them identify information silos that may hinder departmental collaboration.
• Urgent Requests: The EA creates a system for handling after-hours or urgent requests, including establishing a communication hierarchy for escalating urgent matters to the executive.

When an Assistant Is Not Enough for Crisis PR

Hiring an assistant helps ease pressure by handling simple administrative tasks, reducing the workload of the PR coordination and outreach team. 

However, there may be situations where a virtual assistant may not be up to the task and create more chaos than solutions, necessitating hiring a remote executive assistant for strategic support.

Such situations include:

Effective Support Requires Understanding Business Context

Crisis coordination requires a deep understanding of the company’s priorities to anticipate which tasks carry the most strategic weight.

Most virtual assistants only handle administrative tasks and may lack the time to learn about the business.

In contrast, EAs come in and start learning about the business, including the company’s mission and the executive’s strategic goals, increasing their ability to prioritize tasks based on strategic impact.

Stakeholder Relationships are at Stake

When stakeholders call the company during a crisis, they want to speak with someone they recognize and trust. Most VAs fall short in this regard, as they have limited interactions with stakeholders, so positioning them as the contact person could strain relationships.

EAs who play the chief of staff role for their executives have existing relationships with stakeholders and understand how to tailor communication to each member.

Crisis Communication Involves Sensitive Information

Conventional VAs may lack experience handling sensitive information during crisis communication, which can lead to legal exposure.

In contrast, executive assistants manage confidential information at a professional level, including instinctively understanding what can be discussed in Slack groups versus private inboxes with the executive.

Reddit user mmcgrat6 shared similar sentiments in a thread about handling confidential information as an EA:

“It’s having the discernment to know what to say to whom at what level of detail with the appropriate diplomacy…”

Ability to Make Decisions Independently

Many companies experience decision-making bottlenecks during crisis PR coordination, highlighting the need for an assistant who can function with some level of autonomy. Unfortunately, most VAs are trained to function under frequent guidance from the executive, making them unsuitable for independent decision-making.

In contrast, executives can delegate controlled authority to their EAs, enabling them to leverage their institutional knowledge to prioritize tasks.

The first step to receiving effective support during crisis PR coordination is for executives to onboard and integrate an EA into their world.

ProAssisting is an Inc. 5000 (ranked #2466) agency that partners executives with remote EAs with experience supporting busy C-suites at reputable brands like Oracle, Target, and the WNBA, ensuring they can hit the ground running. 

Their assistants, called ProAssistants, are available to handle urgent and after-hours requests during crisis PR outreach to support their executives’ decision-making.

Book a call with the team to explore how ProAssistants support crisis PR coordination and outreach.

How to Set Up an Executive Assistant for Crisis Readiness

Proper crisis coordination and outreach don’t happen by accident and require deliberate preparation before the disaster actually occurs. At the center of any crisis coordination is an empowered EA, especially where the executive is actively involved in the coordination process.

Below are several ways executives can set up their EAs for success during crisis coordination and outreach:

• Communicate the Executive’s Expectations: The executive should communicate the level of support they expect from their EA during a crisis, including their preferred communication style and how often they require status updates. 
• Document Crisis Communication Processes: According to the Capterra Crisis Communications Survey, only 49% of US businesses have a documented crisis communication plan, which limits how effectively EAs function during emergencies. The executive should provide documented steps of how the EA should function during crisis communication, including whether to accept media invites, how to reprioritize the principal’s schedule, and which stakeholders to notify first. 
• Maintain an Updated Stakeholder List: The EA should have access to the master stakeholder list, including each member’s name, title, primary contact method, special relationships, and time zone differences to help them customize communication to specific groups. The executive should regularly review the stakeholder list to add or remove members and update their information.
• Provide Access to Relevant Tools: EAs should have access to the executive assistant tools they need for effective crisis communication, including project management software for tracking tasks and communication tools for coordinating messages across departments.
• Delegate Authority: Executives should grant their EAs authority to function autonomously when handling tasks such as media inquiry triage or meeting scheduling to reduce decision-making bottlenecks.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Here are answers to common questions executives ask about how assistants support crisis PR coordination:

What Is the Difference Between a Crisis PR Coordinator and an Assistant?

The primary difference between a crisis PR coordinator and an assistant is that the former is a mid-level strategist brought in to oversee rapid response processes during emergencies. 

In contrast, an assistant handles day-to-day administrative tasks, such as scheduling and email correspondence, to help the crisis coordination and outreach team operate more effectively.

Can a Virtual Assistant Handle Media Inquiries During a Crisis?

Yes. A virtual assistant can handle media inquiries during a crisis by screening the messages and triaging them to the respective department. 

Additionally, they can serve as the main point of contact for the executive, escalating media inquiries that require immediate attention.

Should an Assistant Draft Public Statements in a Crisis?

Yes and no. An assistant may draft public statements in a crisis under their executive’s guidance or where a company has templates for handling PR responses. 

However, the executive or communication team should review and approve the public statements before publishing them.

How Quickly Can an Assistant Be Onboarded for Crisis Support?

There’s no timeline for how quickly a company can onboard an assistant for crisis support. 

It depends on the assistant’s experience handling crisis PR coordination. However, elite assistants can master the basic systems in a week and then continue learning on the job.

Do Assistants Sign Confidentiality Agreements for Crisis Work?

Yes. Most organizations require assistants to sign confidentiality agreements for crisis work. 

However, even without the NDAs, experienced assistants understand the importance of maintaining confidentiality when handling sensitive company information.

Conclusion

Executive assistants build and maintain workflows that improve stakeholder tracking, inquiry triage, and internal communication coordination, allowing leadership teams to focus on strategic decision-making.

ProAssisting partners executives with EAs with at least 5 years of experience supporting C-suites at global brands, where they handle crisis PR coordination as part of their JD. The ProAssistants have strong backgrounds in executive assistance, project management, and operations, allowing them to leverage their skills to oversee PR coordination and outreach workflows during crises.

Schedule a no-obligation call to explore how ProAssisting caters to executives struggling with operational inefficiencies because of inadequate or low-quality assistance.