Digital solutions lead the way in crisis communications, but human factors remain the leading cause of failure
The BCI is pleased launch the Emergency and Crisis Communications Report 2025 sponsored by F24. Now in its 11th year, this popular report examines how crisis communications have evolved over the past 12 months, the preferred methods of communication, and impacts of new technology on the sector.
This year, mobile phones and computers remain the dominant devices for managing emergencies, and email or enterprise messengers such as Teams, Slack, or Skype are the preferred methods used to activate crisis management teams. This indicates an ongoing move toward fast, digital solutions suited to immediate global communication which has been a growing trend since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Software as a service is still popular despite financial constraints
Research shows that the majority of respondents use emergency notification or crisis management tools (60.3%) despite 2024’s financial challenges, indicating that organizations rely significantly on these solutions as crisis preparedness and response strategies. This year, software-as-a-service remains the preferred option for emergency and crisis communications software and data shows that organizations employing such dedicated tools obtain activation times that consistently outperform those relying on manual methods.
This year’s findings also highlight a shift towards enhanced preparedness, with organizations increasingly prioritising training and exercise programmes. In 2024, 75% of organizations carried out training programmes at least once and over 80% exercised their plans just as frequently. This proactive approach is crucial for ensuring teams are equipped to handle crises effectively, reflecting a heightened awareness of the importance of crisis communications.
Despite increased training and exercising, human factors still pose challenges
Human factors continue to pose substantial challenges to practitioners. Lack of response from staff is still the leading reason for plan failure, and other issues, such as outdated contact information and poor internal coordination, remain major obstacles. These human-driven problems remain the primary causes of emergency communications failures even though many organisations have increased their training and exercising programmes.
Other report highlights include the identification of severe weather events as the primary trigger of emergency communications plans, closely followed by cyber security incidents /data breaches, and IT or telecoms incidents, and that most organizations are able to activate their crisis plans within 60 minutes. Finally, many organizations expressed some dissatisfaction with their current communication tools, highlighting issues such as insufficient functionality, poor integration and financial constraints. This overall feeling indicates that despite some forward steps, there are still improvements to be made in the industry.
Maria Garcia, Head of Thought Leadership at the BCI said:
"In recent years, there has been a clear shift toward digital crisis response, enhancing both the speed at which organizations can activate their crisis plans and the effectiveness of their response. However, the human factor remains a significant challenge, highlighting the need for thorough preparation. As organizations refine their crisis communication strategies, they must concentrate on strengthening human engagement, focusing on training, and exercising to ensure a truly effective emergency response."
Dr. Stefanie Hauer, Senior Vice President Commercial at F24, reflected on this year’s report:
“As a long-standing sponsor of this report, we are proud to support the latest insights into the evolution of emergency and crisis communication. The report again clearly demonstrates that digital solutions play a key role for preparedness. This is why we at F24 are committed to enabling informed decisions about action and preparedness.”
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