The Covid-19 pandemic has created a global crisis unprecedented in the working lives of IR professionals. Each company has needed to explain to investors and other key stakeholders how it has been affected and what measures it is taking to manage the upheaval. As a result, the management of crisis communications has gained a greater urgency in this time.
This report looks at how crisis communications have changed since we last reported on the subject in 2012. It examines whether companies have formal crisis communications structures and whether these plans have changed as a result of Covid-19. We also investigate what lessons IR professionals feel they have learned from the pandemic experience and how this affects attitudes and approaches to any future crisis.
As well as focusing on the effects of Covid-19, we examine the impact of social media on crisis communications and the extent to which a firm can effectively manage its message in this environment. We also look at the importance of wider stakeholder communications in a time of crisis. Findings in this report are taken from research carried out in the IR Magazine Global IR Survey conducted in Q3 2021.
A total of 274 respondents answered questions relevant to this report. Data in this report is broken down by region and company size. The key regions covered are North America, Europe and Asia, while market cap sizes are defined as follows:
