Digital solutions lead the way in crisis communications, but the human factor remains the main cause of failure.
The BCI has published the Emergency and Crisis Communications Report 2025, sponsored by F24. Now in its 11th year, this report analyses how crisis communication has developed over the past 12 months, which communication methods are preferred and what impact new technologies are having on the sector. This year, mobile phones and computers remain the most important devices for managing emergencies. Email and enterprise messengers such as Teams, Slack or Skype are the preferred channels for activating crisis teams. This shows the continuing trend towards fast, digital solutions for instant global communication – a development that has increased significantly since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Software-as-a-Service remains popular despite financial challenges
The research shows that the majority of respondents (60.3%) use emergency notification or crisis management tools, despite the financial challenges of 2024. This highlights that organisations are committed to these solutions as part of their crisis preparedness and response strategies. Software-as-a-service remains the preferred choice for emergency and crisis communication software. The data shows that organisations that rely on specialised tools can activate their crisis response times significantly faster than those that use manual methods. This year’s results also show an increased focus on crisis preparation, with organisations increasingly relying on training and exercise programmes. In 2024, 75% of companies conducted a training programme at least once, and over 80% tested their crisis plans just as frequently. This proactive approach is crucial to ensuring that teams are well prepared for crisis situations – a sign of the growing awareness of the importance of crisis communication.
Despite increased training, human factors remain a challenge
Human factors continue to pose significant challenges for crisis managers. A lack of employee response is still the main reason for the failure of crisis plans. Other problems such as outdated contact details or poor internal coordination also remain major hurdles. Despite increased training and exercise programmes, these human-related difficulties continue to be the main cause of failure in emergency communication. Other highlights of the report include the finding that severe weather events are the most common trigger for emergency communication plans, closely followed by cyber security incidents/data breaches and IT or telecommunications incidents, and that most organisations are able to activate their crisis plans within 60 minutes. Finally, many organisations expressed some dissatisfaction with their current communication tools, pointing to issues such as inadequate functionality, poor integration and financial constraints. This overall impression suggests that, despite some progress in the industry, there is still room for improvement.Maria Garcia, Head of Thought Leadership at BCI, said: ‘In recent years, crisis response has clearly shifted towards digital solutions, improving both activation time and effectiveness. Nevertheless, the human factor remains a major challenge. Organisations must continue to evolve their crisis communication strategies by focusing on employee engagement, targeted training and regular exercises to ensure a truly effective emergency response.” Dr Stefanie Hauer, Senior Vice President Commercial at F24: ’As a long-standing sponsor of this report, we are pleased to support the latest findings on the development of emergency and crisis communication. The report shows once again that digital solutions play a key role in crisis preparedness. That is why we at F24 are committed to empowering organisations with the information they need to act quickly and effectively in an emergency.
