The First 24 Hours: A Manager’s Guide for Workplace Crisis Response

 Something has happened. 

There was an accident on the floor. A storm tore through overnight and half your team is displaced. An employee died over the weekend. Someone made a threat, and people are scared. 

There’s a good chance you’re reading this on your phone, in a hallway, with people waiting on you. You might be shaken a little, too. 

Take a deep breath and stay calm. 

Here’s what to do first, what to say, and how to get real help moving for your people. 

What Counts as a Critical Incident? 

A critical incident is any event tied to the workplace that overwhelms people’s normal ability to cope. Usually that’s a sudden death, a serious accident or injury, an act or threat of violence, a suicide, a natural disaster, or a robbery. 

You don’t have to be sure it qualifies before you pick up the phone. If your people are shaken, that’s enough. 

What Should You Do in the First Hour of a Critical Incident? 

Make sure everyone’s safe 

First things first. Is everyone safe? Is the area secure? Does anyone need medical attention? Call 911 if there’s any question at all. Nothing else in this guide matters until that part is handled. 

Call your own chain, then call for clinical help 

Let your HR lead and your supervisor know what’s happened. Then call the EAP and get clinical support moving. If you’re a MYgroup client, it’s the same number you’d use for anything else. There’s no separate crisis line to dig for, which matters more than it sounds like it should at a moment when nobody should be hunting through a benefits portal. 

It helps to have rough answers ready: what happened, who was involved, how you found out, who already knows, and who still needs to be told. But don’t wait until you have the full picture. Partial is fine. The person on the other end will help you fill in the rest. 

That’s not a random list, by the way. These are the first few steps from the C.A.A.R.E.S. process, the framework MYgroup uses to shape a response: consult, assess, act, respond, evaluate, support. Gathering what you know is the consult step. Checking in with people one by one to find out who’s affected and how is the assess step. Both come before anyone decides what the response should look like. 

Every MYgroup client organization gets a one-page version of this for managers to keep on hand, built around those same six steps. 

Say something, and say it soon 

Silence fills up with rumors. Within the first hour, tell the people closest to what happened whatever you can confirm. Plain words. In person if you can manage it. 

Stick to what you actually know. Tell them who to come to with questions. Tell them support is on the way and that you’ll follow up as you learn more. Then work out separately, with HR, what the wider organization needs to hear and when. 

You don’t need a script. “I don’t have all the answers yet, and I’ll keep you posted” is an honest and complete thing to say. 

What not to do 

• Don’t speculate about cause or blame, or pass along details you haven’t confirmed. 
• Don’t share medical information or personal circumstances, however kindly meant. 
• Don’t make anyone talk. Offer more than once, and let people come to you when they’re ready. 
• Don’t announce a death or serious injury in a mass email before the people closest to that person have heard it from someone directly. 
• Don’t push for business as usual. Sending people home, closing early, changing shifts, bringing in extra coverage: those are all reasonable calls. 

How Fast Can People Actually Get Support? 

This is where a critical incident works differently from an ordinary counseling referral. 

A routine referral starts with one person and a clinician who matches them to the right provider. A critical incident starts with your whole organization at once. When you call MYgroup, you’re connected right away with a critical incident response coordinator. Not a callback. Not a ticket. That first conversation gets you guidance immediately, along with materials you can put in front of your people the same day. 

Critical incident response is built into your EAP contract rather than sold as an add-on, and your contract includes a set number of response hours. Telephone support for management during an incident is unlimited, so call as many times as you need to. If a situation calls for more on-site support than your contracted hours cover, additional hours are available. The full scope of what a strong response includes is covered in our guide to the modern employee assistance program.

From there, your coordinator builds a response around your situation instead of running a script. It might be virtual, on-site, or both. 

If having someone physically in the room would help, MYgroup makes every effort to get a clinician scheduled within days of the incident, and often the very next day. 

On-site support usually means group sessions where people can process together, plus private one-on-one time for anyone who wants it. Virtual covers the same ground, and it’s often the better fit for teams spread across locations. Scope and length get worked out with your coordinator, based on what the situation actually calls for. 

Who’s Supporting You? 

Managers and HR leaders experience a critical incident twice. As a person who has their own processing to do, and as the one everybody is watching. That’s a lot to carry, and most people try to carry it without asking for help. 

You shouldn’t be building the response by yourself. During an active incident you’ll work with a designated critical incident response coordinator who’s trained in trauma and crisis response. That’s a different person from your regular account manager, and the role exists for exactly this. 

In practice, they help you figure out what to say and how to say it, hand you messaging materials and resources for your team, prepare you for the reactions coming over the next few days, and help you spot who to watch. They’ll brief leadership if needed. And you can call back as things shift. Most people do. 

Your own well-being counts here too. Managers and HR leaders can use the same counseling benefit their people use, and the weeks after an incident are exactly when it’s worth doing. Take the advice you’re giving to your people. 

What Happens in the Days and Weeks After? 

The response isn’t over when the clinician leaves. 

Expect attendance to slip. People take time off, come in late, or leave early in the weeks after something traumatic. That’s recovery, not a performance problem. Treating it like a discipline issue usually does more damage than the absence itself ever would. 

Expect people to move at different speeds, too. Some steady out within days. Others seem fine and then come apart a month later, often around a return to the same space, a memorial, or an anniversary. The person who looked untouched in week one may need you most in week six. 

Keep checking in past the point where it feels necessary, and do it one-on-one rather than in a group. Keep the EAP visible while you’re at it. Put out the materials your coordinator sent during the response, along with the standard pieces from your account manager on how to reach the EAP and how the sessions work. Post them, email them, leave them where people actually look. Say the number more than once. People who weren’t ready on day two are often ready on day thirty. 

If a performance concern surfaces later and seems connected to what happened, there’s a formal referral process built for that exact situation, one that lets you address the performance issue while what’s said in sessions stays private. 

And recovery isn’t one conversation. A well-built program supports people between and after sessions, not only during them. 

Which Workplaces Face This Most Often? 

For some teams, a critical incident isn’t an exception. It’s part of the job. 

First responders carry repeated exposure across a whole career: police, fire, EMS, dispatchers, 911 operators, and the other public safety and crisis-response people who rarely get counted. Healthcare organizations carry it too, and it reaches everyone in the building, not only the people delivering clinical care. Schools, colleges, and universities face events that move through an entire campus at once. 

Where that exposure is constant rather than occasional, a general-purpose program usually isn’t the right fit. That’s why dedicated programs exist for these populations: a first responder assistance program (FRAP) and a healthcare assistance program (HAP), built around clinicians who understand repeated trauma, and around proactive check-ins that catch strain early instead of waiting for the next incident. 

About MYgroup

For nearly 40 years, MYgroup has been a long-term people partner to organizations navigating the full range of workforce challenges, from everyday stressors to critical moments. Our continuum of care combines traditional EAP services with hands-on case management, strong in-person and virtual access to care, proactive account management, and organizational consulting.

MYgroup offers five people assistance programs: employee assistance program (EAP), student assistance program (SAP), first responder assistance program (FRAP), member assistance program (MAP), and healthcare assistance program (HAP). Members have 24/7/365 access to licensed clinicians and a network of 55,000+ providers across 200+ countries.

Endorsed by the Employee Assistance Professionals Association, MYgroup delivers a 92% overall participant satisfaction rate.

If something has happened at your workplace, call 800.633.3353. We’ll pick up.

And if you’d rather be ready before it does, request a consultation.