According to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the 95/5 Rule for Public Information Officers (PIO) refers to the percentage of time a PIO is actively handling crisis communications (5%) versus the day-to-day communications efforts they should be engaged in on behalf of their agency or department (95%).
“The 95/5 concept relates to non-emergency and emergency PIO activities – 95% of most PIOs’ work is in non-emergency times, with only 5% directly related to incident response or recovery. The activities a PIO chooses in non-emergency times (95%) has a significant impact on how successful he or she will be in the 5% spent in emergency response and recovery,” according to FEMA.
So what are some examples of work PIOs can be doing 95% of the time, when crises are not ongoing?
- Promoting positive news stories about your agency
- New hires
- Promotions
- Training
- Academy graduates
- Work in the community
- Grants
- Fundraising efforts
- Highlighting employees and staff
- Implementing new programs
- Participating in community events
To learn about more ways you can proactively spend your time, sign up for our upcoming training classes for PIOs: https://jgpracademy.com/live-courses/