While most employers already have critical incident response plans in place for their U.S.-based operations, they're not nearly as common at other global locations; however, they're an important component when it comes to providing employees with the help they need, says Dave Levine, senior vice president of PPC Worldwide, Optum Health's global employee assistance program.

To provide an effective critical incident response plan, there are a certain principles that should be included. Communication should be delivered in the same language that employees speak, and assistance should be available 24 hours a day, Levine says. Local management also needs to be involved. While a centralized corporate location may offer virtual support, there must be people in place who are trained to lead employees through whatever  disaster may occur at a local level.

"Management needs to be engaged," Levine says. "If they have a crisis and management knows nothing about who to contact, what number to call or email address to write, or if they're not even briefed and on board with this in the first place, that's going to trickle down and no help will likely be rendered."