Many organizations have implemented an emergency notification system to notify their people and most have an emergency action plan. Although this plan is helpful to an organization’s internal team, what about the direction for those receiving the mass alert? Just sending an alert via text message or email to your people is not enough.
Sending a mass alert during an emergency or critical incident is an essential step in emergency response, but also including instructions and guidance towards safety is crucial. It is a large assumption to trust your people to know what to do when an alarm sounds or when they receive the text alert about an unsafe situation.
As an example, a college campus in California was recently the victim of a bomb threat. The dorms were evacuated and students and visitors were taken to the stadium while the buildings were searched and cleared. Although an emergency notification was initiated about the threat, it was unclear to many students as to what they were supposed to do or where they were going when evacuated.
Over time, technology and regulations (Clery Act, OSHA, NFPA, etc.) have allowed and forced organizations to improve emergency response processes by integrating with multiple channels of communication and flexible information-sharing methods. Emergency notification systems, like Omnilert, allow organizations to not only send text and email messages, but also to automatically extend notifications to digital signs, desktop computers, websites, social media channels, radio stations, and more. Taking it a step further, you can share procedures and guidance resources with your people to assure their safety.
Further considerations can be read in the White Paper
