Emergencies do not happen on a clock. They can happen at any time, anywhere, and the best solution is to be proactive. Having a complete crisis communications solution in place ensures that whatever situations may arise, you are as prepared. When preparing and formulating plans, a robust mass notification system is an integral component to help facilitate the flawless orchestration of emergency communications and response - from beginning to end.
Many of the benefits afforded by a mass notification system are ubiquitous across industries, but the best systems should be able to adapt to individual needs and challenges. Although each industry - and organization - is different, they often face the same challenges regarding the logistics of their system.
1. Situations to establish notifications, actions, and response
- You should prepare for every scenario that’s in your emergency alert & response plan.- Your mass notification system should be designed to make your emergency alert & response plan actionable.
- In the first few moments of an emergency, there’s no time to prepare a message and the subsequent response, so having it ready to launch when needed should be a requirement.
2. Information and guidance inclusion
- - Messages should be exact, concise, and time-tested to effectively keep you and those you care for safe, sound, and informed of urgent matters immediately.
- - Emergency procedures need to be clear and easy to follow.
- - If you want a consistent response, make sure your procedures have steps to take and identify stakeholders for each step.
3. Recipient and endpoint determination
- - It’s critical that you keep up to date contact or subscriber information to ensure that your emergency alerts are being received - whether it be via text or email.
- - The more ways you can alert someone to an emergency the better, but even more important is making sure their contact information is correct.
- - It’s a best practice to integrate your organization’s contact information database with your mass notification system to ensure accuracy and minimize errors.
- - Routinely provide an opportunity for verification, updates, and additions.
4. Alert and response initiation responsibility
- As emergencies can happen at any time of the day, a chain of command & communication should be established to identify who makes the call of when to send an alert.
- You need to train the team of experts who are prepared and able to launch an alert when necessary.
- - This team needs to be familiar with your emergency response & action plans
Addressing these four steps in preparing your mass notification system ensure your organization is prepared and confident in fulfilling its desire and obligation to keep their people safe.
Use these Emergency Notification Templates to get a jump start on reaching everyone, everywhere - no matter where they are - with the right information.
