We hope emergencies never happen. With the increasing instances of violence in the workplace, environmental disasters, and terrorism, corporations are being challenged to minimize the associated impacts to operations and lives. Unfortunately, the reality is they will arise at any time. Preparing for potentially disastrous events cannot be left to an ad hoc management approach to risk. The question is how can organizations mitigate risk when they do arise?
The current problem.
Many organizations designate one individual to be the contact person for all emergencies. Although this can make things convenient, it also creates a communications choke point.
Furthermore, laws and regulations are pretty clear. Organizations have a responsibility to provide a place of employment which are free from recognized hazards that are causing or are likely to cause death or serious physical harm to people – and to provide warning for necessary emergency action as called for in the emergency action plan. In addition, organizations must now address the hazard of an aggressive intruder or active shooter who means to do harm to people in work settings. The term “people” is applicable to employees, contractors, tenants, visitors, and other stakeholders.
In addition to Federal, State, and Local legal and compliance requirements to ensure the safety of your employees and tenants – there are many other reasons for organizations to fulfill their risk management obligations
- - Provide peace of mind to stakeholders.
- - Allow the business to remain operational to reduce actual losses and lost opportunities.
- - Assure the survival of the organization.
- - Decrease exposure due to onsite visitors or minors.
- - Support the unsung safety heroes on the front lines.
- - Build a culture of safety and responsibility to increase constituent appreciation.
If there are never any crises or emergencies, the organization has still protected its brand, profitability, people, and the leadership team – and earned appreciation by proving that they have their people’s best interest and the organization’s future in mind. If there are issues, a organization’s return on investment will be measured in 10s of millions of dollars.
Having one person or even a small team responsible for manually initiating mandated emergency actions can be daunting and impose greater risk to the organization.
The solution.
These realities demand a comprehensive, purpose-built, crisis communications solution that removes the likelihood of human effort and automates rapid and effective response.
Much more than a traditional emergency notification system, Omnilert empowers the flawless orchestration of emergency communications & response – from beginning to end. Allowing an organization to align, capture, and activate their emergency response plans’ pre-defined series of unique actions to be initiated immediately.
With Omnilert Scenarios®, communication trees, response actions, and sequences are predetermined and automated – and can be initiated simultaneously when the unexpected occurs. Critical time isn’t lost figuring things out on the fly. Valuable communication links are established. As every crisis or emergency is unique, Omnilert provides the ability to pre-build a set of unique and detailed actions to initiate at a moment’s notice.
Organizations can now initiate any series of actions to notify, activate, and assemble their team within seconds – all while providing the documented procedures and guidance to follow. Response plans are captured in a sequence of pre-defined actions to be initiated in one step or even autonomously by tying in IP-enabled systems to trigger a scenario.
Lower risk.
Every organization needs and is required to have an emergency action and response plan to mitigate risk to people and to the organization. Omnilert adjusts the risk equation by enabling immediate and comprehensive response that is in alignment with an organization’s emergency response and action plan. As a result…
- - The number of people who can be affected can be reduced – thereby, reducing claims.
- - Those affected can receive immediate response assistance – thereby, reducing liability and claims exposure.
- - Organizations exceed mandated requirements – thereby, minimizing claims of negligence when the unthinkable does happen.
The potential risks are real and there are regulatory mandates in place; every organization must take precautionary steps to reduce or curb their risk. The investment in planning and implementing is minimal over time compared to the actual financial or nonfinancial risks an organization is imposing upon itself and its constituents by not doing anything.
