Who needs an Emergency Notification System?

In today’s modern working environment, IT and power outages can have a significant impact on every member of your staff, even indirectly.

As remote work becomes a staple in the workplace, the reliance on certain IT infrastructure has significantly increased. An issue with your VPN can now reduce productivity by 50% to 60%, compared to a time when only a few staff members would have been affected.

During an IT outage, the first thing that usually occurs is that affected staff members start contacting your IT support desk, severely hindering their ability to focus on resolving the actual issue. Swift and clear communication with everyone potentially affected not only helps alleviate frustration for the staff, but it also actively reduces the burden on your IT team and enables them to resolve the underlying incident more efficiently.

Depending on your location, weather-related incidents will mean something different –  from hurricanes and floods to heatwaves and deep freezes, these disruptions affect your day-to-day operations in diverse ways.

While your emergency alert system plays a crucial role in keeping your staff safe by providing essential information and safety precautions, it can also empower you to be proactive in managing such incidents. A good emergency notification service will allow you to poll your staff and gather critical information about who can safely make it to work, who can work from home, and who faces childcare challenges due to school closures.

Armed with this comprehensive and up-to-date data, you gain the ability to plan and allocate resources strategically. Once you know not just who is impacted, but exactly how they are impacted, you are in a much better position to keep your people safe, and minimise the impact on your day to day operations.

Cyber and data security threats pose an increasingly significant risk to organisations. Whether it is sensitive company information or valuable customer data, it is a valuable asset and should be treated as such. In the unfortunate event of a compromised corporate email system, relying solely on emails to inform your staff will not yield effective results. On the other hand, employing a multimodal approach – SMS text messages, voice calls, and emails to personal addresses – ensures that everyone is promptly informed and on the same page about actions they need to take.

The beauty of an external emergency notification service is that it functions independently from your own infrastructure, providing a safe and reliable means of communication even when you cannot fully trust your internal systems. Irrespective of the industry you operate in or the specific threats your organisation faces, effective and timely communication plays a crucial role in mitigating potential impacts.

A robust emergency notification system enables you to swiftly and consistently share vital information, while also collecting responses to determine the current position of all parties involved, helping you plan your next steps.