Emergency Notification Systems and Crisis Communication – Blog

Times like these can leave you speechless.  As much as you plan for emergency situations, there is still an element of surprise when something happens that you've never experienced before in your lifetime.  Pandemic communications templates will enable you to plan for continued emergency notifications during and after the coronavirus crisis, as well as help you to strategically prepare for future events.  Emergency preparedness ensures quick and reliable execution when the time comes.

The government and the World Health Organization (WHO) are working to communicate the measures we should take to contain the coronavirus, but schools and organizations must also take these steps.  The pandemic will be a test of your emergency communications processes and systems.  Are you up for the challenge?  

When implementing your critical communication platform, the importance of carefully considering your use cases cannot be understated. Not all alerts are of equal value to all people. Consult stakeholders, existing response plans, and other areas of the organization. Document the critical event and what the response should be. 

Sending text emergency notifications to the population you are responsible for has become the default minimum standard for timely warnings. However, just sending text messages to your people during an emergency is not enough. Although the majority of people will have their mobile phones on their person, you can’t count on that one endpoint as the only means of notifying them in the case of an emergency.

The Fall Semester is underway and the buzz of back-to-school around campus has calmed down a little bit. Students and staff are more comfortable and familiar with their schedules and the campus layout. You and your Crisis Communications Team have reviewed your emergency communication plan - as well as held tests and exercises with the entire campus - and feel confident about your emergency plan. However, practicing and revisiting your emergency plan in alignment with your emergency notification system gives you the opportunity to see what tweaks or revisions you should make to your plans.

Immediately initiating your organization’s emergency response plans’ predefined series of notifications is essential in getting people to safety and minimizing the impacts of emergency situations. The reliability, speed, and accuracy of information are vital components in determining the effectiveness of emergency response. Crises like an unplanned outage, active shooter, or inclement weather all require the dissemination of accurate information at a moment’s notice.