As a business owner, you want to secure your investments – not just the business itself, but your properties and people as well. Knowing how important it is to have an emergency preparedness plan, you do your research and get the emergency alert system that you think will best serve your specific needs. However, getting the most updated notification tool is not all there is to emergency preparedness; you must also take action to get the best out of your emergency alert system.
Here are 12 points you must consider in using an emergency alert system:
1. Risk Analysis. In order to make a comprehensive, extensive and effective overall emergency plan, you must identify which factors can negatively …show more content…
Administrative Controls. Part of emergency planning is identifying the key people authorized to issue alerts. Make sure that the emergency alert system you choose has features that allow you to limit control to a certain group.
4. Types of Alerts. When will you be using the system, and for what situations? It is best to create alert messages ahead of time, so when disaster strikes, you can choose from the pre-written messages, tweak them if necessary and send them with one click.
5. Clear and Simple Messages. Emergencies call for clear and concise notifications, especially because you cannot afford confusion during times of disaster.
6. Alert Testing. Test your emergency alert system to get everyone used to how it works. After every drill, get feedback so you can see how successful the process is and see what improvements you can make.
7. Realistic Testing Times. You need to know how your employees would respond to alerts, so you must do real-world testing that can occur at any time of the day, no matter how busy everyone is. Since this can be annoying and inconvenient to your staff, make sure to inform everyone beforehand. You must, however, be careful not to test too often, or your people will stop responding to your