Business Continuity: How to Protect your Employees and Your Business with a Text-Notification System

After the last year, with the possibility of the pandemic easing, we believe office workers will return to their work places around the country in some fashion. Hybrid or not, the need for instant, safe and continuous communications between management and employees will become even more necessary than before.

Internal office communication might have been neglected or even forgotten during the pandemic and the resulting lockdown. During this time, when most employees have been working from home, communication between workers has been conducted almost entirely over the internet or through telephone systems.

On returning to the office, however, employees will be together in one building or one office complex once more. At the same time, they will be returning to an office in a world that offers more new threats, including those posed by the pandemic, than it did before.

In all these cases, the need for instant communication that includes business continuity alerts and employee text messages will become a vital necessity. Those messages can be delivered to reach employees immediately on their cell phones.

Potentially damaging circumstances

Among the occasions in which your business might need instant alerts in today’s turbulent world include:

Dangerous situations. You might need to issue warnings to employees and inform them of the action they need to take on potentially harmful situations in and around the office building. Such threats to your workers might include domestic terrorism, active shootings in progress in or near your building, or an active hostage situation. Those or other similar events might require that the building be evacuated immediately, that workers shelter in place, or that they gather at a certain place in the building. In almost all these cases, workers need to be notified instantly. There can be no delay.

Fire alerts. Alerts on a fire that might break out in part of the building and might be in danger of spreading need to be issued immediately to all employees on all floors. Warnings might also need to be issued on wildfires. Again, employees need to be informed immediately of action that they should take.

Weather warnings. You might need to warn staff of the approach of potentially damaging weather events, such as hurricanes or tornadoes, unexpected snow accumulation, and changes in schedule as a result of a weather emergency.

Pandemic notices. The pandemic might have been tamed, but the virus likely will still be around for some time to come. You will almost certainly need to use the system to keep employees informed during the COVID-19 vaccine rollout. Also, should a case be encountered in your building, you will need to notify employees of any action that would be required of them.

Reassurance. Incidents can occur, too, when you need to reassure employees. A disturbance in or around the building, for example, might be clearly visible to employees but pose no threat to them. You might need to assure them there is no need to panic and they should stay safely at their desks. The same is true of weather events. Employees might hear a tornado is headed their way. You might want to assure them it is not going to approach anywhere near your building, but you will let them know should conditions change. In the meantime, they can continue uninterrupted with their work without loss of productivity.

As always, the key in all these situations is effective, efficient, and immediate communication. Install a text notification service that provides such communication, and you can rest more easily knowing that a potentially serious problem is under control. You and your staff are protected.

Businesses that need the service

Businesses that require a service that delivers business continuity alerts and employee text messages generally are those with 50 employees or more. They include manufacturing companies, distribution outlets, and professional firms, such as those that specialize in law and accounting.

It is important that safety managers, facilities managers, and office managers should look at installing a secure, affordable and easy-to-use platform that offers group text alerts and notifications that will reach employees immediately. Such a service will also be appreciated by human resource personnel and technology staff in organizations and companies across the country.

It is good to install this type of service even before employees return to their offices after the easing of the pandemic-induced lockdowns. That way, the service will be available to them on their first day back in the office. You will be able to inform them shortly after they arrive on how the service works and what it means for them.

Points to consider

Here are the top three items you should take into account when selecting the best text notification system for your office.

• The system should be fast and in operation at all times. It should function in the event of a power outage, fire or any incident that could potentially otherwise disrupt communications. You should be able to deliver information on how workers should respond to the event no matter where they’re located in or outside the building.
• In emergencies that cover a wider area than the office building, the system should be capable of linking to a federal emergency preparedness platform that is capable of sending alerts to an unlimited number of people at the same time. The system also can serve during an emergency as a command center.
• The system should enable the delivery of text messages through multiple channels. It should identify those employees that are affected, where they are situated, and how they should act. You might need to send a message to a group of employees, or even an individual, and to send different messages to other groups or individuals. The system you choose should deliver the correct message to the correct user on every occasion.

Simplified Alerts offers this service to keep your employees safe. It provides everything you need, so you know you’ll be able to inform employees of important events. It is reliable, easy to use, and affordable.