The landscape for managing employee safety has changed considerably over the past few years, and organizations must be able to reach employees with critical information regardless if they are working remotely, in the office, or off-site. When disaster strikes, sending an emergency mass notification to personal devices such as mobile phones, laptops, PCs, and tablets is highly beneficial due to the speed and impactful nature of these messages.
In addition to traditional alerting methods, an integrated mass notification system (MNS) should provide customizable messaging templates for alerts to be sent through personal notification methods like SMS, mobile apps, social media platforms, cell broadcasts, and email. Further, multiple personal distribution methods can be bundled into one system to streamline the activation and delivery process.
When selecting a mass notification solution that is most suitable for your institution, consider choosing one that provides:
- Integration capabilities that leverage existing assets and unify all of your software systems under one platform for cohesiveness. Integrations with Slack, Microsoft Teams, Google Chat, IPAWS, and social media channels can extend communication coverage beyond traditional alerting approaches.
- Flexible activation methods, which ease the alerting process by starting with a single activation point that transmits custom alerts to targeted groups. Mobile activation, for example, is an essential part of an MNS, which allows authorized users to send critical alerts from anywhere.
- Two-way messaging that can help leadership monitor the status of employees with polling and tracking capabilities during and after emergencies, gathering essential information in real-time to improve decision-making.
- Incident management that allows each user to simply report, log, and track all incidents and knowledge within one central location.
- Dependability, so you can be assured that your alert will be delivered without issue during an emergency. We suggest selecting a provider with a Tier 1 SMS aggregator, which is a direct connection to the top four wireless carriers.
A variety of personal mass notification methods increases your communication reach and enables tailored messages to be sent directly to your intended audience. Integrating your entire traditional mass notification channels, such as public address and fire alarm systems, under one platform is key to saving time and improving efficiency during an emergency.
AlertAware is a comprehensive notification center that protects your institution from threats and communicates emergency action messages to those who need it most. If you are considering outfitting your organization with a mass notification system or would like to fill in the gaps in your current system, schedule a demo with us today.
Blog Written by Kara Stamets, Content Marketing Specialist