The average life of a hurricane is nine days and it is most destructive during its first 12 hours onshore.
As you think about preparing your business for a hurricane, you want to keep organizational communication top of mind.
Doing so will help mitigate losses and improve safety outcomes.
Implement a Communications System
As organizations conceive their hurricane preparedness and response plans, it’s vital to business continuity and employee engagement that communications are concise and streamlined on all fronts.
Whether an organization needs to reach out to 10 people or 10,000, activating a quick, modern, and reliable communication system will help keep their people safe, informed, and prepared when the weather turns.
The right mass communication solution is an important piece of your hurricane communication plan.
It will allow you to check on your employees, let them know when they can return to work, and give them specific instructions regarding their job duties.
Choose one that is intuitive and easy-to-use for all users.
In today’s mobile world, making sure the system provides multi-channel and two-way communication is vital–particularly when power and cellular service may be disrupted in a hurricane.
Channels include:
- SMS text – perfect for quick communications
- Mobile app push notifications – ideal for notifications that don’t require a response
- Phone/voicemail – use for more detailed information with a callback number
- Email – optimal when there is a lot of information, links, or attachments
- Intranet – use Event Pages to keep incident-related information on one page
- Social media – Excellent for enabling employees to communicate with each other
- Custom channels – Fitting for organizations with non-traditional forms of communication
Being able to communicate across multiple channels simultaneously or individually ensures every employee receives the message on their preferred device, no matter what external forces are at play.
Deliverability rates increase, allowing end users to respond and react immediately per instructions.
Maintain Your Employee’s Contact Information
Communication is challenging when employee contact data is inaccurate or outdated.
A detailed hurricane communication plan will require that an organization gather, store, and update a large amount of contact data for those who will need to receive hurricane information.
It is imperative that each user’s name, email address, cell phone number, direct office number, and office location are maintained and updated with any changes.
There are multiple ways companies can ensure their communication system is updated with the correct data:
- Upload an up-to-date CSV file
- Manage/refresh your Active Directory sync
- Leverage an API to sync with your HR system
- Send a registration link to all of your people so they can update their own data
Inform the Right People at the Right Time
In the event of a hurricane, organizations need to quickly identify the right audience for their messages.
Hurricane communications should be sent to appropriate people or groups, including remote and lone workers, based on their proximity to the affected areas.
For example, if there is a hurricane in Miami, administrators need to ensure only employees in or around Miami receive these critical messages.
Administrators should take the time beforehand to group together individuals based on their office location to better deploy location-based notifications.
You can use grouping in many different scenarios, but leveraging location services during a hurricane is key to getting the relevant message to the right people quickly.
Subscribe to Sources
Sources are different media outlets and content producers that publish content relevant to your location and organizational operations.
Examples of sources include the Weather Channel, NOAA, the National Hurricane Center, and local news stations and authorities.
Identify the relevant sources to your business and subscribe to them year-round.
In particular, we recommend subscribing to sources that are specific to each of your company’s locations.
A modern mass communication system can organize these sources into a real-time news feed so you can monitor relevant updates and warnings, and proactively notify your team when necessary.
Have a Set Hurricane Communication Plan
According to FEMA, nearly 40 percent of small businesses that close due to hurricanes and other weather-related damage never reopen. No small business wants to be part of that statistic.
To avoid that worst-case-scenario, organizations need to prepare ahead of time for hurricane season.
A hurricane preparedness plan should be in place before a hurricane hits.
With a modern mass communications tool, organizations can get ahead of the storms and better execute their hurricane communication plan by:
- Distributing company expectations for crisis communications
- Providing guidance and instruction to employees
- Empowering those involved to communicate from anywhere at any time
Having a clear and organized plan will eliminate chaos and help keep people safe.
Create Event Pages and Notification Templates
During a critical event, there isn’t always time to determine which group should receive an event notification or what the message should say.
An event page acts as a central location where an organization can express need-to-know information and updates.
You can do this in real time, instead of sending multiple mass notifications.
Event templates enable organizations to add event details and upload resources to one web-page.
This event page becomes the hub for the most up-to-date information on the hurricane.
Instead of sending out a mass notification with each non-essential update, you can simply direct employees to the event page.
Helpful items to include on an event page include photos of office or location damages, available resources, escape and evacuation routes, facilities with gas and water, and information for after the hurricane (such as office re-openings).
As admins craft their event page(s) around hurricane season, it is important to also draft hurricane notification templates around all possible outcomes, so organizations are one click away from warning and advising their people.
In critical situations, organizations can then deploy immediate notifications that will elicit helpful responses.
Common types are:
- Surveys that encourage audience engagement by asking, “Are you okay?”
- Surveys around financial offerings
- One-way notifications updating current status
- Notifications with read confirmations and office closures, remote access, or power outages
Executing a Hurricane Communication Plan: Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center
As Hurricane Harvey approached the Texas coast in August 2017, many businesses started to scramble. Many did not have their hurricane communication plans in order.
Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center, though, knew they already had a plan.
For the past year, they had been developing a hurricane communication plan and testing it using AlertMedia, their mass communication system.
So, when Hurricane Harvey hit, they simply had to execute.
Maintaining business continuity throughout the hurricane was critically important for Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center.
Its headquarters in Houston serves the Texas Gulf Coast region as well as the Texas Medical Center, the largest medical center in the world, with timely deliveries of blood.
(Learn More. Courtesy of the The Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center and YouTube. Posted on Sep 27, 2017.)
There’s always a need for blood to hospitals who use blood products daily. But that need is never more pronounced than in the throes of a life-impacting crisis.
During Hurricane Harvey, the Blood Center’s services were more important than ever.
Their first step was to use AlertMedia’s conference call feature, to immediately connect key stakeholders to discuss necessary plans and procedures.
Then, the Blood Center used status updates to connect with and account for all their team members.
Based on their responses, they were able to coordinate scheduling, determine who had the all-clear to come into work, and identify who might need assistance.
Thanks to uninterrupted communications, the Blood Center was able to coordinate plans for continued blood delivery to hospitals.
They were also able to inform staff of canceled drives and when they’d reopen.
With facilities spanning the Gulf Coast Region, AlertMedia played a vital role in keeping the entire center operational during Hurricane Harvey.
Beyond helping the Blood Center navigate one of the costliest disasters in U.S. history, AlertMedia has proved to be an invaluable ongoing resource.
Crafting Your Plan
It can feel overwhelming to start a hurricane communication plan from scratch.
Start by finding modern a mass communication system that fits the needs of your organization.
Then upload communication templates and discuss with key stakeholders what procedures make the most sense for your company.
Even if you don’t plan out every contingency, having templates ready, along with a general plan, will go a long way when a hurricane does threaten business continuity.
Hurricanes bring a lot of uncertainty to the table.
You can have peace of mind, however, knowing you have a hurricane communication plan that can be activated at a moment’s notice.
(AlertMedia is one of the world’s fastest growing emergency communication software provider. Courtesy of Austin Chamber of Commerce and YouTube. Posted on Jul 3, 2018.)
Looking for help on crafting hurricane communications for your business?
AlertMedia has created a set of templates that will help you craft messaging for all phases of a hurricane. Click here to download now!
AlertMedia Takes Gold in 2018 ‘ASTORS’ Homeland Security Awards Program
AlertMedia
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Best Mass Notification System-Software
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AlertMedia Mass Notification Software
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*AlertMedia was also recognized in the 2017 ‘ASTORS’ Awards Program
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The Annual ‘ASTORS’ Awards Program is specifically designed to honor distinguished government and vendor solutions that deliver enhanced value, benefit and intelligence to end users in a variety of government, homeland security and public safety vertical markets.
The 2018 ‘ASTORS’ Awards Program drew an overwhelming response from industry leaders with a record high number of corporate and government nominations received, as well as record breaking ‘ASTORS’ Presentation Luncheon Attendees, with top firms trying to register for the exclusive high – end luncheon and networking opportunity – right up to the event kickoff on Wednesday afternoon, at the ISC East registration!
Over 130 distinguished guests representing National, State and Local Governments, and Industry Leading Corporate Firms, gathered from across North America, Europe and the Middle East to be honored among their peers in their respective fields which included:
Over 130 distinguished guests representing National, State and Local Governments, and Industry Leading Corporate Firms, gathered from across North America, Europe and the Middle East to be honored among their peers in their respective fields which included:
- The Department of Homeland Security
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The Annual ‘ASTORS’ Awards is the preeminent U.S. Homeland Security Awards Program highlighting the most cutting-edge and forward-thinking security solutions coming onto the market today, to ensure our readers have the information they need to stay ahead of the competition, and keep our Nation safe – one facility, street, and city at a time.
The 2019 ‘ASTORS’ Homeland Security Awards Program is Proudly Sponsored by ATI Systems, Attivo Networks, Automatic Systems, and Desktop Alert.
Nominations are now being accepted for the 2019 ‘ASTORS’ Homeland SecurityAwards at https://americansecuritytoday.com/ast-awards/.
2018 Champions Edition
See the 2018 ‘ASTORS’ Champions Edition – ‘Best Products of 2018 ‘ Year in Review’ for in-depth coverage of the outstanding products and services of firms receiving American Security Today’s 2018‘ASTORS’ Homeland Security Awards.’
Enter Today to Maximize Media Coverage of your Products and Services at Kickoff, and Get the Recognition Your Organization Deserves!
And be sure to Register Early for the 2019 ‘ASTORS’ Awards Presentation Luncheon at ISC East 2019 to ensure your place at this limited- space event!
