5 Tips to Creating a Successful Emergency Communication Plan
Posted on Tue, Oct 12, 2010
In light of some very tragic events in the last few years including school and hospital shootings, the topic of emergency communication or mass notification has been a hot button for most security directors and leaders. Many seem to believe that the silver-bullet to minimizing the impact of an emergency situation is technology. While technology is a key element, it’s not the only one. If you truly want to ensure the safety and security of your employees, clients, students and visitors in the event of a shooter scenario, natural disaster or other emergency, even the most advanced technology is no substitute for a well planed, well executed response. So here are 5 tips to help you create your own emergency communication plan.
1. Define "Emergency."
The first place that an emergency communication or notification plan fails is by not defining what constitutes an emergency. Pre-define what an emergency is and what types of emergencies are likely to face your organization. If you’re running a large university campus, you probably don’t want to use your emergency notification system in the event that a suspicious package is found on the grounds. However, if the National Weather Service notifies you of a tornado approaching your area, you’d better be able to get the word out fast telling students to either stay home or proceed to appropriate sheltered areas and wait out the storm.
By defining the types of scenarios you’re likely to encounter, you will be able to plan ahead to react to these events. By identifying what constitutes an emergency and what doesn’t, you can avoid desensitizing individuals to your messages by sending out lots of messages that just don’t apply to the person receiving them.
2. Have a backup plan in place.
“The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.” No matter how well you plan or what type of technology you use, something will always go wrong. If your plan relies on a key piece of technology, be sure that you build in a backup plan for what happens when that technology fails or is unavailable.
A perfect example of this is the situation that faced New Orleans’ Tulane University during Hurricane Katrina. Tulane’s emergency notification plan primarily relied on email and telephone communications to reach students. Unfortunately, during the hurricane, the campus lost email communication right away. To compound the problem, all telephone circuits in the area were jammed and mass telephone communication was impossible. The team had to scramble to find a solution to enact their plan without using their key pieces of technology. Having a backup plan in place would have saved critical time in this life-threatening situation.
3. Expect communication to fail.
Despite your best efforts, not all of your communication will be received on time, if at all. Some individuals will respond to phone messages, others to email, still others to SMS (text messaging) or online messaging. Inevitably some of your communication will fail to reach your target audience in time.
This problem can be overcome by using a multi-layered communication approach. If your approach relies on calling your audience with a pre-recorded message or using a phone tree, your message will fail to reach those individuals who either aren’t near a phone or do not hear the phone ring. If you rely on email, what will happen if your audience isn’t near their computer? By focusing on multiple methods of communication, the chance of one of those messages getting through to a specific individual is much greater.
Let’s go back to Tulane University. While the team scrambled to recreate the email notification system and voice calls or voice mails were impossible to get through the phone system, the area’s mobile phone infrastructure was still capable of delivering SMS messages. Because the University delivered its message through multiple delivery methods, students were able to receive communications during this major emergency.
4. Make sure that everyone is aware of the plan.
What good is a plan if you don’t know what it is? The key to a successful emergency plan is to ensure that everyone involved knows their role in the plan and can access a documented version of the plan immediately should an emergency arise or if they need clarification or direction.
Beyond a formal, documented, easily accessible plan, the best way to ensure that everyone knows their roles and responsibilities during an emergency is by performing frequent drills. A yearly emergency drill is a great idea. Not only does it reinforce the plan in the minds of your staff, but it helps to identify any holes you have in your plan or any changes that might need to be made based on the changes to your environment over the year. Plus it’s a great chance to test your technology and be sure that it’s working.
But making sure that your staff is aware of what to do isn’t enough. You need to make sure everyone who will be affected by the emergency notification is aware of it. If you plan to send out email notification, be sure that your recipients know what email address the notification will come from (so they can add it to their safe-sender list and avoid it going to the junk mail box) and how they should react to such messages. If you are using a siren or audible alarm system, make sure those individuals who are visiting or using your facilities can identify what those alarms mean and what they are supposed to do when they go off. The more preparation you can give, the less panic and confusion you’ll have when an actual emergency occurs.
5. Prepare to abandon all your preparations.
No matter how well you plan or how broad your preparations are, at some point during an emergency you’ll need to react to unclear or limited information. You’ll need to make snap judgments and react quickly to an ever-changing environment. “No battle plan survives engagement with the enemy.” In this case, the enemy is your emergency.
In order to overcome this problem, you need to empower a leader: a single individual or small group of people who can make judgments, abandon the plan and react to the situation. This leader should be well versed in emergency situations, should be a strong leader within the organization, and should be able to react quickly and with the full authority of the organization. Make sure you indentify this person well in advance and ensure that everyone knows the “chain of command” in case of an emergency. Oh, and don’t forget to appoint a back-up leader in case this leader cannot perform his or her duties or is absent (see Tip #2).
As you develop your plan, you’ll see that there are plenty of technological marvels that can make communication easier, more affordable, and more successful. However, no technology can do the planning for you. No technology can prepare for failure. No technology can react like a true leader in order to get your organization through this emergency with the least amount of impact and loss of life or property. Relying solely on technology is a mistake. Proper planning is the key to a successful emergency notification or mass communication solution.
So here is a question for you: Do you have an emergency notification plan in place? If your answer is yes, then walk through your organization and ask the people you meet the same question. If they say no or I don’t know, chances are likely your plan isn’t as effective as you think it is.