Category

Emergency Management

Jan 31 2019
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emergency preparedness communications

6 Best Practices for Building an Emergency Preparedness Communications Plan

By | Emergency Management

Everyone knows the old saying: failing to plan is planning to fail. Although it may be overused, when it comes to emergency preparedness, that quote is spot on. Having an emergency preparedness communications plan is critical if you want to keep your employees safe. As an organization, if a critical event arises, you must be able to respond immediately with confidence. You need a plan that puts you in a position to do that.

Emergency events can range from terrorist attacks to fires, snow storms to power outages, network cyber-attacks to tornadoes. You need an emergency communications plan that is versatile enough to apply to a wide variety of potential threats, while remaining detailed and clear. A well-thought-out, simple, step-by-step emergency communications plan—with room for flexibility—is a key asset in incident response and business resiliency management. Read More

Jan 29 2019
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NFPA 1600

NFPA 1600: What It Is and Why You Need It

By | Emergency Management

Now is a great time to take a fresh look at your organization’s emergency management program. You should be identifying opportunities for improvement and developing strategies to address them in 2019. But that’s easier said than done, right? After all, building a comprehensive emergency management plan that can be applied uniformly to prepare for and respond to the wide range of hazardous and potentially disruptive events organizations today face—from IT outages and severe weather to natural disasters and terrorism—is no small task. Read More

Jan 22 2019
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6 steps to an organized emergency

6 Steps to an “Organized” Emergency

By | Emergency Management

“Organized emergency” may seem like an oxymoron. Plenty of words come to mind when we think of emergencies, but “organized” is not typically one of them. For business emergencies, though, it is critical that they are as organized as possible. To accomplish this, though, you need to know what steps to follow in an emergency.

When you are prepared, even an emergency can be orchestrated well enough to avoid chaos. One of the first things we’re told in a crisis is not to panic. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what many people do. Just saying “Remain calm!” is not enough–you need to be able to execute your emergency plan with a level of precision and decisiveness that tells your people that they can trust you and your preparedness. Read More

Jan 16 2019
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avoiding workplace violence

How to Mitigate Workplace Violence

By | Emergency Management, Safety and Security

No business owner wants to think about a violent event happening at their workplace, but each year, more than 2 million American employees report having been a victim of various types of workplace violence. According the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 409 workers were fatally injured in work-related attacks in 2014. To put that into perspective, that’s about 16 percent of the 4,821 workplace fatalities from the same year. Read More

Jan 09 2019
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Be Prepared for Anything: The All Hazards Approach

By | Emergency Management

The worst time to think about emergency planning is when the threat of an emergency looms over your business. When that happens, no business owner is glad they pushed off emergency planning “to Q1” or the hazy future: “We’ll get to that later.”

A better way for businesses to prepare is with the “all hazards” approach to emergency planning. The all hazards approach is defined by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services as an “integrated approach to emergency preparedness planning that focuses on capacities and capabilities that are critical to preparedness for a full spectrum of emergencies or disasters.” Read More

Nov 28 2018
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winter safety tips for the workplace

5 Important Winter Workplace Safety Tips

By | Emergency Management

Some view winter weather as a welcome excused absence from work or school. Others must still find their way into the office. What they don’t want to encounter on their way are slick sidewalks, power outages, or the worst – inching your way through icy gridlock only to learn after they’ve battled the weather that the office is, in fact closed. “Sorry,” simply won’t suffice. Read More

Nov 19 2018
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Is Your Business Prepared for Winter? [Webinar Recap]

By | Emergency Management, Safety and Security

Last week AlertMedia, in coordination with Continuity Insights, sponsored a webinar on the winter hazards that businesses face and the things businesses should do to prepare and respond. AlertMedia’s VP of Sales, Peter Steinfeld, a 15-year industry veteran, joined Paul Yura, a meteorologist from the National Weather Service. Each contributed their insights and experience to educate a packed audience on how to improve their business readiness for the coming winter. Here’s a recap of some of the highlights: Read More

Sep 25 2018
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location data in emergency services (Photo by NESA by Makers on Unsplash)

The Importance of Using Location Data in Emergency Situations

By | Communications, Emergency Management

When a business’ administrators are communicating with their employees during a crisis, it’s important they have all the tools necessary to ensure quick, accurate, and easy transmission of alerts. One of the most powerful tools included in modern mass communication systems is location-based services, which include GPS tracking, map views, and functions like geofencing. Location is a primary factor in determining who is at risk in an emergency. So being able to receive and send that information is critical in a wide variety of events. Read More

Aug 27 2018
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Post-hurricane safety precautions

3 Post-Hurricane Safety Precautions for Facility Managers

By | Emergency Management, Safety and Security

When a hurricane strikes and everyone else is moving to higher ground, facilities managers are headed the other way—planning when they can return and assess the damage. Once the storm moves offshore or loses steam, they will likely be the first ones back to the office. No matter how well you’ve prepared your business for a hurricane, things will be chaotic. If you’re a facility manager, you need to be taking the correct post-hurricane safety precautions to ensure the property is ready for a safe re-entry so everyone can get back to work. Read More