Introducing New Mobile App Features to Empower Anywhere Workers

As more Americans get vaccinated each day and the number of COVID-19 cases continues to drop across the U.S., we are slowly inching closer to post-pandemic life. With the reopening of sports stadiums, the familiar return of Hollywood movie premieres, relaxed safety requirements, and organizations welcoming employees back to the office, we’re once again experiencing many of the things we took for granted prior to March 2020.

Still, there are reminders that aspects of pre-pandemic life may never return to what they once were.

Already we’ve seen evidence the workplace will look markedly different for millions of employees even after all pandemic restrictions are lifted. Millions of employees are expected to continue working remotely a portion (or majority) of the time, and many companies have announced plans to permanently adopt a hybrid work model that supports both in-office and remote work.

While a hybrid work model gives employees more freedom and flexibility, it brings new challenges to employers who need to keep employees safe during critical events. For starters, regardless of where employees work, organizations still have a duty of care—a legal and moral obligation to protect employees from unnecessary risk of harm when working or traveling on their behalf. In a recent survey of AlertMedia customers, 71% agree that a company’s responsibility to keep employees safe is extended to homes in a remote working environment.

But fulfilling that obligation becomes more complex when you have to track and identify potential threats to your workforce across numerous locations.

Even if employers don’t fully adopt a hybrid work model, some form of remote work will become the norm for most companies, and the workforce will witness other permanent changes, including the increase in use of mobile devices for work-related purposes. The same customer survey mentioned above found more than 90% of respondents indicated that mobile app capabilities for their emergency communication solution were somewhat or extremely important to their organizations. This is aligned with the general shift towards text and mobile notifications being the preferred method of communication for most individuals, with other channels falling short in terms of visibility.

To help organizations usher in the future of work after COVID-19 and adopt new applications for smartphone technology, AlertMedia is excited to announce the release of several new mobile app features designed for mobile and remote workers.

Introducing AlertMedia’s New Mobile Features for Anywhere Workers

Today’s distributed work environment requires a more connected workforce to keep employees safe and productive, wherever they are. At AlertMedia, we’ve always been mindful of remote worker safety, and we regularly release new capabilities and features that help our customers protect their employees—even when they’re away from the office. Industries like healthcare, manufacturing, retail, and real estate have long been focused on overcoming the safety and communication challenges the remote and distributed workforce presents.

Now, employees will receive the same care and protection with the ability to directly manage their safety and make more informed decisions about where to stay, where to work, and where to travel.

Fast, vetted threat intelligence on any device

There are countless incidents occurring every day around the world that present risks to personal safety and business operations. From severe weather events and natural disasters to supply chain disruptions, civil unrest, and local crime, organizations must stay constantly aware of threats occurring near their people, locations, and assets. For businesses, monitoring these incidents requires sifting through mountains of unstructured, open source intelligence (OSINT) information to find relevant insights, which can be overwhelming and time-consuming. It’s easy to get paralyzed by all the information out there.

With Global Threat Intelligence, AlertMedia customers cut through the noise and better monitor, identify, and respond to critical events happening near their people or any location of interest. Every day, our team of experienced analysts monitors hundreds of information sources to isolate the most relevant events and weed out misinformation. Within minutes, this information is verified and shared in real-time via our desktop and mobile apps to help business leaders make informed decisions about any incident with the potential to impact employees, locations, or company assets.

Now, employees can access that information too.

Real-time intelligence shares information about everything from environmental hazards, crime, demonstrations, and other potentially dangerous incidents in any geographic area, and automated alerts outline developing events taking place near their current locations.

With employees now distributed across hundreds—if not thousands—of home offices and remote locations instead of the relatively small number of corporate offices they would have occupied previously, it becomes critical that employers empower their people with tools to know what is going on around them and be connected to support systems wherever they are working. That way, they can avoid potentially dangerous situations and be more proactive about ensuring their personal safety.

24/7/365 safety context for on-the-go workers

Numerous industries evolved in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, but none more drastically than business travel. Yet experts believe we’re about to see a resurgence as borders reopen and restrictions lift. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) reported nearly 2 million people passed through airport security on the Friday before Memorial Day weekend, a new daily pandemic record, and airports around the country continue to break records for passenger travel.

Beyond business travel, more people may choose to work remotely outside of their homes. A recent column in The New Yorker argues more workplaces should embrace a new concept: work from near home where workers will seek out professional spaces outside their home offices. Airbnb seems to agree, recently announcing a new offering called “try a new city” where travelers can explore life in a new town for an extended period. The offering became available after the company found nearly a quarter of all Airbnb guest stays extended longer than 28 days in the first three months of 2021.

However, the continued blurring of our personal and professional lives invites more risk. As employees start to travel again, they may find themselves confronted with unfamiliar situations.

Through our partnership with GeoSure, the AlertMedia app now also offers employees granular, hyper-local safety information about any location—whether it be an upcoming business travel location, remote office, or any other unfamiliar environment. Data-driven safety scores exist for more than 65,000 cities, towns, and neighborhoods worldwide. Each score includes detailed information on seven critical categories: women’s safety, LGBTQ+ safety, daytime vs. nighttime safety, and more.

With GeoSure, employees will be more aware of the level of risk any location brings, and they’ll know when to take extra precautions in an unfamiliar location.

Take action faster with a self-service application

According to Berg Insight, the number of lone workers in North America and Europe is expected to reach 2.2 million by the end of 2023, and IDC predicts we’ll see 93.5 million mobile workers in the U.S. by 2024. Contractors, field workers, home health care nurses, social workers, realtors, property managers, and fleet drivers are just a few examples of what we’d consider lone or mobile workers—individuals who work by themselves without close or direct supervision. The rise of these workers poses new challenges for organizations that must keep their people safe, no matter where or how they work. After all, working alone brings with it unique safety and security risks.

Now available natively in our mobile app, AlertMedia’s Employee Safety Monitoring keeps lone and mobile workers safe in risky situations by empowering them to signal for help when needed quickly. Knowing who to contact in their organization can be challenging, and in some cases, dialing 911 may not be an easy option. Even if your employees do manage to call the police, they may not be composed enough to relay the correct information effectively. For these reasons, we wanted to make sure employees would have a simple and reliable way to signal for help should they find themselves in danger. By simply hitting a panic button within the AlertMedia mobile app, it will dispatch police to your employee’s exact location. Employers can alternatively choose to have these distress signals alert internal safety and security teams leveraging AlertMedia’s multichannel notifications.

Empowering a Safer, More Connected Workforce

The COVID-19 pandemic forced every organization to modernize and rethink its approach to employee safety. The acceleration of remote work and mobile-first technology is happening faster, and the impact continues to upend policies and protocols. AlertMedia’s mobile app ensures you’re prepared for whatever may come next and ensures your people will always be safe and productive by empowering them to play a more active role in their personal safety through situational awareness and a direct connection to support.

Learn more about how our mobile app is the key to safety for a modern workforce.