Pandemic outbreak causes panic, deaths, and billions of financial losses. In late December 2019, a new coronavirus, COVID-19 has been identified in the capital of China's Hubei province, Wuhan. The virus causes acute respiratory problems and spreads person-to-person. On 30 Jan 2020, the World Health Organization declared a global emergency over COVID-19 and it has already claimed more than 4,031 lives to date. Countries and companies are exercising quarantine exercises to stop the spread of the virus.

Preparedness & Dealing with Crisis
Companies which are prepared can activate their business continuity plans which include (but not limited to) getting their employees to measure their temperature and segregating their work force to work from home. For reported cases of employees being infected, offices get shut down for cleansing and employees get quarantined. Communications is key to ensure the employees get updates on their next course of actions and how they can resume operations.
 
When countries faced spikes in reported cases and deaths, panic ensues from rampant circulation of rumours through the social media and personal chat groups. Racing with time, the Business Continuity Managers not only have to monitor the situations, implement preventive measures and make decisions, they need to communicate with their employees fast.

 
Reliable Emergency Communications
Companies should rely on private and reliable channels to disseminate information to their employees.

​Manual call tree should be avoided as it is slow and messages get distorted when being passed verbally from one employee to another. An automated communication program that can reach out through various channels can help to disseminate information to employees within the shortest time.
 
RapidRecall helps companies to communicate quickly with automated notification and acknowledgement tracking on various communication channels. Companies can reach out to staff residing in multiple offices or homes to send advisory notices, update about the company’s decisions and receive confirmation that the staff has read the news.
 
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Standby, When? 

Always. A crisis may happen at any time.  

Standby, Why? 
The cost of a crisis is often beyond any price: 

• More than 70,000 people died due to natural disasters such as earthquakes, floods, volcanic eruptions, thunderstorms, drought, etc. in the last decade.
• More than 100,000 terror attacks were carried out around the world within the last ten years, taking lives of almost 200,000 people.
• The most recent case, terror attack on Christian Church and Hotels in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday took lives of more than 320 people and left 500 more injured.

Standby, How? 
 Revise your existing crisis communication plan: will you be able to alert everyone and provide the clear instructions immediately in case of a sudden emergency? Will you be able to ensure that everyone is aware of the situation and can take all necessary actions to protect their lives? 
Because disasters are tough and chaotic, clear communications during the response and recovery phases is paramount: 

1. Make sure your communication channel is reliable. Social media and peer-to-peer platforms are not the best choices to spread your message as they are susceptible to the spread of the fake news which create more panic, disorder and chaos. Also peer-to-peer messaging platforms are one of the first things to be shutdown by government during a crisis to prevent the fake news. 
2. Adopt a multi-channel strategy. Multi-channel  strategy increases the chance that your message will be seen on time. It also ensures that your message is delivered in case if one channel fails.
3. ​Consider all potential scenarios and prepare messages in advance. There is no time for planning and content creation during the crisis. Make sure your templates are ready so you just need to fill in variables when the time comes.
4. Make sure you will be able to monitor the response rate. Getting the immediate response as soon as possible allows you to act accordingly.  

 
When choosing technologies for the events where life is concerned, do not opt for average messengers but trust the specialist in the area. 
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Protect your people and your organisation with RapidRecall. Contact us today!

The increasing reports of terrorism attacks and sudden natural disasters in the media are harsh reminders of the ever-present threat that we face in the world today.

Although such emergencies are unpredictable by nature, it is possible for organizations to prepare for potential negative scenarios that might occur. This includes implementing a reliable crisis communication system that can be activated in an emergency situation to complement your business continuity plans.

During a crisis, it is critical that instructions to all stakeholders are communicated real-time to reinforce the overall decisions led by the management. Unfortunately, the importance of developing crisis management, emergency response, and business continuity plans is not always emphasized in organizations today, leading to detrimental consequences.

Following the chaos of the San Bernardino attacks, Los Angeles shut more than 1,000 public schools on 16 December 2015 over a threatened attack with bombs and assault rifles, sending hundreds of thousands of students home.

In the aftermath of the incident, it was reported that many students only learned of the closures from their friends via social media, resulting in complaints about the "lack of a timely district-wide emergency alert system". This highlights the importance of organizational preparedness and the need for real-time crisis notification to disseminate evacuation information or send periodic updates, in order to ensure accountability towards those involved.

From a business perspective, how can we improve on our evacuation plans and procedures to prevent such an incident from happening again?

According to Nielsen Research, the adoption rate for smartphones is three times that of social media, which makes mobile technology an ideal vehicle for enhancing crisis communication. However, implementing a broadcast SMS solution is simply not enough. In unforeseen circumstances whereby the SMS channel cannot function (eg. post-disaster network failures), an organization's business continuity plan will be jeopardized and rendered useless due to a lack of alternative channels to communicate with employees.

By 2016, the number of global smartphone users is estimated to reach 2.16 billion (eMarketer, December 2014). With the prevalence of smartphones, it is recommended that organizations equip themselves with a real-time crisis communication tool that is able to send messages through multi-channel communication modes such as SMS, push notification, email and voice call. This enhanced strategy aims to maximize outreach in the shortest possible time during an emergency activation.

In addition, it is recommended that organizations shift away from the concept of assembly areas and manual headcounts. In a bomb threat scenario, gathering large groups of people in an assembly area to account for their safety would not only be tedious, but also counter-productive as it creates an opportunity for terrorists to launch a massive attack in the vicinity, endangering even more lives.

Thus, in the best interests of all employees, organizations should implement virtual accounting. Employees can report their safety at real-time via the multi-channel communication modes and the system will automatically keep track of all responses to generate updated statistics for the management. The benefits of virtual accounting include a quicker response rate, accuracy of real-time data and the ability to view graphical reports that the management can take advantage of to make key decisions swiftly.

Nothing can prepare us for the human shock of events such as acts of terror or natural disasters. However, good Business Continuity Planning and a well-integrated crisis communication tool can prepare your organization to act quickly during a crisis and accelerate your disaster recovery.

About RapidRecall
Designed to empower your organization with a more efficient and reliable methodology of crisis communication, RapidRecall is a proven cloud-based business continuity management solution that can prepare you for the situations discussed above. With automated call tree technology, RapidRecall allows the flexibility to scale and notify thousands of personnel within the shortest time possible.