At Crises control, we believe risk volumes and complexities are at their highest level in 12 years, increased by significant events tied to COVID-19, social unrest, recent elections, extremely low interest rates, and a host of other triggers. Recent realities are revealing a need for real change in how organisations oversee the constantly evolving risk landscape.
Make 2022 a year to remember – add emergency preparedness to your New Year’s resolutions to ensure that your organisation is ready for any critical situation. Here are some tips:
1. Launch an emergency preparedness and response plan – An emergency preparedness and response plan helps your organisation minimize its risk: keeping affected individuals informed throughout the lifecycle of an emergency is crucial.
2. Leverage multi-modal communications – Use multiple contact channels to keep people up-to-date in an emergency. Send messages to affected individuals through emails, push notifications, SMS, phone calls and desktop alerts, increasing the likelihood that the message will reach everyone.
3. Utilise social networks – Your organisation can monitor social media to improve its emergency response. People at the scene of an emergency frequently use mobile devices to share critical updates on Instagram and Twitter, and your organisation can track keywords and hashtags on these social networks to provide real-time information to affected individuals.
4. Promote the benefits of receiving emergency alerts – Launch an opt-in program to get people to sign up for emergency alerts. Explain how your organisation’s emergency notification program works, the sign-up process, and how enrolees can manage their contact preferences to boost your program’s enrolment levels.
5. Be flexible – Emergency preparedness and response efforts are ongoing. Review and update your emergency preparedness and response plan periodically to ensure that it meets your organisation’s needs.
If lessons from this year only inform decision-makers how to better prepare for the next pandemic—rather than enhancing risk processes, capabilities and culture—the world will be again planning for the last crisis rather than anticipating the next.
