Workplace Violence: The Impact of Mass Notification Systems on Business Continuity and Your ROI
By Rachel Choppin, Marketing Specialist at Alertus Technologies
Violence in the workplace has become an epidemic. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, homicides accounted for 10 percent of all workplace fatalities in 2016. The Office of Victims of Crime Statistics reported that the number of mass shootings occurring in the past ten years is 2.4x greater than a decade prior (1998-2007). The frequency and severity of these events have escalated, with an average of 2 million people directly affected a year.
Businesses pay a heavy toll for these incidents. Lower & Associates stated that the comprehensive annual cost to business due to workplace violence is $130 billion compared to $36 billion in 1995. Whether it’s trouble recruiting, survivor guilt, employee departure, or leadership changes, all these factors affect business continuity after a traumatic workplace event.
In the aftermath of workplace violence, it has become abundantly clear that it is essential that businesses have the ability to communicate emergency alerts to their entire population, quickly and clearly. A Mass Notification Systems(MNS) should be a critical piece in your business continuity plan and your ROI for safety and security.
MNS for Business Continuity
Having the right MNS in conjunction with a solid business continuity plan is essential to the continued operation of your business while providing a platform for recovery after a disastrous event. Most organizations implement a mass notification for its ability to ensure the safety and security of its employees. MNS has the ability to send out alerts with messages to communicate when a crisis is over to staff and visitors to continue regular operations. Dispatchers also have the ability to analyze the response rates of each alert, alert history, and device acknowledgments and activations, among other features. All of these factors positively impact business continuity and your ROI by saving lives, time, and decreasing business downtime.
Key Benefits of MNS Include:
Cost Savings: Leverage your existing infrastructure and IT assets such as desktops, VoIP phones, digital signage, etc., to effectively deliver reliable, timely notifications to everyone, everywhere.
Efficient: The ability to send timely alerts to all endpoints, no matter their location at the push of a button is critical to saving lives.
Customizable: In an emergency situation, you need clear, calm, and consistent communications. You can do this by customizing your message templates or selecting specific delivery points through your MNS console. The ability to create preset, custom alerts and messages eliminates human error in the event of an emergency.
Real-Time Reporting: The right MNS enables dispatchers to monitor alert delivery and acknowledgment during the event, which substantially increases the effectiveness, visibility, and integrity of your system.
Learn more about the Alertus System Features & Capabilities
ROI in Relation to the Use of an MNS
Some companies might write off MNS as something that as needed in order to provide health and safety assurances to employees or as a tool for internal communication and not something that could increase revenue. The right mass notification system can integrate with your current communication strategies and provide you with multi-channel alerting, preset message templates, real-time analytics, and reporting.
Implementing an effective MNS means that your business can handle any disruption in your activities, whether it be crisis situations like workplace violence, natural disasters, or network failure. While these situations might be rare, MNS helps manage and mitigate damages inflicted on employees and business, and therefore improve business continuity and limit the financial damage you may experience.
The most important thing to remember is a mass notification system is meant to help mitigate the loss of life and improve communication during an emergency. When choosing the right MNS for your business, do your research. Look at your crisis communication plan and find a system that can be implemented efficiently, save you money, and can integrate with existing mass notification solutions you may have and leverage existing assets. Make sure to update your crisis communication plan so that they enhance the power of your MNS so that you can properly utilize its features and capabilities and to stay protected at all times.
Alertus Corporate Solutions
Alertus offers a wide array of additional notification solutions to facilitate comprehensive alerting, including the wall-mounted Alert Beacon®, LED marquee display, VoIP phone alerting, and mobile apps. These solutions effectively communicate emergency alerts throughout your organization to keep staff and visitors safe.
If you’re looking for free resources to help you or your organization better understand and facilitate emergency management, please visit the Alertus Resources.