March 9, 2015 Posted by Pocketstop in Pockestop News Social Share

These Emergency Preparedness Tips Will Get You Thinking

If you haven’t noticed a theme among many of our blog posts, I’ll fill you in, we like to talk a lot about emergency preparedness. It’s our mission, to give you the communication tools you need to help keep people safe during a crisis.

Recently, we had the opportunity to attend a crisis communication presentation hosted by the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC). Guest Speaker, Melissa Flynn, a PR and crisis communication expert, gave an impressive speech that we found to be aligned with our mission and goals in terms of emergency preparedness and what you can do to make your organization or property a safer place.

When I got back to the office, I started to jot down some simple ideas to help get people thinking about emergency preparedness and how easily an unexpected event can occur. Things really can and do happen out of the blue. Will you be ready for when they do?

• Most organizations’ emergency preparedness plans are for typical situations. However, they find themselves in a fog when something out of the ordinary occurs. Get your most creative people together and ask them to dream up some wild situations — you just never know what might happen.
• When an emergency occurs, it hits like a ton of bricks. Be able to easily implement crisis communication plans and emergency preparedness plans. It’s likely you will be distracted by what’s going on.
• Most people, including myself, has thought “it won’t happen to me” but it could. Did Dallas really think it was going to be the first city with an active case of Ebola? Probably not. And speaking of the Ebola crisis, check out how this recent healthcare scare is keeping hospitals in check.
• When power goes out on your block, have you ever successfully gotten ahold of someone at your utility company? Phone lines can and do get over-loaded causing your organization to appear unresponsive. As part of your emergency preparedness plan, put in place a back-up communication system, like RedFlag, that can help distribute information even without power.
• Sometimes when things start to go badly, we just want to curl up into a ball and wait until it’s all over. Don’t wait to communicate. Stay on stop of the situation before speculation spreads. And communicate to key stakeholders early. Keeping people informed will keep their worries at bay. Let them hear the news from you, first, before they hear it from the media, etc. Pro Tip: Only promise those thing that you know for sure can happen. If you don’t know, be honest. Stay positive, but try not to paint a rosy picture when the reality is the opposite.

Being prepared will help you fight the urge to lie down when something unexpected occurs. Emergency preparedness is a serious subject that every organization, no matter how large or small, needs to pay attention to.

For more tips and information on emergency preparedness, check out our preparedness planning page on our website here.

And as always, for more information about Pocketstop’s RedFlag Notification System or our other communication solutions, give us a call at 877-840-2444 or live chat with us today at www.pocketstop.com.

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