One in three organisations (32 per cent) surveyed for an Emergency Communication Report, published by the Business Continuity Institute (BCI), report their employees travel to ‘high risk’ countries.
The report, supported by communications and enterprise safety software firm Everbridge, did find that most organisations (84 percent) do have some form of plan in place, although of those that don’t, two thirds (64 percent) felt that only a business-affecting event would incentivise them to develop one.
Given concerns over workplace violence and acts of terrorism, as identified in the BCI’s latest Horizon Scan Report, being able to communicate with staff may have the added advantage of increasing safety, according to the institute.
For this and other BCI research reports visit the BCI website – http://www.thebci.org/index.php/resources/bci-research-reports.
Further findings from the report include
One third of organisations (32 percent) report that at least 100 employees travel internationally;
The top reasons for triggering emergency communications are: unplanned IT and telecommunications outages (42 percent), power outages (40 percent), adverse weather (39 percent), facilities management incidents (23 percent), cyber security incidents (22 percent), and natural disasters (22 percent);
The top processes used for emergency communications are: internal emails (79 percent), text messaging (70 percent), manual call trees (56 percent), emergency communication software (50 percent), and website announcements (46 percent);
More than half of organizations (55 percent) use three or more emergency communications processes;
Around three out of ten organisations (29 percent) do not have training and education around emergency comms;
Around seven out of ten organisations (69 percent) stated that their emergency communications plan had been activated during the last year, other than during an exercise;
A tenth (10 percent) take more than 60 minutes to activate their emergency communications plan;
More than six out of ten organisations (62 percent) are not confident about their preparedness for a location-specific security incident (eg. workplace violence, act of terrorism); and
More than a tenth (11 percent) do not feel they have top management support when it comes to developing emergency communications plans.
Patrick Alcantara DBCI, Senior Research Associate at the BCI and author of the report, said: “A robust emergency communications capability is a crucial, often life-saving, component of incident response. This becomes more important considering ever changing threats which often impact on the physical safety and well-being of employees and customers. This timely study affirms how organisations strive to improve their emergency communications capability, as well as look at opportunities to ensure reliable messaging and response.”
Imad Mouline, Chief Technology Officer at Everbridge, said: “This year’s findings indicate that global businesses are increasingly aware that true resiliency is a company-wide initiative that involves taking accountability for the safety of all staff—whether they are located in the office, at home or on the road. While it’s not surprising to see shared interest in emergency communications across business continuity, IT, security, facilities and other disciplines, it’s clear that organisations are still seeking solutions to optimise their response plans for a mobile workforce, and for the growing frequency and complexity of critical events and security incidents.”
Training, education and exercising are ways to improve emergency communications plans, yet many organisations still have gaps; also in exercising these plans, the report suggests.
The human element is significant, according to the report. Lack of understanding from recipients is the top reason in failing to deliver effective emergency communications.
About the survey
This report from an online survey featured 661 responses from 71 countries.
Business Continuity Awareness Week 2017 will run between Monday, May 15, and Friday 19.
