An emergency mass notification system such as VIPER MASS can strengthen the emergency plan in schools and universities, but getting the most out of it depends on a few key factors that we review below.
WhatsApp groups, phone calls or written notices are not enough on their own if we want to alert students, parents, staff and faculty at a school or university about an emergency. The need for immediacy, combined with the particular needs of each of these groups, means these channels are not effective enough for a school safety plan.
That is why integrating an emergency mass notification system such as VIPER MASS, which makes it easy to send alerts to a large number of people simultaneously and instantly through email, push notifications, text messages and more, becomes so important. If a fire breaks out, for example, we can inform parents, teachers and security services while students are being told to evacuate.
This technology can enhance our institution’s reputation, build parents’ trust and keep students safe, as they are a highly vulnerable group in an emergency. But success will depend on consistency with the emergency plan and on how we make sure the plan stays up to date and aligned with the institution’s risks.
With that under control, the question is: what should we look for to evaluate how effective a mass notification system is?
3 factors to consider in an Emergency Mass Notification System
Accessibility:
The technology must allow us to send an alert from anywhere, not only from the campus. This matters in today’s remote-work context, since the people in charge of safety may not be on site when an incident happens.
On the receiving end, the system must be able to send the message to people who are not necessarily on site (parents, emergency personnel, authorities, etc.) and across multiple channels. In short, the alert must be addressed to a person, not a device, because it is not enough for it to be sent: we want it to be received and understood.
Messages:
And precisely so the message is understood, we must build our matrix with the most suitable wording for each scenario and user. We don’t use the same message to alert a child about an earthquake drill as we would to alert a police officer about a terrorist attack. However, both must be simple and include an effective call to action.
Avoiding mistakes:
Following that logic, we are responsible for writing the messages and identifying all possible recipients and emergency scenarios, but the tool must let us load this information and keep it up to date at all times. If we consider it important, the system should let us classify the location of each classroom, incidents by severity, students with special needs and so on. This way, automation reduces human error and we can react faster.
In short, a mass notification system should always be user-centered, with the technology needed to support our emergency plan and the ability to keep improving continuously.
And VIPER MASS meets all of these requirements.