Urgent statement: how to notify the entire staff

This is an automatic translation of the Spanish original and may contain errors. Read the original in Spanish

An urgent warning works when it says what happens, where, what to do, until when, when there will be news and from what channel, and when it comes out on the channel that comes first to each person. This article is for anyone in Human Resources, internal communication or management of a medium or large company who has to warn staff of a closure, court or incident. If what you're looking for is the building's evacuation plan, that's up to your security officer and your country's civil protection agencies.

What should an urgent notice say?

Six data, in this order, so that the first lines already tell who it affects and what to do:

1. What's going on. A fact in a phrase: "Santiago's office is closed today by a temporary alert."
2. Where. What a seat, what a floor, what a turn or what equipment it affects. Those who are not affected must be able to take a look at it.
3. What to do. A concrete and short instruction: do not go, evade the northern exit, work from home.
4. Until when. An hour or a specific moment. "Until further notice" is only admitted if you don't know more, and then say it.
5. When will be the next news. An hour, even if the news is "we're still without information." Without that hour, people ask again or they report on the other side.
6. From what channel. Where the updates will be published, so that staff know where to look and do not trust reshipments.

Several of these pieces appear in the US CDC crisis communication guide. United States: your radiation emergency guide, you have to say what is known and what is not, the action messages must be short and easy to remember, and people need a reliable place to return to as the situation evolves. The guide deals with a public health emergency, and here it is applied by analogy to a company notice.

Open with the fact and the instruction, leave the context for later and don't silence what you don't know. To say "we still don't know if tomorrow opens, we confirm it at 18: 00" is better than not to say anything.

What channel to use as it takes to get there?

Choose the channel as it takes to reach each person at the time of the incident. A person inside the building, one on the train and one on night shift receive by different means.

The Ready Business guide from the US government. United States. ask the emergency plan to identify how you will communicate with the management and staff during and after an emergency, and to decide how to warn the people in the building. It's an American guide. It is a practical reference here; what your country's legislation on emergency plans requires is not dealt with in this article and is clarified by your prevention officer or legal advice. The practical conclusion is twofold: each situation needs a channel for those inside and another for those outside, and it is appropriate to leave it written before the incident.

A notice on the fast channel and a notice on the registered channel are not excluded. An evacuation is warned by alarm and megaphony, and the announcement comes later, for who is out and to leave in writing what was said.

How do you solve it? WorkSail Team?

For the warning to anyone who's not in the building, WorkSail Team publishes an official announcement with the emergency mark. The ad is posted on the wall and the urgent also comes out by mail, even if the person has deactivated his notices. So the notice also goes to the corporate mail of the person who had silenced the notifications, without you having to hand it back. You see, it still depends on me opening the mail.

Three more functions serve in this context:

• Reading report per person. After publishing, you see who read it and who didn't, and the list of earrings tells you who to call. It is a reading signal, and from that it is not clear that the person understood the instruction.
• Translation on demand. Each person can order the text in English or Spanish. Today are the two languages available, so if your staff speaks others, the notice in those languages is written by you.
• Install application on the mobile. Whoever has the application installed opens it from the phone, without going through the post computer.

The limits are concrete. Access is by a link sent to corporate mail, so WorkSail Team it means that each person has mail and connection at that time. For plant or shift staff without mail, the notice needs another channel, and your plan should say which. These channels are compared in how to communicate to workers who do not have corporate mail.

How do you prove that the notice came and what do you do with the unresponsive?

The reading confirmation is a check of the notice, and it is not clear from it that the person is safe or understood. Use it to decide who to call, not to take the situation for granted.

1. Set the time to look at the list. In an emergency it is short, minutes and not hours, and you write it down in the notice itself ("we check who's missing at 9: 30").
2. Spread out who you didn't read from who you couldn't. Holiday, low, night shift or uncovered are different causes of not seeing it.
3. He insists on another channel and with one person. A second identical mass shipment comes to the one who already saw it. A call from your direct boss has more options to get to the missing.
4. Note who's unconfirmed. If the incident is an evacuation, send the count at the meeting point to set your evacuation plan, and the announcement complements it. OSHA's guide on emergency plans (USA) United States) plans to order specific people to inform the person who does not notice the alarm; applied to an announcement, the same criterion is for someone to take care of the person who does not read it.

To see in more detail what each reading method tests and what to do with the list of earrings, see how to know who read an internal ad. If a new procedure to be accepted by staff is published after the incident, the next step is request acceptance and register.

What follow-up and closing messages do you send later?

The first notice opens a compromise: the time of the following novelty. Fulfilling it is more important than having something new to say.

Follow up. Repeat the state in a sentence, which changed since the previous notice and the time of the next novelty. If nothing changed, say it. People who join the thread late must be able to understand the situation by reading only the last message.

Close. A closing notice says that the situation ended, since when it is returned to normal, what changes in the next few days (shifts, time recovery, access) and to whom to ask if there are doubts. Close the thread, so no one's still waiting for a new one that won't come.

Four drafting examples to adapt

It replaces what goes in square brackets. Each example is the first warning and follows the structure of six data. It reserves the mark of urgency for what it requires to act now; if you put it in everything, people learn to ignore it. For a planned closure, like that of an office for maintenance, there is a model of notice of closure or absence.

Climate closure

URGENT: [headquarters] closed today by [alert or temporary]. It affects all [headquarters] shifts. Don't go to the office: work from home if your post allows and tell your boss if you can't connect. The closure runs until [hour or "tomorrow at 8: 00"]. We will publish news at [time] on this same channel.

Court of supply

URGENT: [light or water] cut in [building and floor]. It affects [equipment or plants]. Save your work and follow the instructions of the security staff; the rest of the plants are still normal. Estimated replacement: [hour, or "no estimate yet"]. News at [hour] on this channel.

Evacuation of a building

URGENT: [building] evacuated. Follow your plant manager to the meeting point [place]. If you get this outside the building, don't come back until further notice. Tell your boss when you're at the meeting point. The next news will be at [time] on this channel.

In this case the announcement comes after the alarm and the instructions of the security personnel, who send on it.

System drop

URGENT: [system] fall from [hour]. It affects [areas or processes]. In the meantime, use [alternative procedure]. You work on it. Estimated recovery: [hour, or "no estimate yet"]. News at [hour] on this channel.

When is this not enough?

An internal notice, including that of WorkSail Team, does not replace the building alarm, the megaphony, the signposted exits and the evacuation plan. These systems do not depend on the person having a phone, connection or mail. The OSHA guide for emergency plans (EE. United States) describes the alarm as the usual means of reporting an emergency, suggests that they perceive its signal even blind or deaf people, and proposes, where not possible, that designated people warn the rest, in addition to considering a system of megaphony and auxiliary power for the alarm.

An application or mail notice depends on three things that may not occur in an emergency: that there is coverage, that the device is at hand and that the person has corporate mail and access. If your staff includes plant, work or shift staff without business mail, that staff will not receive the notice by this way and you need a channel of their own for those people. And if there is immediate physical risk, the notice is given by the alarm, by the plant manager or by direct call, before writing any ad.