Using Intranets in Emergency Management

Presented by Steve Davis

Principal, All Hands Consulting

Communicating During an Emergency

During an emergency, we need to communicate two basic types of information:

details on the situation live, needs to be generated “in real time”

procedures on what to do reference, should have been prepared long

in advance

Typical Approaches

“Real time” Face 2 Face Conference Calls Loudspeakers Voice mail E-mail Hallway Meetings

“Reference” Manuals Forms Contact lists Inventories File Server Intranet Internet

Wouldn’t it be great to combine the two?

Emergency Messaging SystemCan you get your staff the information they need during an emergency or crisis?

There's an emergency in your building. You use an announcement to put your staff on standby for evacuation. Employees wait at their desks, wondering what's going on, trying to remember what they're supposed to do for this evacuation scenario. They don’t know what they did with that emergency procedures leaflet that you sent everyone six months ago, after their last miserable performance on an evacuation drill.

What do staff need to know?

What is going on

What they need to do

Event status

Company procedures

Situation reports

Current information

Corporate response to the event

How do they find out now?

Print Announcements

Bulletin Boards

E-mail Messages

Intranet Surfing

Face-to-Face (Hallway – Elevator)

Rumors and Gossip

Staff Meetings

Printed Materials

Portable and flexible Does not rely on technology

But it’sSlow, expensive to produce and distribute Wastes paperEasy to overlook or ignore If updates are needed, must reproduce

Print: what people say…

"Our company newsletter is interesting, but by the time I get around to reading it, most of the stuff is out-of-date." "We find posters good for promoting the corporate values, but they are expensive to print and disseminate, and eventually people stop 'seeing' them.""We are trying to promote occupational health and safety without bombarding people with emails, so we use more "passive" means - cups, posters, pens, books, etc. We use striking designs to attract attention, but it's expensive and quite inflexible."

E-mail, Pros and ConsPros

cheap and timely easy to create and distribute most staff have skills can be forwarded with comments environmentally friendly targeted at subgroups hyperlinks and attachments can indicate priority

Conseasy to overuse - email overload easy to ignore requires action (file, delete)priority settings often not used by senderhigh potential to use staff time unproductively and create stress can clog up system resources

E-mail: what people say…

“I seem to spend hours every week going through messages which are totally irrelevant." "People don't act on the urgent messages because they can't find them amongst the junk." "If we send only one email about a new procedure it doesn't seem to have much impact; if we send it out multiple times they complain!" "Our network resources are running out because there are so many 'all staff' messages, and people don't delete unwanted messages."

Solving the Primary Communication Challenge

To be effective, internal communication needs multiple exposures.

We need to create continuous, low cost internal communication campaigns.You want to reduce the number of emails and print materials bombarding your staff, while increasing the effectiveness of your internal communications.

We are in the 21st Century

Staff connected through computer networks

Information stored on company intranets

We just need to expose staff to the information

"If only we knew what we know“ - COO, Dell

New Approaches in Using the Net

Push information Warnings Alerts Reminders

Pull information Plans Resources Intelligence

Training Drills Exercises Simulations

Documentation Plans Incident Logs Checklists

New Concepts in Intranet Usage

Sending pop-ups for warnings

Publishing to Screen savers

Sending alert messages that link to resource materials

Things You Can Share

Threat AssessmentsTip of the DayServer StatusPlanned OutagesVirus AlertsTraining Reminders

FormsTimelinesContact ListsInventories

Using the Intranet for MessagingAn integrated approach

Send instant messages as “Pop-Ups” to all or selected computers Interrupts whatever staff are doing Gives them “real-time” information

Include a link to material on the Intranet Link to evacuation plan while waiting for

the signal to go Updated Threat Assessments

Alert Features

Bypasses normal e-mail system useful in virus alert situations

Appears instantly on all computer screens

Can give multiple staff the ability to send messages (password protected)

Display who sent, and who authorized, the message credibility, minimizes risk of hoaxes

Alerting all employees - viruses

A new computer virus is discovered. Maybe it's already in your network. You need to tell your staff about it quickly: what it looks like, what to do, and most importantly, what not to do. You usually do all-staff communications via email, but chances are, some people will open infected messages before they read your email warning. Your best communication tool is compromised.

A safer way of dealing with viruses

Network alerts lets you send instant messages across the network without using the email system.

They pop up on everyone's screens, no matter what they’re doing, so there's no delay.

You can give people the vital information they need. And you can link it directly to an existing intranet page on virus procedures.

Intranet Pros and Cons

Great for reference material Can store lots of information Flexible in size, can have small to large documents Can be environmentally friendly (depending on whether people print)

But It’s Passive, not a "push" technology – we need to use another means to promote the contents of the Intranet

Intranet: what people say

"We put all this great resource information on our intranet, but people just don't know it's there."

"The search engine on our intranet is great, but if I don't know that something is there, I don't think to go searching for it."

"The company has just decided to promote what's on the intranet. I've seen a few pages of interest to me, but I'm sick of going through all the e-mails

A Better Way-Pushing Content

Turn every computer in your company into and emergency broadcast system. Use pop-up messaging.

Convert "dead" screen saver time into an internal advertising system. Every time the screen saver activates, your

staff will see important company messages.

How the Intranet can Deliver

PushReplaces "all staff" e-mails and print circularsSaves money Effective for messages which need repetition Timely or can be scheduled ahead of timeComplements static materialPromotes pages without being annoying Easy to highlight different areas at different times

When Do Staff See Messages?

During / after a phone call After going to see the boss After talking with a colleague After making a cup of tea

After a "comfort break"

After going to the printer

After going through their paper in-tray

After reading some papers

Are your other communications seen this many times?

Content

Company news pageTraining MaterialCompany strategy and direction Company mission & visionIndustry and project updates Human resources information People and recognition Safety guidelines

Promote your Intranet

Your intranet site is a great resource for your staff. But do they know what's there? How do you promote the content of your site to the people who should be using it? How do you remind them of the many tools and resources they can now access?

Internal Communication Tool

Raising awareness of new procedures

Creating cultural change

Promoting company vision and values

Reminding people of coming events.

Creating community at work

Employee of the month announcements…

Continuous Education

The Intranet can be used as a vehicle for creating a learning organization, by:

Reminding people of training schedules

Promoting the value of learning and continuous education

Providing knowledge and skills about working effectively

Plenty of Vendors

iManage WorkSite ePortal

PointCast

Agentware

BackWeb

InfoMagnet

Castanet

Smart Delivery

WebCast Pro

Centra

Miramba

SmartPage

Example - ePoster

Pop-ups

“Real-time” information– pops up over whatever is on your screen

Brings up Related Information

Contact Information

Steve Davis, Principal

All Hands ConsultingSteve@AllHandsConsulting.com

AllHandsConsulting.com

Presentation will be available at DavisLogic.com