Het Business Continuity Institute (BCI) heeft in samenwerking met Everbridge voor het derde jaar op rij een onderzoeksrapport uitgebracht over crisiscommunicatie. Dit rapport is hier gratis te downloaden.

Het onderzoeksrapport ‘Emergency Communications Report 2016’ bevat de volgende conclusies:

1. Business continuity teams are required more than ever in delivering effective emergency communications plans. Business continuity professionals are taking a more important role in implementing emergency communications. This affirms the necessity of business continuity in crisis and incident management. Nonetheless, with the greater uptake of emergency communications plans among different business areas, it is important for business continuity practitioners to involve their other counterparts and lead a unified response.
2. Global organizations should account for the entirety of their staff, at home and abroad. In a highly interconnected world, more employees are taking business trips to high risk countries, raising the need for emergency communications plans for geographically dispersed staff. While organizations usually prepare for on-site incidents, they should also account for staff travelling to other locations, especially less familiar ones.
3. Training, education and exercising are good ways to improve emergency communications plans. Many organizations still have gaps in training and education related to emergency communications plans which serve as a barrier to fully embed their capability. There are also gaps in exercising these plans. This might explain lower response levels during actual incidents.
4. Good crisis communications are key to staff safety especially with physical security incidents are on the rise. With increasing physical security challenges for organizations due to workplace violence or acts of terrorism, being able to communicate effectively with staff may increase safety. With practitioners prioritising the ability to locate and talk to staff in impacted facilities, future emergency communications solutions may have to focus on building this capability.
5. The human element of emergency communications has a significant role in its success. Lack of understanding from recipients is the top reason in failing to deliver effective emergency communications. There is a need for organizations to plan their messages and deliver these in a concise and sustained way to raise response levels and direct recipients to perform required actions that may save lives during an incident