During times of crisis, business leaders will use several business continuity management methods to ensure the safety of their employees and minimize interruptions to daily operations. In some cases, it could be as simple as sending out an email about closing an office or as complex as needing to notify everyone near a terrorist attack or natural disaster. In those more extreme incidents, sending a one-way notification to a standard list is not enough. Business continuity professionals need to initiate two-way conversations based on traveling, remote, or mobile employees’ real-time location not a fixed or static one.

When an incident that threatens employee safety strikes, response teams need to quickly determine who is in the area and if they need help. Today, an administrator would need to send multiple alerts to employees to get their current status and location and sort through varied responses. Even so, the administrator only gets half the information he needs due to human error, delayed responses, and lack of mobile app adoption. This manual process will take some time to complete, which is not conducive to a business that’s already lost productive working hours. Fortunately, there is a new business continuity tool, geo-poll, that helps businesses collect the information they need from employees faster and more efficiently saving time and resources.

What is a geo-poll?

A geo-poll is a unique poll-based alerting feature within a mass notification system that allows you to solicit information and location data from a select group of recipients through SMS text, voice, and email.

Benefits of using a Geo-Poll for Business Continuity Management During a Crisis

Real-Time Location Data Without an App – Employees can answer a poll question via email or SMS text and can automatically share their real-time location.

More Accurate Employee Status Updates – Geo-polls solicit simple text-based responses, which are organized into simple and clear reports to allow business leaders to make informed decisions based on consistent data

Critical Shift Management – If an incident requires additional staff to respond on the ground or into headquarters, a geo-poll can show who is available to work and the poll will automatically close once enough staff have responded

Smarter Communication for Next Steps – Once a geo-poll is sent out and answers are received, automatic follow up alerts can be sent based on respondents’ responses outlining next steps to take

Not Limited to a Mobile App – Geo-polling allows business leaders to perform wellness checks through SMS text, voice, and email to all employees, not just those who have downloaded a mobile app

Accountability of Lone Workers – Understanding the status and communicating with your mobile workforce provides an added layer of protection for workers that might not know immediately about a crisis

Keep a Pulse on Employee Wellness at All Times

It is every employer’s responsibility to watch over their employees, regardless of whether they work in the office or remotely. Organizations do not need to rely on apps or static location data for real-time location of their staff or community members. Geo-polling allows customers to use mass notification systems to solicit information for easy analysis and action, all without respondents needing to open or access a mobile application.

Geo-polling enables employers to create custom question and answer polls, without being limited to confusing number-based responses or varying open-text answers. When you ask, “Are you ok”, employees can provide a simple “yes” or “no”. This tool helps to humanize business continuity and extends employers’ capabilities to keep their employees safe at all times.