The material in today’s issue is adapted from BLR’s 10-Minute HR Trainer session, “Communicating in Emergencies.”
Supervisors such as yourself play a critical role in emergency communication with employees. In fact, communicating emergency information is a crucial part of your job. How effectively you communicate could make a big the difference to the safety of employees during an emergency.
Employees look for leadership in emergency situations. Supervisor communications will help:
- Prepare them for an emergency,
- Guide them during an emergency, and
- Assist them after the emergency.
A calm and decisive leader giving clear instructions during an emergency can help keep your people safe. When employees act swiftly and properly in response to emergencies thanks to your training and communication, they can help minimize injury and damage. Your communications and leadership after an emergency will help your employees and your organization recover more quickly.
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As a supervisor, you need to know the characteristics of effective emergency communication. Namely, emergency communications must be:
- Specific and must deal with one issue at a time. Explain concisely exactly what workers need to do and how to do it.
- Accurate, because misinformation can lead to casualties and damage.
- Clear and straightforward so that everyone can understand. Choose your words carefully and verify that employees understand you.
- Timely, since your people must get the information they need in time to respond effectively to the emergency.
- Reassuring, since many employees will be anxious. Work to get employees to focus on following the emergency actions they’ve been trained to take.
- Repeated so that everyone gets the message.
Choose the right communication channel. There are various options for communicating with employees during an emergency, ranging from direct communication within the workplace, to public address (PA) systems, to phone, e-mail, social media, and radio and television to reach employees outside the workplace during an emergency. Often a combination of methods will be most effective in reaching all workers—or at least the greatest number possible.
Your choice of communication method will likely depend on the content of the message, how widely your message needs to be circulated, access to particular communication channels, and how often the message needs to be repeated. Choose a method that reaches all the employees who need the information.
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Your communications must also be properly timed get the necessary information to employees when they need it, for as long as they need it. Communication channels in emergencies must be reliable, which can be a problem with power outages and downed phone lines.
Channels for emergency communication should also be selected based on effectiveness. A face-to-face or phone conversation, for example, is generally more effective than an e-mail or text message because your communication will have more impact and you will be able answer questions more quickly and easily.
In tomorrow’s Advisor, we’ll discuss communicating with management during emergencies as well as communicating after emergencies, and we’ll look at a dynamic, fast-paced resource that helps you train on dozens of key HR topics in 10 minutes flat.