Severe weather events (hurricanes, tornadoes, etc.) are by far the leading concern of US decision makers responsible for business continuity, IT and disaster recovery according to the first annual OnSolve Crisis Communications & Emergency Notification Survey. The OnSolve survey, conducted by research firm DRG, also finds that organizations are concerned with their ability to alert workforces to cyber security attacks rapidly enough to mitigate financial and operational risk.
DRG surveyed almost 500 US emergency decision makers on their emergency response concerns, and how they are using emergency mass notification systems (EMNS) to reach employees, partners and stakeholders before, during and after emergency events.
Key survey findings include:
- 63 percent of organizations are currently using an EMNS;
- 47 percent of decision makers said severe and extreme weather events are their leading concern when it comes to emergency communications and response - outpacing other events such as active shooters (23 percent), cyber security attacks (13 percent), IT outages (10 percent) and workplace violence (6 percent).
- When asked which cybersecurity threats concern them when it comes to rapidly notifying the workforce, 64 percent said malware, 63 percent said ransomware, 59 percent indicated phishing, 50 percent pointed to email being compromised, 32 percent said rogue software.
- More than one-quarter (28 percent) of organizations said their primary challenge with workforce notifications is reaching geographically-dispersed employees spread across multiple locations in the US and abroad.
- More than one-fifth (22 percent) of those surveyed said having up-to-date employee contact info is their primary concern with emergency workforce notifications; yet only 28 percent are 'very confident' their employee contact info is up-to-date.
- For organizations using an EMNS to notify the workforce of cyber security and/or business continuity incidents, 77 percent use email, 50 percent use text messaging, 43 percent use phone calls, 14 percent use desktop alerts, and 13 percent use a mobile app.
- 22 percent of decision makers said two-way communication was the most important EMNS feature, followed by integration with other applications such as CRM and business continuity tools (20 percent), reporting (16 percent), geographical tracking (15 percent), mobile app (13 percent), polling (7 percent) and conference bridge (5 percent).
To view the full report, download a copy here (registration required).
