Overview
Emergency Notifications is a comprehensive solution designed to enhance workplace safety and streamline emergency response. This feature provides real-time occupancy data and facilitates rapid communication during emergencies. You can see a list of all employees and visitors on site, and send alerts across multiple channels in a few clicks, all from a single platform.
This article covers how to set up Emergency notifications. To learn how to send them, view our tutorial articles for Sending emergency notifications via mobile or web.
Note: Sending an emergency notification creates an active incident. When the situation is resolved, location and global admins can formally end the incident, locking the record for audit purposes.
Learn more in End Emergency Notification[Web & Mobile].
Benefits
On-site Awareness Precision: Knowing exactly who is in the building at any given time allows for more efficient evacuation procedures and ensures that no one is overlooked during an emergency. Because Envoy maintains a comprehensive list of employees, visitors, vendors, contractors, and traveling employees in the employee log, customers can more precisely notify the relevant parties without creating noise or panic among personnel working from home that day.
1-click Communication: The ability to send immediate alerts to all building occupants during emergencies or drills ensures that everyone is informed and aware of the situation. This can help prevent panic, reduce confusion, and ensure that everyone knows what to do and where to go, making emergency situations more manageable. Visitors and employees can also indicate whether they are safe or need help, providing admins and responders with current information on who requires assistance.
Compliance-Conscious Coordination with Emergency Responders: By providing emergency responders with live data, Envoy Emergency Notifications supports rescue efforts and ensures help is directed where it's most needed. Admins can even export notifications sent from the incident log if needed.
Tools consolidation: Envoy Emergency Notifications consolidates emergency preparedness into our all-in-one workplace platform, eliminating the need for multiple-point solutions.
Subscription Note
Workplace + Emergency notifications allows you to send emergency notifications to your employees only.
Legacy Workplace Premium Plus allows you to send emergency notifications only to your employees.
Visitors Enterprise allows you to send emergency notifications to your visitors only.
If you want to send emergency notifications to both your employees and visitors, you'll need to subscribe to both Workplace + Emergency notifications (or Legacy Workplace Premium Plus) and Visitors Enterprise.
Learn more here about our features and pricing.
Enabling Emergency Notifications
Before you can send emergency notifications using Envoy Mobile, this feature needs to be enabled on the web by a Global or Location admin.
Log in to the Envoy web dashboard.
Navigate to Communications > Settings.
Scroll down to Emergency Notification settings.
Toggle Allow admins to send emergency notifications to On.
Optional: You can Passively collect employee phone numbers by toggling this to On.
Delivery Methods
Effortlessly send multi-channel emergency notifications via SMS, email, push notifications, Slack, or Microsoft Teams.
SMS
Email
Push notifications
Slack
Microsoft Teams
SMS Prerequisite
Employees
For Envoy to send an employee an SMS emergency text notification, the user must have their mobile number listed in their Envoy profile in your employee directory. You can prompt employees to add their phone number by navigating to Communications > Settings and toggling Passively collect employee phone numbers to ON.
This adds a banner to the top of the Profile page, where employees can add their phone number by selecting Edit.
Video - Show employees how to add their phone number using Envoy Mobile.
We currently offer three methods for Admins to add a phone number:
Visitors
Your visitor sign-in flow must require that visitors provide their mobile number during registration. This will allow Envoy to send your visitor an SMS emergency notification during an emergency.
IMPORTANT:
You must use Envoy's default phone number field called Your Phone Number for emergency notifications.
Go to Visitors > Settings > Sign-in flow on the Envoy web dashboard.
Click Edit on the sign-in flow you need to update.
Under the Sign-in fields tab locate the field titled Your Phone Number and toggle it to be Required.
Make sure to hit the Save button at the top right.
If you do not have the phone number field added yet, select the Add field dropdown caret at the top.
Choose the Phone option, and this will add the Your Phone Number field to your flow.
Toggle it to be Required and click Save.
Email Prerequisite
To ensure that you receive our email emergency notifications, we recommend that you whitelist Envoy's email addresses and IP.
168.245.112.89
Notification Recipients
Emergency Notifications allow you to send emergency notices to:
Yourself.
All checked-in employees and visitors.
Employees and visitors with reservations/invites for the day at a specific location.
All employees in the directory for a specific location.
All employees in the directory with a specific location set as primary.
SCIM-based employee groups.
A custom group comprised of any employees and/or visitors.
Setting an Emergency Response Team
By setting an emergency response team, you can designate local contacts to receive notifications about incoming chats and alert responses. These contacts must also be either global or location admins.
Their contact information will also be listed under the call feature, along with the sender's information.
Tapping the listed phone number will dial it in your device's phone app.
If your location has an Emergency Response Team designated, "I need help" response notifications will only be sent to those designated admins, in addition to the sender.
For workplaces without an Emergency Response Team, all global and location admins will be notified, in addition to the sender.
Learn more about collecting responses with Emergency Notifications.
Setting up Threat Notifications
Admins can opt in to receive location-relevant alerts by setting up Threat Notifications. Learn more about Envoy's threat intelligence features.
To enable:
Navigate to Communications > Settings.
Scroll down to Threat Dashboard alerts. Click Edit.
Here, you'll see any active alerts. Click Add an alert.
Set the criteria for your alert:
Source: Currently only available for NWS
Threat type: Currently only available for weather
Threat Severity: The level of severity, determined by the source
Radius
Admin (Global or Location)
Delivery method: SMS, Push, Email
Click Save alert to complete setting up your alert.
Your alert will be added to your settings.
To make changes, click the
pencil.To delete the alert, click the
trash can.