If you work in the hospitality industry, chances are good you’ve been hearing a lot of news and information related to the new panic button legislation. And as many of us understand this is a great move for the industry, it’s hard to be relaxed about a topic that has the word panic built into the name.

 

At Relay, we’re proud that our devices connect workers and empower them through the use of a panic button and a completely connected cellular network. Contact us to find out how to empower your staff through connectivity with a device that alerts anyone to potential danger.

 

Take the panic out of panic buttons:

If you stop to think about it, panic buttons are probably the best thing to happen to hotels and casinos in years, and here’s why.

1. It builds up your brand reputation: Inc reported that 69% of job seekers would reject a job offer from a company with a bad reputation. While legally all in the hospitality sector will eventually have to give panic buttons to specific employees — especially solo workers and housekeeping staff— some are still dragging their feet about the process. By being one of the first to outfit your staff with panic buttons, you show guests and even potential investors that you take the business of both safety and hospitality very seriously. In a sometimes gossipy industry, being one of the first to take safety concerns seriously gets you and your property talked about in the best way possible.
2. You’ll retain more employees: Training new staff can sometimes feel like a full-time job in itself. But what about training staff who then leave if they don’t feel safe or protected by their employers? By ensuring that your staff has new and working panic buttons, you’re letting them know that you’re invested in their safety and wellbeing. This automatically reminds them how important they are to your company overall.
3. Workers will be less distracted: On a practical level, a panic button allows hotel and casino staff to better pay attention to the work at hand. If someone is constantly looking for a way to contact management in case of an emergency, they probably won’t be able to work as efficiently or effectively. By giving them a panic button connected to a larger network, you’re handing them peace of mind as well. They can pay attention to the task at hand and know that if a guest behaves inappropriately, all they have to do is push a button and help is on the way.
4. You can shore up the safety on trouble spots: While no one wants to hear that their property is unsafe, the reality is that many workers are sexually harassed or worse on hotel property. By monitoring the activity on panic buttons, hotel safety staff can better understand if certain areas of the property are less safe, poorly lit or otherwise not as safe as the rest of the property.
5. You’ll better support your security staff: The reality of modern life is that emergencies happen and security staff needs to be constantly on high alert. Knowing that your entire team has rapid connectivity in the event of an emergency means that your security staff can better manage their own resources as needed.
6.  You’ll be more reassured about remote areas of the property: Most hotel management won’t admit how stressful it can be to fully monitor every single foot of the property. If your staff is fully outfitted with panic buttons operating on a secure network, they’ll be able to connect with anyone on the property if needed. While it won’t replace surveillance and security staff, it’s another way of empowering workers and keeping them safer.
7. You appear less vulnerable to potential mischief makers: Let’s face it, there are a lot of individuals who surveil properties in the hopes of finding and then later exploiting vulnerabilities. If your staff all have visible panic buttons, it sends a message to anyone looking to rob a property or sexually harass your staff that they will be immediately reported and hopefully caught. In this case the panic button speaks volumes without anyone saying a word.

 

The Relay difference:

If you’re ready to set up your own network of panic buttons, look no further than Relay. Our products are compliant, affordable, and efficient. Relay is an easy to deploy, flexible panic button. Best yet, it’s also an elevated communications solution, so you’re combining two critical line items into one (with better value). With Relay, you save money, setup is nonexistent, and our products offer hotel staff a practical, easy solution.

The hospitality industry is undergoing a lot of exciting changes as the  panic button legislation continues to roll out nationally. But along with the relief at having better protections for distanced staffers, come new challenges as well. After all, what good are these new panic buttons if your staff isn’t completely clear on best uses and practices? More than that, if your employees aren’t used to relying on technology on a daily basis, how can they be expected to automatically adapt to the idea of potentially using panic buttons as part of their daily routines?

Set training goals:

Before you move forward with training your staff create measurable and actionable goals to be shared as needed. Before your next meeting on the subject, try to address at least some of the following questions:

12 questions to cover before your staff trainings:

1. How much time do you plan on allocating to creation of employee safety training?
2. Will these be in-person training sessions, digital training or recorded sessions?
3. How many languages will you offer training in?
4. Who poses the greatest potential threat to employee safety?
5. How will you know if the training is successful?
6. Will you offer refresher courses at any point in the future?
7. How often will staff panic buttons be tested?
8. Will you offer actual drills to test out the new devices?
9.  Will you offer tiered learning programs, or will all staff members learn at the same time on the same level?
10. How will you address any glitches in your response time?
11. How will you keep a record of the times panic buttons are deployed?
12. Will you have local law enforcement involved in the training process?

Digital natives vs. less tech adept counterparts

Another potential glitch in the process depends on the age of your staff or at the least their comfort level in using technology. While digital natives might think of panic buttons as just another expected update in their work life, staffers who are newer to tech might have a hard time getting used to these new devices.

 

The Relay difference:

If you’re ready to set up your own network of panic buttons, look no further than Relay. Our products are compliant, affordable, and efficient. Relay is an easy to deploy, flexible panic button. Best yet, it’s also an elevated communications solution, so you’re combining two critical line items into one (with better value). With Relay, you save money, setup is nonexistent, and our products offer hotel staff a practical, easy solution.

 

Learning from students

The Afterschool Tech Toolkit is an online resource for empowering students and training them on how to access and use tech outside of the classroom.They created some training modules to help individuals and companies learn to train and support staff in the use of technology. While the module was theoretically geared toward students, it also offers very common sense wisdom and understanding including the idea of “building staff comfort and confidence” in using new technology.

Before distributing panic buttons to your staff, you can come up with informal training sessions or methods to increase ease of use.

• Increase their comfort level: Is there a way you can work with your own staff to build their comfort level in always keeping their panic buttons close at hand? What about easy to remember tricks to deploying the button only in an emergency? If you present the devices with confidence and build in the opportunity for initial glitches, you reassure your staff that it’s an ongoing process and that you’re all learning as you go.
• Make it fun if possible: Another challenge posed in the student training module was realizing that “It may feel exhausting for staff to focus on both their day-to-day responsibilities and learning new skills, apps, devices, and systems.” Is there a way to make the training more fun, or to gamify the process? It might sound weird, but timing the response of others or creating an informal marathon with actual prizes awarded might reinforce staffers to the value of learning how to properly use their new panic buttons.
• Explain the added benefits: The 2017 National Education Technology Plan raised an interesting idea of upskilling those you’re educating. If you are able to impart the message to your staff that by undergoing training they are simultaneously improving their safety while upgrading their own skillset, the training in itself becomes something worth paying attention to. Take it a step further, can you create some sort of interior documentation that has necessary steps completed along with a certificate of completion? While your informal certification is mostly decorative, it also gives employees a feeling of accomplishment along with a document to refer back to if needed.
• Acknowledge that lone workers might need completely different training: Lone worker safety is an issue that is often addressed in other industries, but that doesn’t mean the lessons aren’t universal for hotel or casino staff as well. Back in 2014, the site org — which deals with the spectrum of worker safety issues— explained some of the risks lone employees face that might not be automatically obvious to the rest of staffers or management. From working off-hours to dealing with medical conditions while somewhat isolated, lone workers including housekeeping staff have special needs that should be addressed thoughtfully in training as well.

At Relay, we’re proud that our devices connect workers and empower them through the use of a panic button and a completely connected cellular network. Contact us to find out how to empower your staff through connectivity with a device that alerts anyone to potential danger.

 

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