New Zealand's recent slew of earthquakes, cyclones, and floods have brought the issue of the adequacy of emergency response measures to the forefront of public debate.

Kiwi employee communications software company Snapcomms has responded to the challenge by launching a new feature designed for emergency situations in the workplace.

SnapComms Panic Button enables first-at-the-scene employees to send a pre-configured emergency alert straight to the mobile phones and desktops of colleagues, as well as large display screens in communal areas.

“Organizations are increasingly conscious of their responsibilities to staff in emergency situations,” SnapComms CEO Sarah Perry says.

“They need to minimise the risk, should the worst happen.

Use-case scenarios include a severe weather warning; a wide-scale medical emergency; a suspected terrorist threat; an active shooter on site; a natural disaster; a fire; or any other time of duress.

The Panic Button emergency alert overrides all other applications in use at the time.

It displays fully across a screen's real estate, greatly increasing the chance of employees immediately seeing the alert at a time when every second counts.

For additional impact, the emergency alert can include an audio notification.

Customer demand led to SnapComms developing Panic Button, Perry says.

One of the features of SnapComms Panic Button is real-time reporting.

This provides critical metrics such as delivery and receipt of emergency alerts, highlighting which staff have (and have not) seen the message.

Panic Button also eliminates a step that most other emergency notification systems still insist upon: the official internal publishing process.

In other words, first-at-the-scene staff are empowered to broadcast a pre-configured alert without delay - and without having to spend time trying to track down the person who normally publishes internal communications content.