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Linn County commissioners direct staff to expand employee notifications using Everbridge and collect contact details
Summary
After a lengthy discussion about gaps in employee communications, commissioners asked IT, emergency management and HR to compile employee contact lists and to use the county’s Everbridge/CivicReady systems for texts and emails; departments will pilot steps and report back next week.
Linn County commissioners directed county IT, emergency management and human resources staff to compile employee contact lists and expand use of the county’s mass-notification systems so that employees receive timely emails and text messages about operations, trainings and emergencies.
The discussion grew out of repeated complaints that employees and department heads were not reliably getting notices about closures, trainings and other county business. Commissioners and staff considered two notification platforms the county uses or has access to—Everbridge (a regional system provided through Homeland Security) and CivicReady/CivicPlus—and asked IT, emergency management and HR to work together on a plan to enroll employees and pilot text and email alerts.
Staff described options including providing county email accounts for employees who do not have them, using employees’ personal email addresses temporarily, and signing field staff up for Everbridge groups by department so messages can be targeted. Emergency management staff said Everbridge offers no-cost, regionally supplied functionality and can break contact lists down by department or geographic area; CivicReady was described as the county’s citizen-facing notification product. Commissioners raised training and onboarding needs for employees who receive email accounts and expressed interest in adding a brief employee sign-up or acknowledgement form to onboarding materials.
Commissioners asked for follow-up. Danielle (HR), Chris (IT) and emergency management staff were asked to coordinate: prepare a list of active employees and their current contact information, propose whether to assign county email accounts versus collecting personal emails, outline training steps and cost estimates for any new accounts, and return with an implementation plan and paperwork next week. Staff said the county could also use Everbridge to send texts and would break employees into groups by department so notifications can be targeted.
The commissioners did not adopt a formal policy at the meeting but directed staff to bring a concrete plan (including who will be required to enroll and a proposed timeline) back for consideration. That plan is to include options for department-by-department sign-ups, the onboarding packet language, and whether certain classes of employees (for example, crew operators) will be provided county accounts or asked to provide personal contact details for notifications.
