How important notices work
The important notice add-on allows you to share critical notices in a timely and simple way, keeping your organization and those in your duty of care safe and secure. They can be used to acknowledge hazards before work commences or to notify of events during the day.
There are two types of important notices: acknowledgments and instant messages. An employee with the Administrator user role manages them.
Acknowledgment notices
Acknowledgment notices pop up during sign-in or out and must be acknowledged before the guest can proceed. They are used to notify people of temporary hazards or one-off events like fire drills.
Acknowledgment notices come with a number of configuration options. These options allow you to set when and who sees a notice:
- Audience - Define which audience, or combination of your audience, the notice is presented to (visitors, contractors, and/or employees).
- Published Dates - Set the period the notice will be published for. It will automatically archive at the end of the set period.
- Frequency - If the notice should be displayed every time or only once.
- When to display - Choose if the notice should display before sign in, during sign in or during sign out.
Acknowledgment notice responses default to 'acknowledge' and 'do not acknowledge'. You can customize it to the needs of your organization.
Further information can be requested when a notice is or is not acknowledged, this is helpful for reporting hazards or to provide further information about the guest’s response. If a user does not acknowledge a notice, you can notify the appropriate people.
Acknowledgments will display when signing in using a kiosk, Sign In/Out Manager, and the OnLocation mobile app.
Notice example:
Instant messages
Instant messages enable you to send one-off notifications. These notifications have a variety of uses from informing those on-site of an emergency to reminding employees about company policies.
Instant messages can be sent to employees, contractors, visitors, or any combination of these audiences and broken into subcategories based on signed-in status or groupings.
Sending an instant message is simple; enter a plain text message, set the sending method (mobile or email), set your audience, and send. Mobile notifications are sent by either SMS or push notification:
- If the recipient uses OnLocation Mobile, they will receive a free push notification.
- If they aren't using the app, the notification will be sent as an SMS, using credit from your SMS allocation. Messages do not have character limits, but one credit is used for every 160 characters, including the footer. For example, if your message has 180 characters, two SMS credits will be used to send the message.
Learn more about how SMS credits work.
Instant message examples:
| SMS | Push notification |
Get started using important notices
- Create an acknowledgment notice
- Create and send instant messages
- Responding to acknowledgment notices
- Receiving instant messages
Access reporting
Reporting is available for acknowledgment and instant message notices ensuring you have full visibility, including:
- Who has received an instant message or responded to an acknowledgment
- When the important notice was received or responded to
- How the important notice was received
These reports can be accessed by employees with the Reports Manager user role: