Emergency Employee Safety Check Automation
The Problem
Business Continuity team managed employee safety confirmation during emergency events like hurricanes and tornadoes. Manual workflow required team members to individually email each affected employee from an Excel contact list asking them to confirm safety, then manually track responses and follow up with supervisors for non-responders after 24 hours.
Crisis situations demanded fast, reliable communication but the manual process was time-intensive and error-prone during high-stress emergency response. No automated follow-up system existed for employees who didn't respond. Team member attempted to build Power Automate solution independently but got stuck in infinite loop with fundamentally broken flow logic.
The Solution
Rebuilt broken automation from scratch, then enhanced with proactive user experience improvements through three implementation phases. Phase one replaced infinite loop with clean flow architecture reading Excel employee contact list from SharePoint, iterating through employee records, sending templated safety check emails, and logging timestamps for audit trail.
Phase two added Teams chat trigger innovation a few hours after completing initial build. Instead of requiring team members to open Power Automate and manually click Run during emergencies, typing "SAFETY CHECK" in existing group chat instantly triggers automation. Capitalization requirement prevents accidental triggering while maintaining natural workflow integration during crisis response.
Phase three implemented elegant parallel flow architecture when 24-hour supervisor escalation requirement surfaced. Instead of extending original flow with delay logic creating long-running state problems, built second automation sharing same Teams trigger. Both flows run simultaneously when keyword detected. Flow one sends immediate employee emails. Flow two waits 24 hours, checks Excel for employees still on list (those who didn't click confirmation link), then emails supervisors with employee contact details enabling direct outreach.
Architecture
Two parallel Power Automate flows sharing Teams chat trigger. Flow one uses When a message is received in Teams trigger with conditional logic filtering for "SAFETY CHECK" keyword (capitalization required). Flow reads Excel employee contact list from SharePoint, loops through employee records, sends templated safety confirmation emails, and logs timestamps to Excel for audit trail. Flow two shares identical Teams trigger but includes 24-hour delay action before proceeding. After delay, flow reads Excel to identify remaining employees (those who did not click confirmation link removing them from list), then sends supervisor notification emails using supervisor email column with employee contact details for direct outreach. Both flows execute independently with no interdependencies. Excel confirmation link system updates spreadsheet when employees respond, enabling Flow two to process only non-responders.
Key Implementation Decisions
- •Complete rebuild over refactoring: Original flow logic too broken to salvage, clean rebuild faster and more reliable
- •Teams chat trigger over manual Power Automate execution: Natural workflow integration eliminates context switching during emergencies
- •Capitalization requirement for keyword: Prevents accidental triggering while maintaining easy memorability
- •Two parallel flows over single complex flow: Shared trigger with separate execution paths cleaner than delay logic within single flow
- •24-hour delay action over continuous checking: Simple delay step avoids long-running flow state and infinite loop risks
- •Excel confirmation link system: Employee click removes them from list, enabling automated non-responder identification
- •Cross-team collaboration approach: Proactively offered UX improvements beyond initial scope building trust and reputation
The Results
Quantifiable Outcomes
- ✓Replaced manual emergency email process entirely across Business Continuity team
- ✓Active production use for real crisis events (hurricanes, tornadoes, severe weather)
- ✓Natural workflow integration through Teams chat eliminates context switching during emergencies
- ✓Automated 24-hour supervisor escalation ensures no missed follow-ups
- ✓Two-flow architecture avoids infinite loop problems and long-running flow states
- ✓Cross-team collaboration built trust and established reputation as technical resource
- ✓Business Continuity leadership aware of contribution, led to future direct automation requests
- ✓Zero maintenance required since deployment, system continues running reliably
- ✓Scalable to any number of affected employees through Excel loop logic
- ✓Automated logging provides audit trail with email timestamps
Lessons Learned
- →Sometimes rebuilding from scratch beats refactoring broken logic: Original flow too broken to salvage, clean rebuild faster and more reliable
- →Proactive UX thinking improves adoption: Teams chat trigger idea came hours after completing initial scope, transformed usability during emergencies
- →Parallel flow architecture beats complex single-flow logic: Two simple flows with shared trigger cleaner than one flow with delay and conditional waiting
- →User experience matters during high-stress situations: Typing keyword in existing chat beats navigating Power Automate interface during crisis
- →Cross-team collaboration builds reputation: Helping colleague troubleshoot led to leadership awareness and future direct requests
- →Testing with real accounts validates end-to-end workflow: Test Excel file with actual email addresses caught formatting issues early