Setting up the Staff Safe app involves a few required steps. Once this setup is complete, staff can discretely call for help by pressing a button on their Kontakt.io Smart Badge that activates an alert and sends notifications to responders with the staff's real-time location and alert details.
Prerequisites
To complete this setup, the following requirements are must be met.
Assigned user role: You are assigned to the Staff Safe Administrator role. For the advanced setup, you are also required to be assigned to the Company Settings Administrator role.
Infrastructure devices installed: This will vary by your deployment, but requires BLE to Wi-Fi gateways - either Kontakt.io Portal Lights or third-party BLE Access Points. Infrastructure devices also include the Portal Beam and Beam Mini.
Kontakt.io order claimed: The order is claimed in Kio Cloud Device Management.
Required setup steps
We recommend completing the tasks in the following order.
Step 1: Create Staff Roles and Staff Groups and Add Staff
- Staff Roles: A categorization of staff that commonly mirrors the types of roles or positions within your organization. Staff Roles apply to metrics, can be assigned to Alert Rules, and staff are required to be assigned to a Staff Role. Staff Roles are the Entity Types within Company Settings.
- Staff Groups (optional): An additional method to categorize staff. You can assign a Staff Group to an Alert Rule to define which staff the rule applies to.
- Staff: Each person within your organization that will wear a Kontakt.io Smart Badge must be added to Staff Safe. Staff are assigned to their Kontakt.io Smart Badge (tag), a Staff Role, and optionally a Staff Group. Staff will always be those that require the ability to activate a staff duress alert from their assigned Smart Badge. Staff will not have permissions to sign in to the Kio Cloud platform, which requires a User account.
Note: Staff Roles and Staff can also be created and managed from the Kio Cloud Company Settings app. Within Company Settings, Staff Roles are Entity Types and Staff are Entities. For first-time setup, Kontakt.io recommends use of the Company Settings app. Staff Groups are only managed from the Staff Safe app.
Learn how: Manage staff
Step 2: Create Alert Rules
An Alert Rule defines when an alert is activated by a Smart Badge button press event including the blue, red, or any button, who the alert applies that identifies the staff wearing badges, the location including one to multiple Campuses, Buildings, and Floors, and the alert notification recipients that identifies the responders. Based on your deployment, you may have one to multiple Alert Rules.
If your deployment includes sending alerts to a third-party system, you will also need to complete the Webhooks advanced setup.
Learn how: Manage Alert Rules
Step 3: Add Users
A user is someone that requires access to Staff Safe and the Kio Cloud platform. This includes those responsible for the Staff Safe setup and administration, who will be responding to staff alerts, and users that require access to metrics and analytics.
Learn how: Manage user access to Staff Safe
Step 4: Assign staff to their Kontakt.io Smart Badges
Each badge has a unique MAC address and Unique ID that is linked to the staff assigned to the badge.
Learn how: Assign badge to staff from Staff Safe
Step 5: Onboard responders
Responders are those responsible for responding to staff duress alerts. It's important for them to know how to respond to and manage staff duress alerts.
Learn how:
- Quick start guide for Staff Safe
- Respond to or resolve an active alert from the Simple View
- Kio Staff Safe Alerts mobile: Respond to and resolve active alerts
Step 6: Onboard staff wearing badges for staff duress alerts
It's important for staff to know how to activate an alert, how to properly wear a badge, and how it all works.
The Smart Badge button that activates an alert is dependent on your Alert Rules - that being either the blue, red, or either of the buttons.
Important: Badge-wearer education is essential to reliable Staff Safe alerting. Make sure every badge wearer knows exactly how to signal for help — including the number of button presses configured for your organization (the same for both buttons on a Smart Badge 3) — and give them hands-on practice during onboarding. A wearer who is unsure how to signal for help may not be able to call for help when it matters most.
Share the For Badge Wearers articles with staff who wear a badge — they cover why staff wear a badge, how to signal for help, how to wear each model, and common questions:
- About your Smart Badge and Staff Safe
- Guide to activate a staff duress alert
- Wearing a Smart Badge 3
- Wearing a Smart Badge 3 Mini
- Badge wearer FAQs
Advanced setup
This setup depends on your deployment and is completed from the Kio Cloud Company Settings app.
Company Settings: Room Management
If your deployment includes the automating the status of staff by their real-time room locations, you will also need to set up Room Management within Company Settings.
Complete the tasks in the following order.
| Task | Related article |
|---|---|
| Create Room Types | Room Type management |
| Match Smart Location rooms to their Room Type | Room Matching |
| Create Room Type rules by Entity Types (Staff Roles) | Room Type rules |
Company Settings: Webhooks
If your deployment includes sending alerts to a third-party system, this requires the set up of Webhooks.
Complete the tasks in the following order.
| Task | Related article |
|---|---|
| Create and configure Webhooks This task is commonly performed by your IT department or integration team. |
Webhook management |
| Assign Webhooks to Alert Rules This results in alerts being sent to the third-party system - configured within the Webhook. |
Assign Webhooks to Alert Rules |