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Safety Drill Management

Last updated on Apr 25, 2026

Regular safety drills are essential for emergency preparedness. KyberAccess provides a complete drill management system that lets you schedule, execute, and analyze evacuation drills — helping you measure your team's response time, identify bottlenecks, and improve performance over time.

Scheduling a Safety Drill

Plan drills in advance so your team and the system are prepared:

  1. Navigate to Safety > Drill Management from the main sidebar.
  2. Click Schedule New Drill in the top-right corner.
  3. Fill in the drill details:
    • Drill Type — Choose from Evacuation Drill, Lockdown Drill, Shelter-in-Place Drill, or Custom.
    • Date and Time — Select when the drill will take place.
    • Duration (Expected) — Set the target time for drill completion (e.g., 10 minutes).
    • Locations — Select which buildings, floors, or zones are included in the drill.
    • Rally Points — Choose which rally points to activate (pre-configured under Settings > Safety > Rally Points).
    • Drill Coordinator — Assign a staff member to lead the drill.
    • Notification Preference — Choose whether to notify staff in advance (Announced Drill) or keep it a surprise (Unannounced Drill).
  4. Click Schedule Drill.

The drill appears on the Drill Calendar and, if announced, notifications are sent to all affected hosts and administrators at the time you specify (e.g., 24 hours before, 1 hour before).

Recurring Drills

To schedule drills on a regular cadence:

  1. When creating a drill, toggle Make Recurring to on.
  2. Set the frequency: Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly, or Semi-Annually.
  3. Set the end date or choose No End Date for indefinite recurrence.
  4. Click Schedule Drill.

Each recurring instance appears individually on the Drill Calendar and can be modified independently if needed.

Running an Evacuation Drill

When it is time to begin the drill:

  1. Go to Safety > Drill Management and find the scheduled drill.
  2. Click Start Drill. The system will:
    • Start the drill timer automatically.
    • Activate the Drill Dashboard (similar to the Evacuation Dashboard but clearly marked as a drill with a blue banner instead of red).
    • Send drill notifications to all hosts and staff in the affected locations.
    • Display a drill notice on kiosk screens: "DRILL IN PROGRESS — This is a drill. Please follow evacuation procedures."
  3. As the drill progresses, rally point leaders mark people as accounted for using the same process as a real evacuation (see the Emergency Evacuation Mode article).
  4. Monitor the Drill Dashboard for real-time progress:
    • Total On-Site at drill start.
    • Accounted For count (updated as people are marked).
    • Unaccounted individuals with their last known location.
    • Elapsed Time displayed prominently.

Ending the Drill

  1. When all persons are accounted for (or the drill coordinator decides to conclude), click End Drill on the Drill Dashboard.
  2. The system records the total elapsed time and stops the timer.
  3. An All Clear — Drill Complete notification is sent to all participants.
  4. Kiosks return to normal check-in mode.

Tracking Drill Metrics

KyberAccess automatically captures key performance indicators for every drill:

Time to Evacuate

  • Total drill duration from start to the moment the last person was accounted for.
  • Time to first response — how quickly the first person was marked as safe after drill activation.
  • Time to 50% accountability — how long it took to account for half of all on-site persons.
  • Time to 100% accountability — the final completion time.

Compliance Metrics

  • Participation rate — Percentage of on-site persons who were successfully accounted for during the drill.
  • Rally point accuracy — Whether people reported to their assigned rally point or a different one.
  • Unaccounted persons — List of anyone who was never marked as safe or evacuated during the drill, with their details.

Response Breakdown

  • By floor/location — See which areas evacuated fastest and which lagged behind.
  • By rally point — Compare how quickly each rally point achieved full headcount.
  • By role — View response times for visitors vs. staff vs. contractors.

Drill Reports

After each drill, a comprehensive report is generated automatically:

  1. Go to Safety > Drill Management > Reports to view all drill reports.
  2. Click any drill to open its detailed report.

The drill report includes:

  • Summary Card — Drill type, date, duration, target time, actual time, and pass/fail status (based on whether the actual time met the target).
  • Timeline View — A visual timeline showing when the drill started, when key milestones were reached (25%, 50%, 75%, 100% accountability), and when the drill ended.
  • Person-by-Person Log — Every individual on-site during the drill, their status, the time they were marked, which rally point they reported to, and any notes.
  • Floor/Zone Heatmap — Visual representation of evacuation speed by area, with color coding from green (fast) to red (slow).
  • Rally Point Summary — Headcount at each rally point, time to full count, and leader who conducted the check.
  • Issues and Flags — Any problems identified during the drill:
    • Persons never accounted for.
    • Persons who reported to the wrong rally point.
    • Doors that did not respond to lock/unlock commands.
    • Notification delivery failures.

Exporting Reports

  • Click Download PDF for a formatted report suitable for compliance documentation.
  • Click Export CSV for raw data that can be imported into spreadsheets for further analysis.
  • Click Share to email the report directly to stakeholders.

Comparing Drills Over Time

Track your facility's preparedness improvements with drill-over-drill comparison:

  1. Navigate to Safety > Drill Management > Analytics.
  2. The Drill Trends dashboard shows:
    • Evacuation Time Trend — A line chart plotting total drill duration over time. See whether your team is getting faster.
    • Compliance Rate Trend — Participation and accountability percentages across drills.
    • Average Response Time — Mean time to account for each person, tracked per drill.

Side-by-Side Comparison

  1. On the Analytics page, click Compare Drills.
  2. Select two or more drills from the list.
  3. Click Generate Comparison.

The comparison view shows:

  • Duration Comparison — Bar chart of each selected drill's total time.
  • Metric Deltas — Percentage improvement or regression in key metrics between drills.
  • Floor/Zone Comparison — See if specific areas improved or worsened.
  • Recommendations — The system automatically flags areas that regressed and suggests focus areas for the next drill.

Setting Performance Benchmarks

  1. Go to Settings > Safety > Drill Benchmarks.
  2. Set target values for:
    • Maximum evacuation time (e.g., 8 minutes).
    • Minimum participation rate (e.g., 95%).
    • Maximum unaccounted persons (e.g., 0).
  3. Click Save Benchmarks.

When benchmarks are set, drill reports automatically display a Pass or Fail indicator based on whether the drill met all targets. The Analytics dashboard highlights drills that fell short of benchmarks in red.

Best Practices

  • Alternate between announced and unannounced drills to test both prepared and realistic response scenarios.
  • Run drills at different times of day and on different days of the week to account for varying occupancy levels.
  • Review the Unaccounted list after every drill and follow up with those individuals to understand why they were not marked.
  • Use drill reports for compliance — many regulations require documented evacuation drills at specific intervals. Keep PDF reports on file.
  • Set realistic benchmarks and tighten them gradually as your team improves.
  • Debrief with rally point leaders after each drill using the detailed person-by-person log.
  • Share drill results with building management and tenants to demonstrate safety commitment.