oakdaniel1

Lone workers are people working alone without direct supervision. This can include employees on fieldwork, healthcare professionals visiting vulnerable patients, surveyors completing site inspections and many more. All lone workers should be monitored with regular check ins and help requests sent. These should be recorded and responded to by a live monitoring system with escalation procedures in place. Check-Ins Regular check-ins are an essential part of every lone worker safety program. They help reassure employees that their employers value their well-being, while providing a means to monitor and respond to duress alarms. Check-ins can be carried out manually via phone calls or automatically through a lone worker app. Effective check-ins are a powerful tool for increasing group intelligence. They encourage members to participate and speak up, even if they feel uncomfortable. They also give everyone the opportunity to contribute, which enables them to learn from one another and find solutions more quickly. This helps them tackle complex problems more effectively and efficiently than their appointed leaders alone. Aside from being an important safety tool, check-ins can be a great way to keep employees engaged and focused on the job at hand. Studies have shown that when people feel like they belong in a group – which is what regular check-ins do – they are more likely to focus on the task at hand and produce higher-quality work. Lone worker apps with automatic check-ins can be especially useful for lone workers that operate in remote or mobile jobs. Employees can easily use a simple mobile app to check-in, which will send reminders at pre-determined intervals to confirm their safety. If they miss a check-in or activate the panic mode, a configurable emergency escalation process is triggered that alerts their designated contacts and/or managers. Alerts If an employee encounters a problem at work and is in danger, they need a quick and easy way to signal for help. Lone worker alarms -available through standalone devices, phone accessories and lone worker apps – are crucial in this respect. From a business point of view, they help to meet a duty of care to staff that works alone for a significant part of their time. If a worker pushes a lone worker panic button they are instantly connected to a monitoring centre, who will follow a pre-approved response plan and dispatch assistance if needed. It’s important to note that not all lone worker solutions are equal and it is crucial to ask the solution provider if they use an Alarm Receiving Centre (ARC) who is BS8484:2016 accredited, how long their verification process takes, as this can make a huge difference in the amount of time an employee has to take action before their call is “parked”. falls detection device In addition to these features, many lone worker devices provide an online management portal so supervisors can monitor lone workers in real-time. They can be notified when the workers have checked in, pressed their panic button or entered a pre-determined geographic area via geofencing. One of the key benefits is that the system can easily integrate into existing software, systems and procedures. Geofences Many lone worker apps use geofence technology to provide at-a-glance maps of sites and enable users to set boundaries for permitted and restricted areas. They also help you track a guard’s patrol speed and route as well as alert you if they have entered or left their site boundaries. Having visibility into your guards’ locations and knowing when they are on site helps managers keep an eye on their work performance, especially when they’re working on remote or isolated jobsites. Lone worker APPs that feature GPS tracking, man down alarms and timed sessions offer effective tools to help reduce the risk of serious accidents occurring in these situations. The best way to make the most of a geofence is to use it in conjunction with a geo-time clock feature. This allows you to run a clock on your employees’ devices when they enter a geofence and stop the clock once they leave the zone. It can even record the time spent on a task for later reference. While geofences are an important tool for businesses to have, they do require accurate and consistent data to be effective. For example, receiving a regular notification every time you walk near a stadium will quickly become annoying. Similarly, targeting women who have visited an abortion clinic with anti-abortion advertising is a violation of their privacy and can lead to negative brand perception. Action Plans When it comes to lone worker support, the procedures that staff follow are often just as important as the technology they use. The first step in defining these procedures is to conduct a risk assessment of each individual role and the hazards involved. Once this is completed, the employer must then define the procedure in detail. This includes deciding how frequently the worker will check in with the office (a visual check, phone call or SMS) and setting up a backup plan in case of an emergency. It’s also a good idea to agree on a code word that can be used to identify an urgent need for help. Lone working staff are exposed to unique risks, especially if they’re dealing with members of the public or carrying out particularly hazardous work in remote locations. They may be subject to threats, assault or other forms of violence, not to mention stress and wellbeing risks from being isolated from their colleagues for prolonged periods. Employers must put in place processes to support lone workers, as it’s their duty of care to do so. This can be done through a combination of policies and the use of a specialist solution like SHEQSY. It allows managers to push automated check-in prompts for their lone workers, at regular intervals, asking them to confirm their safety status and send an alert if they fail to respond. This data is then fed into a configurable escalation tree that can be triggered in the event of an incident.