Developing-a-Lone-Worker-Safety-Program-y

Work alone exposes employees to various risks, and developing an effective lone worker safety program requires extensive risk evaluation, training and monitoring procedures in order to protect employee wellbeing.

An effective lone worker safety solution allows workers to communicate with their manager through an emergency alarm system and track employee locations while providing alerts when timed sessions expire or they trigger panic alarms.





Risk Assessment

If your company employs lone workers, the appropriate safety programs and check-in procedures must be in place to protect employees. This will give them a sense of security while working alone. To begin implementing a lone worker program effectively, conduct an initial risk analysis. Include all potential sources of harm (physical hazards as well as those that could lead to long-term health effects or environmental impact) into this analysis.

lone working device uk Conducting a comprehensive risk evaluation in every workplace can be a complex and time-consuming task, since each work environment has unique risks that need to be accounted for. A general rule of thumb for ranking risks on their likelihood and severity of consequences, using either an Excel matrix created in-house by your company or pre-built templates as your basis. It is vital to seek feedback from other employees who know about your workplace if possible so as to provide a more robust risk analysis based on real life situations that lone workers face on an everyday basis.

Once the risk assessment has been conducted and documented, all lone workers should receive access to it. This step can help build employee trust while showing they care about their well-being and can ensure policy includes details on when it was last conducted and its scheduled review dates in future.

Establish an emergency contact person who can activate the emergency plan should an employee fail to check-in at the end of each workday and will make certain their supervisor will know of any unscheduled absences, offering timely support if required.

Final step in any lone worker safety program involves creating clear guidelines and procedures. This means requiring employees to complete pre-start checklists before beginning work and activating GPS trackers on their phones before commencing with work. In addition, managers should set regular check-in meetings with employees as well as setting up systems that enable employees to report incidents or emergencies while on the job.

Training

Based on their work environment and risks associated with their job, lone workers may require different kinds of training. No matter who it is that works solo in your organization, an extensive safety program should be put into place as well as tools to protect themselves in the event of an incident.

Risk analysis training should be an integral component of lone worker training. Every lone worker must receive extensive risk evaluation training so they can identify any potential hazards, take all necessary precautions before beginning work and identify emergency situations and requesting assistance if necessary.

Lone workers may face many hazards while working alone, including wild animals, falling objects, structural damage, electrical outages and unexpected weather events. Lone workers also risk social unrest or other events which increase their risk of violence; for instance a cell tower site worker may need to travel through areas heavily populated with protestors or police.

Lone workers must be equipped with the skills to identify and respond to potential hazards in their environment. Learning dynamic risk analysis techniques can assist lone workers in quickly recognizing risks, eliminating them where possible and beginning work only when it is safe to do so.

Training employees on how to check-in and escalate an incident to their management team in case of emergency is also an essential aspect of lone worker safety training. A digital solution such as SHEQSY by SafetyCulture makes this easy; employees simply check-in and are monitored by their management team - some even alert local authorities and dispatch emergency services!

Finally, your organization should include in lone worker training an instruction on the use of any emergency equipment that they might receive as part of their job duties - this could range from personal alarms and GPS trackers to hard hats and first aid kits.

Check-In Procedures

Check-in procedures are an integral component of every lone worker safety program, serving as the means by which employees reporting in to their employer or supervisor to confirm their well-being and ensure their own safety and wellbeing. Checking in provides peace of mind to employees while helping employers respond swiftly in case of health or safety emergency; check-ins may be conducted manually via phone call, or automatically via automated check-in features available from lone worker safety solutions.

Frequency, communication method and response plan to missed check-ins should all be clearly established for lone workers. Any tracking solutions should also be seamlessly integrated with this safety check-in process for maximum communication and coordination during an emergency situation.

At each check-in, employees should be required to give a comprehensive report of their status, including issues, risks and challenges they are currently facing. An emergency escalation process that is activated when an employee does not check in immediately could help speed things along and expedite support immediately.

An important step for solo workers should be ensuring they have access to any essential Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). This could include items such as hard hats, earplugs or protective eyewear depending on their work environment and risks. Furthermore, it would be prudent for lone workers to create an inventory list of essential items like food or water which must accompany them when working alone.

Final Steps for Lone Workers Its Finally, lone workers should agree upon an agreed upon contact method and schedule for reporting in. This should include phone numbers and emails so someone can always reach the worker when reporting in. An emergency plan should also be created should contact with employee become impossible or assistance needed becomes urgent - perhaps using code words for alerting emergency responders about employee needs. To find out more about a lone worker safety program or consult one of our experts today!

Monitoring

Lone workers can be vulnerable to attack due to the demands of their job, so it's critical that businesses implement a lone worker monitoring solution with features that enable visibility of workers while they're alone, instant emergency alerts and escalation protocols when necessary - this will not only meet duty of care obligations but can provide businesses with valuable insights that improve operations, streamline workflow and even potentially save lives.

An initial step to creating a comprehensive lone worker safety program is conducting a risk analysis. This involves identifying any hazards present in an individual's working environment, and evaluating how serious those risks are. Once complete, precautionary measures or training may be implemented accordingly based on this analysis; such measures could include procedures for working alone, conditioning programs or using technology to remotely monitor workers. It is vitally important that this analysis be revisited periodically because conditions can change over time.

When selecting a lone worker monitoring system, ease of use and uptime are of utmost importance. A device that's too complicated or confusing to operate may lead to its ineffective use by workers - potentially jeopardizing its effectiveness altogether. A device experiencing too much downtime could result in missed alerts or inability to contact emergency responders immediately - further jeopardizing its usefulness for its intended use.

Finally, it's imperative that organizations select a lone worker monitoring system that can be tailored specifically to their organization's specific needs and challenges. While off-the-shelf solutions may reduce cost significantly, they often lack the customization leaders require in order to effectively administer them.

SHEQSY, a lone worker monitoring app and dashboard, allows businesses to ensure that their employees remain safe while working alone. Designed to integrate easily into existing workflows, this solution allows users to discreetly request help by pressing a button on their smartphone or mobile device if a check in fails; in addition to notifying supervisors in case there's been an incident so help can be sent promptly to where needed.