Notes

Developing a Lone Worker Program
Lone workers include nurses making home visits, field salespeople or security guards working solo in minimarts or gas stations. An effective lone worker program begins by outlining emergency response protocols and communication tools clearly and providing sufficient safety.

SHEQSY's Lone Worker App and Dashboard offers an innovative approach to protecting employees who work alone by offering GPS location visibility as well as an emergency button, both of which can be activated remotely in real-time.
Preparation

Establishing clear expectations for both employees and managers when it comes to lone worker programs begins with setting clear expectations on both sides. This involves outlining specific responsibilities for each group such as identifying risks, providing training, responding to emergencies and responding quickly in any emergency. Furthermore, preparation phase must also include creating a plan to ensure lone workers remain protected throughout the duration of their shift.

Assuring lone workers have access to first aid is of key importance; so is setting out how they'll check in with their contact and determining how often. Furthermore, an emergency plan must also be developed should a lone worker fail to check in at an agreed upon time or become uncontactable for whatever reason.

Finally, any lone work program should include a reporting mechanism so that workers can alert their contacts or the company if they feel at risk, providing essential feedback that can help refine policy and procedures over time.

Lone worker programs can be an effective way to ensure the safety of your team on the job site, but they come with their own set of challenges. These issues include lack of supervision, difficulty asking for assistance, limited access to first aid facilities, as well as possible threats of violence or aggression from public or client interactions.

As the COVID-19 pandemic spreads, more employees may need to work alone. Therefore, it's vital that your lone worker program be implemented prior to this happening in order to protect employees when working alone in isolated environments.

If you need an efficient solution to protect lone workers, Visme's Lone Worker Safety App could be just what's needed. This app sends real-time alerts directly to a designated supervisor for monitoring purposes - making it simple and secure for your team while working alone. Give it a try now for free! Mykola Haichenko is Visme's content marketing manager and an avid supporter of link building techniques. In his free time he likes exploring new places.
Communication

Lone workers face unique risks and challenges, including limited access to first aid, customer violence or aggression and mental health concerns. Therefore, it's imperative that they establish a solid communication plan.

Establish regular check-ins and communication protocols; establish expectations as to when they can be reached, make emergency contact information easily accessible, update it regularly and devise a clear escalation procedure in case of an emergency situation. Lone workers may benefit from virtual team-building activities like virtual coffee breaks and icebreakers to build connections and foster supportive workplace cultures; adapt communication styles according to each individual taking into account factors like cultural or language variations.

fall detector A lone worker safety program should include policies designed to empower workers to assume full responsibility for their actions on site and make decisions that best suit them. Workers may need to respond on their own in certain instances - for instance if their car breaks down or they cannot activate their duress alarm - which are the employer's duty of care - providing access to assistance or support via solutions such as Loner M6 with its built-in industrial grade speakerphone that enables monitoring staff to contact device user directly (requires voice service plan).

As employees move between workplaces, their duty of care doesn't cease when they leave. Organizations remain responsible for providing appropriate resources and training as well as creating a safe work environment for their employees. With our lone worker solution you can ensure that people are treated like the valuable assets they are.

Assessing your lone worker risk requires taking into account how long each individual will be working alone and for how long the task itself lasts. When considering individual's hours alone or potentially dangerous weather conditions while they work alone, ask yourself if this length of time is reasonable for their work environment.
Monitoring

As soon as lone workers are at work, it's essential that they're regularly checked in by someone familiar with their workplace and ready to respond if something goes amiss. This could take the form of phone calls, text messages or apps.

Lone workers may face various hazards depending on the nature of their jobs, including hazardous locations, unsupervised tasks and isolated work areas. Before assigning any task to a lone worker, these risks must be assessed carefully and detailed in your organization's Lone Worker Policy.

Regular reviews and updates of lone worker policies are key to keeping them relevant, which should involve inviting workers who may be isolated to provide feedback on how it could be improved and share any suggestions for change. In addition, it's essential that everyone involved understands why each policy exists - its purpose and how it will keep everyone safe.

As part of your lone worker safety policy, it's also imperative that your business implement a monitoring system to protect employees. A 24/7 professional security monitoring center with advanced alert capabilities should be in place in order to address missed check-in alerts, overtime alerts or duress alarms as directed by your policy.

Man Down NZ Connecteam tip: Your lone worker monitoring solution should enable your staff to report incidents directly from their mobile devices, with images, location details, audio recordings, signatures, or any other pertinent data sent directly back to their manager for review and action.

Training lone workers on how to navigate the risk assessment and reporting process is essential for their safety and well-being. This can be accomplished either internally via role playing and self-defense training programs or externally using digital employee training platforms like Connecteam that facilitate creating courses, quizzes, and videos content - making employees more confident in reporting threats quickly and seeking assistance when they arise.
Prevention


Prevention in lone worker programs involves creating guidelines and procedures that must be observed by workers to ensure their own safety. This may include setting check-in times, reporting incidents and hazards and taking other preventative steps - which must all be communicated clearly to employees through training programs and awareness campaigns.

Some employees working alone could be at an increased risk of being attacked or injured when working alone, such as paramedics and security guards, gas station attendants, kiosk attendants or workshop employees who deal with public-facing roles, fixed establishments such as gas stations kiosks or workshops as well as those tasked with handling valuable merchandise or working overnight shifts. Furthermore, those operating in high crime areas or dealing with dangerous chemicals are at an even higher risk of assault and injury.

Preventing lone worker incidents may seem impossible, but it can be achieved through the implementation of policies, procedures, and practices designed to assist employees in staying safe in all scenarios. A comprehensive lone worker safety program can save lives while decreasing workplace injuries by taking all of the necessary measures to keep workers secure.

Establishing clear safety procedures and guidelines that all lone workers must abide by is one of the key aspects of any lone worker program. These should cover topics like what equipment and resources must be brought, when and how often check-ins with supervisors/contacts occur, reporting incidents/emergencies occur, etc.

An essential aspect of any lone worker program is creating a communication process for employees to signal for assistance, whether that be by phone call, text message or automated system that alerts their manager as to their location and status. SafetyIQ integrates seamlessly with GPS and IVMS devices for greater visibility into employee locations when working alone as well as an escalation process that can be activated at the push of a button.

Homepage: https://www.loneworkeralarms.co.nz/man-down-alarm/