Employers should keep their employees safe in the workspace. This is called duty of care and is a legal requirement that all employers must abide by. Worker safety is easily achieved when employees are among other workers. This is because employees can watch out for each other in dangerous situations and help each other when in need.
Companies that employ lone workers may experience a gap when it comes to safety. Luckily advanced technology can be attained when it comes to lone worker safety. In this article, we are going over the top safety devices your business should be looking at and how you can incorporate them to achieve lone worker safety.
What Is a Lone Worker?
A lone worker is an employee of a company that carries out their job duties without any additional workers watching over them or working with them. Below are some industries that employ lone workers.
- Powerline Workers
- Security
- Healthcare
- Factory Work
- Construction
- Mining
- Maintenance
- Law Enforcement
These workers who carry out their duties alone carry an inherent risk higher than workers who do their jobs in numbers. Lone workers cannot quickly call for help or can become stranded incapacitated while on a job.
This risk can quickly bring forth extreme injury or death. Lone worker safety is something that needs to be taken seriously.
What Is a Lone Worker Safety Device?
A lone Worker Safety device is a tool that allows workers to communicate with others and be monitored while on the job.
Lone worker safety devices can monitor an employee while traveling to and from destinations and provide a safeguard when workers meet with clients unknown to them or during a risky operation that they need to perform alone on a site. Below are standard safety device functions.
- SOS or Panic button
- Man down alarms
- Real-time indoor & outdoor location (GPS, WiFi & Beacons)
- Evacuation alarm notification and monitoring
- Safety proximity alarms
- Entering or leaving critical rooms or areas
- Incident reporting
- Contact tracing for COVID19
- Incident analytics & insights
These devices can provide communication when needed amongst workers and detect any signs of imminent dangers.
Who Needs Lone Worker Devices?
Lone worker devices are designed to protect employers from hazards while carrying out their duties and monitor their safety while isolated on the job. Here are some examples of responsibilities that should require lone worker safety devices.
- Working in Remote Locations
- Rope access or Industrial climbing
- Working In areas With Hazardous Environments
- Working in Areas with Low Signals
- Those Who Work with High-Risk Machines
Not only will the use of lone worker devices keep employees safe, but it will also help others monitor their work and create an avenue to provide support or help if a worker cannot reach someone.
Can These Devices Keep Lone Workers Safe?
Yes! During the threat of a medical emergency or a situation where a worker is experiencing hazardous work conditions, these devices can be a lifesaver. According to OSHA, the most common accidents from work-related injuries are slips, trips, and falls.
Having lone worker safety devices on them can differentiate between a nonfatal and fatal accident while on the job.
Training and Implementing Policies
Aside from having your employees equipped with lone worker safety devices is implementing safety policies and training programs. Doing this is essential for safety awareness amongst your team, especially when workers are carrying out their duties alone.
Implementing policies that require lone employers to attain safety certifications can be a great way to enhance safety awareness in general. Do these trainings for workers annually. This way, workers are reminded of safety recommendations year-round. Doing this can help protect your company in a lawsuit from a situation that happened on the job. Safety devices can be used to monitor workers during trainings and can help to identify critical situations during simulations.
Communication Is Key
Communication technology has come a long way in the last two decades. To ensure worker safety, workers must have a way to communicate with other teammates in an emergency or when help, in general, is needed.
Sometimes having a cell phone on you is not enough. The following information and events can help to improve the workers safety.
- SOS and panic button
- GPS tracking
- Man down alarms
- Evacuation notification and Monitoring
- Real-time indoor and outdoor location
- Incident reporting
- Contact tracing
- Safety proximity alarms
These devices should be a must if you have workers that work in isolated locations, with or without hazardous working conditions.
An IoT device can send alarms using small amounts of data with technologies that have better penetration than ones that require phone signals.
Should You Invest in Lone Worker Safety Equipment?
The simple answer is yes. You should invest in lone worker safety equipment. Depending on your city, state, and federal guidelines, as an employer, you must protect your employees to a certain extent.
Failure to reach certain levels of safety can result in significant injuries to your employees or even death. This can lead to legal ramifications that can disrupt your business’ productivity or even put you out of business.
Furthermore, failure to provide certain levels of protection for your employees can put you or your team members behind bars.
Solutions for Lone Worker Safety
Lone worker safety can be achieved by investing in various devices designed to keep your team safe. Accent Systems has products that will accomplish the following.
Safety Analysis – Define, monitor, and verify protocols for lone workers.
Time Control – Record timesheets to use in reports, labor and commercial disputes.
Contact Tracing for COVID19 – Lock down as few employees as possible and avoid the spread in your company.
Process automation – Make better-informed business decisions based on accurate analytics.
Lone Worker Safety: Your Questions Answered
If you have any questions about lone worker safety devices and how they can work for your business, contact us, and we can help you out with any of your questions.
Safety should be a priority for your workers, so act now and talk to one of our professionals today.