What Is a Lone Worker Monitor
Lone worker monitor allows employees to remain connected to their company’s monitoring team when they can’t be supervised by someone in person. It’s an important tool for companies that employ staff who regularly work alone in remote areas, with vulnerable individuals, or in potentially dangerous situations where there are potential hazards like natural disasters or workplace accidents.
Lone workers are often at increased risk of being injured or killed due to working in isolation and lack of supervision. This means that employers have a duty of care to ensure that employees are adhering to their work procedures, and taking reasonable precautions to protect themselves.
There are several ways in which a lone worker monitor can help to reduce the risks faced by lone workers, including using technology to monitor a worker’s location, ensuring that they check in at predetermined times, and providing emergency response services that allow the worker to call for help if necessary. These devices can be unobtrusive, portable, and include wearables such as panic buttons and GPS trackers or satellite-enabled devices that connect to smartphones. Many are also compatible with other systems that can provide additional functionality, such as gas detection or man down alarms.
The best lone worker monitors will incorporate GPS technology to automatically alert the monitoring team if the lone worker enters a high-risk zone, misses their scheduled check in, or activates the panic button. This will allow them to respond quickly and to locate the worker’s exact position, enabling emergency services or their designated escalation contact to be sent to their aid immediately. Some lone worker monitoring solutions also include voice calling or video chat, to give the user the option of speaking to a human when they need to.
Some lone worker monitoring solutions also provide for automated check ins by requiring that the employee complete physical or digital pre-start checklists and forms, or to use a dedicated smartphone app. This allows for more effective monitoring compared to the traditional way of checking in by phone, which can be ineffective in remote locations where cellular coverage is poor. Some apps, such as the popular SafetyLine app, also integrate with a lone worker device to offer a complete management solution.
Another common feature that some lone worker monitors offer is live monitoring, where they are connected to a 24/7 professional security control center and monitored remotely during their shift. The control centre is staffed and ready to respond to any missed check-ins, overtime alerts, or duress alerts according to the employer’s escalation policies.
When choosing a lone worker monitor, there are several things to consider, including the ease of use and whether it is compliant with data protection laws. The best lone worker monitor will be easy for users to set up, operate and understand so that they are comfortable using it at all times. A system that is complicated or difficult to use could lead to employees forgetting to use it or not using it at all, which would undermine the effectiveness of the device.
