Comparison of Different Lone Worker Safety Solutions

Lone workers are employees who work alone without close supervision, such as hospice care nurses or truck drivers. They face more risks than team members who work together, like a heart attack or exposure to combustible gases.

Stricter occupational safety regulations and increased employee insurance costs drive the market for lone worker monitoring solutions. This free Comparison Guide helps you assess your options.

1. Devices

Lone workers are exposed to a unique combination of risks because they work in isolation. Whether they are security guards, contractors, home healthcare employees or those that operate outside of normal business hours like custodians and service technicians, they are often faced with potentially dangerous scenarios. These risks can be further compounded by a lack of relevant safety procedures and protocols.

When paired with a live monitoring center, device-based solutions provide a range of benefits including real-time location visibility (even on remote or offsite locations), employee mustering support and emergency call button activation. Tunstall's lone worker solution uses active RFID tags attached to hardhats or worn on wristbands with a built-in call button and connected to a cloud-based platform for real-time locating and monitoring.

Smartphone lone worker apps, also known as personal safety applications, enable organizations to monitor their employees in real-time, with GPS location visibility and periodic check-ins that can include optional duress alerting. Typically managed from a central hub, these applications provide a wide range of additional efficiencies, such as hazard reporting, forms, checklists and navigation.

With Rave's multimodal mass notification solutions, lone workers can receive emergency alerts across multiple channels, including email, voice, text and social media. This improves the chances that they will receive the alerts and ensures that their lone worker safety program is effective.

2. Monitoring

Lone workers (like hospice care nurses, delivery drivers and cable repair technicians) are at increased risk for harm because they are alone. They face unique challenges such as high crime areas, hostile customers or perilous work conditions like climbing tall poles topped with high-voltage electrical wires. They may also have to navigate dangerous or remote locations, work with dangerous chemicals, handle valuable merchandise, or perform overnight shifts.

lone worker alarm australia In the past, many employers used paper reports or radio check-ins to ensure that their lone workers were safe during their shift. However, newer technology-based solutions are transforming lone worker safety programs. These solutions use smartphones to monitor lone workers in real time, giving them periodic check-ins, duress alerts and other advanced features. They can be monitored in-house or remotely by a 24/7 security monitoring center.

When choosing a lone worker monitoring solution, you should determine whether you want a closed or open platform. Closed solutions offer off-the-shelf, turnkey systems that can be rapidly integrated into your operation. While these solutions can save you upfront costs, they may not be optimal long term because they lock your company into using their devices and services from end to end. Alternatively, open lone worker safety solutions are device agnostic and work with your existing technologies to help you develop a comprehensive lone worker monitoring program.

3. Training

Lone workers need a system that protects them while they’re in the field. They’re often unable to reach the rest of the team for help and they can be left alone for long periods of time. Depending on the industry, their job may require them to be in a high-crime area, work with dangerous chemicals or handle valuable merchandise.

Lone worker safety solutions that include monitoring can keep employees safe while ensuring compliance with lone worker safety regulations and streamlining management processes. They also empower employees to take action in emergency situations – even if they don’t know who to call. Instead of calling a supervisor or human operator, employees can check in with an app to confirm their safety or request assistance.

Many lone worker safety solutions also provide training to help employees understand their roles and identify hazards they may face in the workplace. They can also learn about how to respond to an emergency situation and what steps they need to take in the event of a duress alert. Managers can use a centralized dashboard to monitor real-time employee locations, set up emergency roll calls, assign tasks, send hazard reports and more.

4. Reporting

Lone workers have unique challenges that often make it harder for them to respond quickly when they need help. This can be due to their working environment – for example, home health care nurses may travel to unfamiliar neighborhoods or electrical workers may be exposed to high voltage. It’s important to assess your lone worker risk and find a solution that takes into account these risks to ensure staff can quickly access help.

Many lone worker safety solutions include a “buddy system,” where colleagues call in when they think their colleague is in danger. However, this approach can be limited by poor uptake of devices and the capacity for human error. Specialist lone worker safety solutions, such as AlertMedia, use advanced technology that provides an all-in-one platform for tracking, communicating, and dispatching law enforcement when needed. This also gives you the capability to run, view, and export a wide variety of reports including incident statistics.

Whether your team works in remote locations, in volatile environments, or at work alone, the goal should be that everyone gets to go home safe at the end of each day. The most effective lone work alone safety solutions are those that can be configured to your operations, provide comprehensive visibility and monitoring of the most dangerous workplace situations, and integrate with other lone worker solutions and devices to ensure your teams are protected every step of the way.