Anyone who works unsupervised for any part of the day is considered to be lone working for that portion. Every role has its own hazards and risks, but for those who are lone working, the risks become amplified as the process of calling for assistance becomes harder.

Broadly speaking there are 5 types of lone worker, each with different challenges and risks.

In this blog we break down the 5 unexpected types of lone workers.

1) Drivers

You might think that your staff are perfectly safe when they are driving for work, but as this blog on driving safely for work points out, your staff might not be as safe as you thought.

Driving between appointments counts as part of their working day. And unless you are with them in the passenger seat they are lone working whilst they are driving.

If they were to have an accident, or break down in a remote area a lone worker device will let them call for assistance without needing to know exactly where they are, as the GPS function on the device will locate them. Handy when in unfamiliar towns and villages.

Sales people driving between meetings, account managers, lorry drivers, and anyone who has to drive between sites are classed as lone workers whilst driving.

Main Risks: crashes, breakdowns, illness, aggression

2) Factory Workers In Remote Areas

If your staff are spread over a large site or work in isolation they, too are considered lone workers. Even if there are several of them in one area.

People who work in large warehouses or factories are a type of lone worker because if then needed assistance from a supervisor or manager, it would could take a while for them to raise the alarm and for assistance to get to them.

What’s more, a very large site could make it hard to correctly locate the lone worker if they fell and were unable to call for assistance, if, for example, they were unconscious. GPS would be no good because it needs a clear line of sight to the sky.

The KIT lone worker device and lone worker app is great for overcoming this, because the lone worker can leave an amber alert detailing their exact whereabouts in the warehouse.

Main Risks: Injury, falls, illness, accidents

3) Receptionists

For customer facing lone workers the risks are obvious. Aggression from members of the public is, unfortunately, not uncommon. Especially in certain workplaces, such as hospitals, lawyers offices, hotels, and doctors surgeries.

You would be forgiven for thinking that your receptionists are safe and surrounded by people but very often they are isolated.

If your reception staff are out on the front desk they could be attacked or assaulted before anyone even knew someone was in the building. Or, they could be taken very ill and not be found for a while.

Protecting your staff with a KIT lone worker device will allow them to discreetly raise the alarm if they feel threatened without your visitors being any the wiser.

The operator will be able to listen in and, if necessary, call for a colleague to come out and support the receptionist or even phone the police if there is an immediate threat.

Main Risks: aggression, illness, assault

 

4) Office Workers

Office workers are usually surrounded by colleagues, but what about those in a remote office? Or those who work later at night than others?

If your staff work in shifts to cover the phones, for example, there could be times when you only have one or two staff responsible for locking up the building and who are alone whilst they do it.

Providing them with a lone worker device will allow them to call for assistance if they are suddenly ill, or if a situation arises with a member of the public.

Main Risks: illness, attack,

5) Teachers

Again, teachers are surrounded by people most of the day, but they are not with other adults for a huge portion of the working day.

They often work long hours and are alone in their faculty office whilst their colleagues teach. If they were attacked or become unwell it could take over an hour for a colleague to realise and provide assistance.

Similarly, in classrooms teachers are alone with their pupils. We have all heard stories of teachers being attacked by their pupils and it can be very hard to extract yourself from the situation if the children have enough support of each other. Classrooms do not typically have phones in them, so calling for help is almost impossible.

In this day and age it isn’t beyond imagination to consider someone might attack the school, as happened recently in Lancashire.

Equipping teaching staff with lone worker devices allows them to quickly raise the alarm if they, or the school, are under threat.

Main Risks: attack, injury, illness, assault

 

Get in Touch

If you would like to speak to us about our lone worker devices give us a call on 03337729401 or email sales@first2helpyou.co.uk. We will love to hear from you.