A Lone Worker Solution for The New Year

It is a brand-new decade and you may be thinking of expanding your business or making work more flexible for your employees. One way of doing this is by lone working and we can tell you all you need to know about a lone worker solution for the new year.

The Benefits And Risks Of Lone Working

Some sectors such as social working or district nursing specifically require lone working as part of their duties, whereas other sectors may want to have lone workers because it increases the flexibility of where and when employees work.

Long gone are the days when everyone has to put on a suit and tie and sit at the same desk from 9 till 5.

These days more and more businesses are seeing the advantages of flexible working, both from the employee and employers point of view.

Lone working, by its very nature, does have some associated risks. Working alone in unknown environments, sometimes at night can leave workers in a vulnerable position.

Which is where a lone worker solution, such as the services that we provide here at First2HelpYou come in.

Understanding Your Business

We don’t provide a one size fits all lone worker solution here. We are very much lead by your business and your business needs.

Before we even start to put together a bespoke lone worker solution for you, we take time to get to know your business and how it operates.

We also take the time to get to know your lone workers too. We think it is important that any lone worker solution has input from the employees, not just management.

As soon as you are happy that we have a good understanding of your business we will then put together a bespoke lone worker solution proposal.

There is no time limit or pushy sales pitch either, everything can be done at a pace that suits you.

If you are happy with the proposal then we can move on to the implementation stage, if not then we will work together until the proposal meets your approval.

the image shows a lone worker on the phone

Lone Worker Solution Implementation Stage

The implementation stage doesn’t just mean that we hand over lone worker devices and leave either. We will work with you and your lone workers; collect all the information we need and also work with you to create or update a lone worker policy.

Employers are legally obliged to have a lone worker policy and wading through all the necessary rules and regulations can be a bit overwhelming, so we will take care of that for you.

We will also provide bespoke training for you and your lone workers so that everyone is confident and happy with the lone worker solution.

Then we will agree how the lone worker solution is rolled out to your workers and because we will have collected all the data required it won’t interrupt with their day (or night) job.

During this period, we will work with you to ensure that everyone is happy with the lone worker solution and make any adjustments or provide extra training if required.

So, let’s have a look at the different lone worker solutions we can provide for you.

the image shows a lone worker using an app on his phon

Lone Worker Apps And Kit Devices

The first option is the lone worker mobile or landline solution, this allows workers to record a message stating where they will be and at what time they are due to finish.

This is a proactive rather than reactive solution and if the lone worker monitoring centre has not heard from the lone worker after the end time then they will move on to the agreed next stage.

This can vary dependent on the business needs but usually, it would be to attempt to contact the worker and if there is no answer to contact an escalation contact.

The next solution is the lone worker app, this has some additional functionality including a man down feature. Any sharp or sudden movement or impact will activate an alert. This is particularly useful if a worker should fall and be unable to use their phone.

The lone worker kit device is a dedicated lone worker device that can be discreetly hidden behind a lanyard so as not to attract attention should it need to be activated.

All of these lone worker solutions work using an amber and red alert function.

An amber alert is triggered if an employee does not contact the monitoring centre after their recorded finishing time.

If a red alert is activated (always by a discreet method no matter which lone worker device is used) then it triggers an alert to the monitoring centre where they can listen in (this also works two ways if the lone worker is able to respond) and swiftly assess the next step, whether it is contacting an escalation point or notifying the emergency services.

Lone Worker Connect Portal

The lone worker connect portal means that a manager or supervisor can easily see the location of their lone workers and also see where and when any alerts have occurred.

This is particularly useful because you can monitor if a particular location is proving to be troublesome and make the necessary adjustments.

Get In Touch

We hope that we have provided you with lots of information and if you would like to speak to us about a lone worker solution then please do get in touch.

You can call us on 0333 7729401, email sales@first2helpyou.co.uk or use our online contact form here.