In her fourth video for SHP, Nicole Vazquez explains how to support your mobile lone workers, including the purpose of lone worker services, and how to choose one.
The SHP Safety Talks are a series of small thought pieces designed to get you thinking, whilst perhaps sipping your morning coffee. The SHP team have invited key individuals from the safety world to deliver these mini-lectures, and you can expect only the most insightful challenging and engaging threads. For more videos from the SHP Safety Talks series, visit our CPD downloads page.
Tell us what you think of Nicole’s presentation in the comments section below.
The thing that is often forgotten when looking into “lone worker devices” is that they are effectively PPE and in many cases lone workers simply don’t use them in everyday situations. Having trialled one type of device with 40 lone workers I found that they very quicly fell into disuse. I did not buy or lease devices and am relieved I didn’t. I know of two large employers (approx 4000 staff each) who have invested very heavily in these devices and been very dissappointed with the persistent failure of lone workers to use them. One of the employers spent £99,000… Read more »
Hi Hal I completely agree that lone worker devices are not a panacea and I too have been involved with organisations where the usage is poor. As I say in the video any service chosen must meet the needs of the lone worker, the lone worker should feel comfortable with the device and you need to find a way of truly embedding it in your normal working practices. With my experience those organisations that use lone worker services to the very best effect are the ones that recognise that any system needs to be part of a bigger picture of… Read more »
Hal, you raise a very valid point and its correct to say that focusing on making sure lone workers use the system provided to them is very important. With all employers its a challenge, how big that challenge is depends on a number of factors. Ultimately there are responsibilities that need to be accepted and followed by the users, their direct managers, the body corporate (main board) and the supplier of the system. Usage levels for our customers are often in excess of 75%, that’s lone workers using the system daily or weekly to dynamically assess risk as well as… Read more »