Employees need to be kept safe, but this is a lot harder outdoors than it is indoors. Without full control of the environment that they are working in, it is possible for manual labor workers or people with physical skillsets to be in constant danger – or at least one mistake away from getting hurt.
But how can you protect an individual worker, and what methods might let you keep track of where they are in case of emergencies?
Contact
Staying in regular contact with employees and workers can be important, especially for large organizations. Knowing which projects or tasks an employee is handling next allows their employers to understand what risks they might be under, as well as what tools they might be using.
While this is not always practical, having a way to connect with workers directly can make a big difference in an urgent situation.
Monitoring
Being able to monitor workers can be a valuable safety tool and something that you can rely on if they ever stop responding to your messages or end up getting severely injured. However, proper monitoring can be complex to set up using your own first-party tools and even harder to maintain.
If you are monitoring a worker, you can tell where they are, how long they have been there, and the current status of both themselves and their work. This makes it much easier to check in with potentially injured workers and see if they are still alright.
Responses
The best safety measure has a way to respond quickly without needing to gather any more information or details. No matter how careful you are, accidents will happen eventually, and you need a way to counter them quickly.
If you can’t respond to an injured worker quickly, then their injuries could get worse, and they might end up having grounds to complain or even sue you for not helping them consistently. Beyond that, it is an important part of knowing where individual workers are at all times.
Reliable Tools
Services like the Sheqsy lone worker app can help an organization monitor all of its workers while they are in dangerous or high-risk locations and can give them multiple ways to quickly confirm that a worker is injured or otherwise unable to contact them normally.
It can also be used to track different activities and locations, giving the company an approximate area that covers the worker’s location in the event that their phone disconnects or runs out of battery. Even in non-dangerous situations, this can be a useful tool to have on standby.
Real-time activity countdowns and alerts make it easier to track where workers are, where they are not, and where they should be, all while updating you on their current status. For example, missing a check-in can flag up an alert, letting you know that an employee has not contacted you at the arranged time.
Tools like this are not only very valuable but can actually help you comply with lone worker regulations and legislation, making sure that you have minimized the risks to their health as much as you possibly can. Even if no accidents happen, tools like this are a must-have.
