To protect workers, many employers implement broad-based safety management programs that address risk systemically. But there’s a class of workers that are isolated in their roles. These lone workers need specific protections.
How then to develop a lone-worker risk program to keep them safe? Read on to find out.
How many lone workers are there?
Are there so many lone workers that I need to make the effort? The answer is increasingly yes.
Rates of lone workers have boomed, particularly since the pandemic.
According to the National Safety Council, an estimated 15% of today’s employees report working by themselves.
And this statistic matters because working in isolated environments has been shown to increase an individual’s risk for serious injury and death on the job.
3 Steps to mitigate lone-worker risk
To mitigate lone-worker risk, we recommend taking the following three steps:
1. Identify your lone workers
This might sound like a no-brainer, but lone workers are more difficult to tell than we think. After all, a lone worker doesn’t always work alone.
Most jurisdictions, for instance those in Australia, define lone work as professional work undertaken in a remote or isolated fashion and carried out in a fixed facility or away from a worker’s typical base. Here, though, are some examples of remote or isolated work:
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- Work at an all-night convenience store and/or service station
- Mobile sales including real estate
- Long-distance freight transport
- Field work carried out alone or in remote locations
- Healthcare and community work conducted in isolation with members of the public
2. Assess lone-worker risk
Now that you know who your lone workers are, you can begin to assess the amount of risk those workers carry.
Here, context matters. In many contexts, remote and isolated work carries more inherent risk than other forms of work, whether it’s greater exposure to violent acts from customers or poorer access to emergency services should any incident occur.
The objective of the lone-worker risk assessment then will be to fully consider the factors intrinsic to the kind of lone work executed at your organization. To do so, consider asking the following questions:
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- What kind of work is being done?
- Where is the work taking place?
- When is the work being done?
- What means of communication do you have to get in touch with your lone workers?
3. Control lone-worker risk
The assessment stage is intended to deliver a picture of acceptable lone-worker risk. From there, organizations must control risk so that it remains within acceptable limits.
Controls, of course, are variable, largely dependent on the answers to the questions above. However, some examples include:
- Worker consultation and involvement in the consideration of potential risks and in the development of measures to control them
- Affirmative steps to remove risks (where possible), or implementing control measures
- Specialized instruction, training, and/or supervision
- Periodic review of the risk assessment as well as subsequent reviews after significant changes in working practice
Finally, employers must provision their lone workers with the necessary tools and services, such as safety management software, to perform remote and isolated work effectively and safely.
One important capability to consider, here, is location intelligence to give employees the ability to share their location. To learn more about location intelligence, in particular how location sharing enables lone workers to be monitored and improve response when assistance is required, read the article, What Is Location Intelligence?
