Remote work has gone from a relatively niche concept to something that we’re all familiar with in just a few years. While nowadays, the words “remote worker” tend to bring to mind someone tapping away on their laptop at home on the dining room table, a lot of lone workers operate in environments that are a lot more dangerous. From the importance of risk assessments to leveraging real-time tracking, here are our top tips on protecting your remote workers in dangerous places.
Take risk assessments seriously
While a lot of people treat risk assessments as an annoying regulatory box that needs to be ticked off, when used properly they can be instrumental in improving remote worker safety. By thoroughly considering each work environment in turn, you can often put in place a range of measures that effectively mitigate the risk of potentially very serious threats. It can take a little time to do it well, but when the safety of your employees is at risk, it’s absolutely worth the investment.
Lone worker alarm systems
In recent years, we’ve seen a significant rise in the adoption of lone-worker alarm systems. These systems operate by integrating a variety of different sensors into a single monitoring system, so that when an employee needs help, they’re able to receive it as soon as possible. Some of these sensors might include automated trip detection systems, while others might be operated by the push of a button, depending on the kinds of threats your remote workers might be facing.
Adopt lone worker devices & apps
Another technological breakthrough when it comes to lone worker safety lies in the development of lone worker apps and devices. These technologies aim to provide a variety of crucial functions, most importantly reliable communication and real-time tracking. The overarching aim is to ensure that employees can ask for assistance whenever they need it, and that with real-time tracking, emergency services will know exactly where to send that assistance.
Focus on training
Last but certainly not least, it’s important to focus on training. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter how advanced the technologies that you adopt are – if the people using them don’t know how they’re supposed to work, and in what context, the effect will be minimal at best.
You need to provide both response teams and lone workers themselves with ongoing training, on everything from spotting risks in the field to emergency response protocols. This training must consist of both theoretical and practical elements, to ensure that it remains applicable to real-life scenarios.
The exact approach you take to protecting your remote workers will depend on a number of factors, including where they’re working, whether or not they’re totally alone, and what kind of work it is that they’re doing. That being said, each of the tips provided above is quite widely applicable, so long as you take into consideration as many subjective environmental factors as possible. Your approach to remote worker safety is something that constantly needs to be worked on, to ensure that it remains effective in the long run.