In the not so distant past, there was little that employers could do to protect the safety of their lone workers.
You could provide mobile workers with proper safety training, support and advice but once they were out on the road, they really were on their own.
If they had any kind of accident or found themselves in danger, you wouldn’t know about any problems unless they were able to make a phone call.
It meant that, more often than not, managers would only find out about accidents and incidents after they had occurred.
Thankfully, with the help of digital technology we’re now able to provide our solo workers with a heightened form of care and protection.
Workforce management systems, such as MyMobileWorkers, use smartphones and GPS tracking to give managers real-time information on exactly where each employee is and what they’re doing.
But to complement this, there are also a host of apps available for Android devices which help to protect the safety of lone workers when they’re out in the field.
The best apps to increase safety of solo workers:
- Guardian24
- bSafe
- SafeTrek
- StaySafe
Guardian24
This lets solo workers estimate how long they think a job should take. If the task takes longer, the system will automatically ping them a message, just to check everything is okay.
If they don’t respond, it triggers off a sequence - which can be customised to suit your company’s safety policy. This can include sending out alerts, recording GPS location and recording audio from the scene.
It also has a panic alarm which overrides any keypad lock that may be on a smartphone to allow instant activation. A UK based Alert Receiving Centre is available to handle any problems.
bSafe
This was originally designed for personal use but the range of features it provides makes it something of a Swiss Army knife for solo workers. At its most basic, it provides an SOS button which can alert managers or coworkers if there’s a problem.
Once triggered, it records video and audio from the scene and digitally stamps the data with time and location. But one of its more unusual features is the ability to schedule false calls to your own smartphone.
If a solo worker feels uncomfortable about a particular visit or customer call, they can set it so they receive a mobile call at a set-time; it provides a handy option to exit any tricky situation.
SafeTrek
SafeTrek is a really simple idea for those interactions in which a fieldworker feels particularly vulnerable.
You activate it by placing your finger on the smartphone screen and holding it there. Take your finger away and the app asks you to enter a four digit security number. If you don’t enter a code, it triggers an alert.
While it doesn’t have the range of features of other apps, the benefit of SafeTrek is exactly that - its simplicity. It’s a way to give fieldworkers reassurance during a tricky situation that help is at hand.
