Safety Check-Ins for Lone Workers: Why & How to Conduct Them

What are Safety Check-Ins?

A safety check-in is the practice of a responsible party (such as a safety manager) periodically monitoring and verifying the status of an employee’s safety and well-being. Safety check-ins can be carried out manually (i.e. via phone calls) or automatically (i.e. via a lone worker safety solution’s automated check-in feature).

Importance of Safety Check-Ins

When your employees are working alone or in isolation, how do you know that they are safe? From providing peace of mind, to ensuring that employees receive emergency assistance as soon as they need it, conducting regular safety check-ins is a key, non-negotiable way to protect your lone workers.

In this guide, you’ll discover why your organization must implement periodic safety check-ins, along with how to conduct them effectively and efficiently.

How Do Safety Check-Ins Work?

The primary purpose of a safety check-in is to keep in regular contact with a lone-working employee, to determine whether they are safe or in need of emergency assistance.

When an employee checks-in on time, it typically means that they are okay. But when an employee fails to check-in, it may mean that further investigation is required to ascertain whether the employee is okay, or that emergency escalation is required to provide them with immediate assistance. (Responses to failed check-ins should vary, based on the predetermined risk levels of employees’ roles, work environments, etc.)

Why are Safety Check-Ins Necessary?

In addition to ensuring employee safety, there are four more reasons why safety check-ins are a necessary part of every organization’s lone worker safety policy.

Safeguard Employees

Safety check-ins can protect employees from a myriad of safety hazards and emergency situations. Here’s how.

Safety Hazards

Working alone, without direct supervision or back-up support, is a high-risk activity in and of itself. But there are also many safety hazards that lone workers face on a daily basis. Some of the most common lone-working safety hazards include:

• Tripping, slipping, falling

• Physical violence (especially when working with members of the community)

• Traffic accidents

• Sudden illness (i.e. heart attack, stroke, heat stroke, hypothermia)

• Physical injuries (resulting from the work)

• The workplace itself (i.e. isolated or remote areas, inherently dangerous job sites)

Conducting frequent, periodic safety check-ins to confirm that workers are safe and sound protects against the hazards of working alone.

Learn more about lone-working safety hazards and how to mitigate them here.

Emergencies

If an employee fails to check in at the scheduled time, it could be because an incident has occurred and they need assistance. If an extensive amount of time has lapsed (15-30 minutes, for example), and the employee still has not checked in, management can escalate the situation, according to their organization’s safety policy and the employee’s risk profile.

An emergency escalation process, based on a missed check-in, could look like calling the employee, sending a colleague to the employee’s physical location to check on them, requesting assistance from emergency services, and so on.

In addition to a check-in process, consider that lone-working employees should have a way to raise a panic/duress, alerting managers and/or colleagues that something has gone wrong and they require immediate assistance.

Share Key Information

What good is it to find out that an employee is in trouble if you don’t know where they are and what they were doing?

Effective safety check-ins share key information that can be helpful in an emergency, such as: the employee’s exact location (physical address and GPS coordinates), location notes (i.e. which building level and/or which unit, which part of a job site, etc.), what the employee was working on (i.e. visiting a patient’s home, inspecting the inside of a silo, etc.).

Effective Communication

Periodic check-ins help keep employees and managers stay connected, and therefore, on the same page.

A common check-in practice is for employees to let managers know if their work is going to take longer than expected. With this understanding, managers do not need to wonder whether an incident has occurred.

Lone Worker Legislation

While most countries have worker safety laws and regulations that employers must abide by to keep employees safe, some countries (such as the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom) have issued legislation or guidelines specifically for safeguarding lone workers.

United States

According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) regulation 1915.84, “whenever an employee is working alone . . . the employer shall account for each employee: throughout each workshift at regular intervals appropriate to the job assignment to ensure the employee’s safety and health; and at the end of the job assignment or at the end of the workshift, whichever occurs first.”

Australia

According to ComCare, “Working alone or remotely increases the risks to physical and psychological health in any job." If assistance is poor or not present, these can cause physical or psychological injury to a worker. This is why satellite tracking systems or devices must be installed: they can send messages on a scheduled call-in basis and include distress or alert functions.

United Kingdom

According to the Health and Safety Executive, “You must monitor your lone workers and keep in touch with them. Make sure they understand any monitoring system and procedures you use. These may include: when supervisors should visit and observe lone workers; knowing where lone workers are, with pre-agreed intervals of regular contact, using phones, radios, email etc.; other devices for raising the alarm, operated manually or automatically; a reliable system to ensure a lone worker has returned to their base once they have completed their task.”

Your Local Area

It’s important to thoroughly research and understand the workplace safety legislation in your organization’s country and region to ensure compliance. In some instances, heavy fines, and even prison time, can result from non-compliance when health and safety incidents occur.

Peace of Mind

Conducting regular safety check-ins creates a safety culture, helping employees to feel safe and secure as they work alone; meanwhile, managers can feel confident that their employees will get home safely.

Jeremy B., the Community Rehabilitation Manager of a large healthcare organization called Epworth Healthcare, uses a lone worker safety solution called SHEQSY to safeguard and manage lone workers. He states: Employees report that they feel much more secure knowing that they have SHEQSY monitoring their sessions. As a manager, I find it much easier to track the productivity and safety of my employees when working in the community.

Types of Employees Who Require Safety Check-Ins

Ideally, organizations would have safety check-in protocols for all employees who work alone, in isolation, or in remote locations. However, here are some examples of particularly high-risk workers that require them:

• Healthcare professionals

• Social workers

• Inspectors

• Maintenance workers

• Drivers

• Utility workers

• Factory workers

• Security guards

• Retail associates

• Commercial cleaners

• Real estate agents

Methods for Completing Safety Check-Ins

• Phone calls

• Text messages

• Email

• Smartphone apps

• Pendants

• Satellite devices

Phone calls, text messages, and emails are manual safety check-in methods – and are therefore outdated, ineffective, and, potentially, dangerous.

Why Safety Check-Ins Should be Automated

Automating safety check-ins with lone worker smartphone apps and lone worker devices (such as panic buttons and satellite devices) is the way forward. Why?

Firstly, automation helps ensure that no employee’s safety or well-being falls through the cracks. Automated periodic check-in prompts remind employees to check in when they’re supposed to. (This removes the need for managers to remember to call/text/email employees on time, and then try to contact them one by one.) Meanwhile, notifications of failed check-ins and panic notifications reach pre-designated emergency contacts immediately so they can assist accordingly.

Of course, this technology also saves organizations valuable resources: time, money, and focus. With a digital lone worker solution, lone workers and managers no longer have to play “phone tag” to get in touch. Instead, employees can check-in at the simple touch of a button, and managers are only notified as necessary.

SHEQSY makes lone worker safety easy. See how, in 90 seconds: