Ok Alone 
How Will the New 2016 Help Great Britain Work Well Strategy Impact Your Business?
With the publication of the 2016 Help Great Britain Work Well Strategy we are seeing a renewed focus brought to occupational health and safety in the UK. This document outlines new goals and strategies for protecting and supporting workers and aims to streamline health and safety processes so that they function better, rather than just
Fundraising Events and Canvassing for Charity can be Hazardous to Volunteers and Fundraising Professionals
Where would we be without volunteers? Volunteerism contributes to a kinder, more equitable and safer society, so it’s only fair that those who go out of their way to help others should be protected themselves, right?
Recently, a young man volunteering at a charity haunted house in…
How Drivers in Transport and Logistics Teams are Benefitting from Lone Worker Technology
Advances in technology are bringing real benefits to drivers and the logistics teams that support them. How do we know this? We hear it from our clients! They tell us how much easier it is to accurately monitor workers with our flexible lone worker safety system.
GPS has been the go-to tracking tool for years, and it’s still useful – we use the SPOT Gen3 Messenger device for…
The Security Canada Central Conference and Exposition takes place this week, October 19th and 20th at the Toronto Congress Centre, will you be there? Leading providers of technology, products and services for Canada’s security industry will be, along with security professionals from both government and the private sector.
This is your opportunity to expand your base of contacts and learn about…
Municipal workers are the gatekeepers of our communities. You work year round, performing countless complicated tasks to build and manage the infrastructure and assets that make our communities safe and enjoyable places to live.
We don’t need to tell you that many of the jobs you do are hazardous, you face these
Do you rely on GPS technology to keep in touch with lone workers?
You might not know that the first GPS satellite, Navstar 1, was launched way back on February 22, 1978. In 1983, after the USSR shot down a Korean passenger jet, the US government opened up GPS for civilian applications so that aircraft, transport and shipping could avoid drifting into restricted
Parks and recreation workers everywhere face hazardous conditions nearly every day. Whether you are operating recreational or leisure programs at playgrounds and parks in the city, managing wilderness campgrounds, performing trail-building and maintenance duties or any of the countless tasks that are part of many parks and rec workers’ daily routines, you face unique challenges to staying safe at work.
For each lone worker or team of workers, it’s critical to do a hazard…
Health and safety practitioners from across Canada are meeting September 18-21 in Vancouver, BC at the Annual CSSE Conference. This year’s theme – Navigating the Future of OH & S, promises to offer some interesting opportunities for professional development and education around new safety technologies.
This year the CSSE extends a special welcome to the BC Municipal Safety Association and is offering…
Public Works and Utilities departments are often sizeable, with hundreds or even thousands of workers performing diverse tasks at numerous locations around the city, municipality or district. How do you, as a manager of this workforce, keep track of them all and more importantly, keep them safe?
It’s common knowledge that workers in the forest industry are at high risk of accident or injury. In fact, working as a faller regularly tops the list of dangerous occupations in numerous countries worldwide. But it’s not only fallers that are in danger, many other
Lone worker protection is a particular concern to many employers. This is especially relevant to resource extraction industries (mining, energy, forestry) along with trucking, surveying and home health care providers, where employees are at risk of accident or incident when working alone. What do you, as an employer, need to consider when implementing a system for lone worker protection?
You probably understand that as an employer you are likely required, by law or according to health and safety regulations, to implement a lone worker safety policy. Even if accidents or incidents occur outside of your business premises, when they transpire during the execution of your employees duties or, in some cases, during transit to a job site, you are accountable. In many cases, the remote worker is at higher risk and it’s up to you to assess and reduce those risks.
If your business employs workers who are not directly supervised and at risk of accident or injury you are required, by law in some jurisdictions and according to occupational health and safety regulations in others, to have a lone worker policy in place to protect them. It is the employer’s duty to assess risks to lone workers and take steps to avoid or manage the risks. Some companies ignore these obligations and should a worker suffer injury while on duty without lone worker monitoring in place, may face severe consequences.
A vital aspect of any lone worker monitoring procedure is the actual ‘check in’. By legislation in the UK and in many Canadian provinces, lone workers must be monitored for safety reasons. Here are a few tips to help you, as an employer, to devise and establish a lone worker check in procedure.
Lone worker monitoring is the practice of monitoring workers who, due to their working conditions or the nature of their employment, may be out of sight or earshot of co-workers during the course or their workday. If no co-workers are nearby to offer assistance in an emergency, then a lone worker monitoring system should be in place.
Employees that benefit from a lone worker monitoring system include those in resource extraction (energy, mining, and forestry), trucking, environmental assessment, surveying, social work, maintenance, home-based health care providers and even certain retail workers.
The transport and logistics industry employs workers in a diverse range of occupations: truck drivers, courier and postal delivery drivers and warehouse workers, to name a few. Each of these occupations carries a relatively high risk of accident or injury, and it’s challenging for employers to find ways to keep staff safe on the job.
We all face stress on the job and when your workplace stress is not acknowledged and managed, it can lead to physical and emotional illness as well as reduced performance and productivity. How well you manage your workplace stress depends on how you are able (or unable!) to address it. Compounding the problem, if you work alone, without the security of co-workers to share the workload and watch your back, your stress levels may go through the roof!
In August 2016, a home health services provider in the US was fined because of an incident in which a worker was sexually assaulted by a client while providing health care services in the client’s home. The fine was levied because an investigation by
Essential Safety Tips for your Retail Employees
Your retail business, whether large or small, is responsible for providing a safe environment for workers as well as following the safety regulations of your country and local jurisdictions.
While retail isn’t considered a particularly high risk occupation, it can be
8 Reasons Why you can’t Afford Not to Have Lone Worker Safety Systems
Lone worker safety systems are not only the right thing to do from a moral standpoint – they can reduce your business’ operational costs! Workers in the construction and engineering industries are frequently working alone and in high risk circumstances. Investing in their safety will pay off in many ways.