Seasonal Safety: Is your Team Prepared?
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 forestry occupations are risky, and some of those jobs are seasonal, so crews may be largely made up of rookie workers, learning new tasks in critically dangerous situations.
Obviously, the more training your staff gets before heading out to the bush to plant or thin trees, pile slash or perform any of the myriad tasks required in any forestry operation, the better. Even if your crew is made up of seasoned forestry industry workers, regular instruction and retraining in methodology is useful when switching between tasks during the course of the season.
Lone worker safety should be at the top of your list of priorities when preparing to send out seasonal workers, regardless of their level of experience. The hazards of working in isolated locations, with heavy equipment, manipulating objects that could crush a person instantly, are legion – and let’s not forget the risks of wildlife encounters!
The forest industry is already benefiting from advanced lone worker safety systems
Many companies are now employing lone worker monitoring systems to mitigate risks to their staff. Satellite enabled devices allow you to keep in contact with your remote workers, wherever they are, providing instant communication should an incident occur. The ability to provide a prompt response can save lives!
Ok Alone’s lone worker protection system offers an easy to use safety app that allows your workers to check in at predetermined intervals. If they don’t, you will know immediately. How a missed check in is managed will depend on your escalation procedure.
Give your team the tools they need to stay safe on the job. Contact us today to learn more.
Not sure it will work for your company? Our free trial will convince you.
The Ok Alone team writes informative articles about lone working. Through our articles, we aim to educate readers on the benefits and best practices of using our lone worker app, and how Ok Alone can help mitigate risks and enhance communication between workers and monitors. Learn about other areas including legislation, risk management, and legal compliance plus lone worker features such as man down, high-risk check ins and location monitoring.