Why corporations need to protect home lone workers
More people are working from home, and our Safe Hub technology allows corporations to keep these home lone workers safe and well.
The world of work has changed hugely in the twenty-first century. New technologies have allowed many people to work remotely, rather than in an office or centralized hub. And the past year and half has seen an acceleration of this trend, as Covid has challenged us in ways we hadn't anticipated. For corporations concerned about the welfare of their workers, though, this presents a problem. When their people are working at home, they're lone workers. This wasn't necessarily part of the original plan when they were hired. Thankfully, technology also provides an ongoing solution to protecting and keeping them connected while they're at home. In this blog, we're going to look at how Safe Hub keeps home lone workers safe and well.
Safe Hub plays its part in helping people to work remotely
For home lone workers, employers need to cover every lone working risk scenario. The Safe Hub lone worker safety system provides a range of features: emergency, buddy, voice memo, proactive, reactive, GPS locate, virtual barrier and broadcast support. That means that we get the right sort of help to home lone workers when they need it. For lone workers at home, the Safe Hub smartphone app provides a fully supported safety solution. Working seamlessly across all smartphone operating systems, and on all mobile networks and over broadband and Wi-fi connections, the app is easy to use for everyone.
Three Safe Hub safety features are particularly relevant for protecting the safety and health of home lone workers: Red Alert, Safe Check, and Worker Down. In each case, highly trained staff at our Monitoring & Response Center (MRC) will spring into action to assist, accessing the worker's GPS location and following escalation protocols to get them the help they need. Whichever of the features is activated, in the event of a false alarm, the worker can simply advise operatives to stand down.
Red Alert for home lone worker emergencies
Red Alert is the emergency safety feature that helps lone workers in a crisis. If they feel at risk or need support, they simply select the Red Alert option on their device. This will immediately open a two-way call with the MRC, which operates 24/7/365, guaranteeing a response in seconds. MRC operatives have secure access to the worker's personal emergency escalation protocol and real-time GPS location, confirming their home address. This lets us direct emergency services straight to the worker, bypassing 911 call centers and saving critical time.
Safe Check provides proactive support for home lone workers
Safe Check is our periodic welfare ‘check-in’ system directly managed by the lone worker. They simply confirm their welfare by replying to automated prompts at set time intervals. Lone workers at home can easily enable Safe Check on our app. Lone workers can select and amend the intervals, as needed to suit their working practices. At the end of the set interval, Safe Check will request a code from the worker. Once they've entered it on the app, Safe Check resets and a new countdown interval begins. If a worker doesn’t respond, the system flags this as an alert, and triggers the personal escalation process for that worker. That might be a call to a line manager or an immediate dispatch call to emergency services.
Worker Down offers help for incapacitated home lone workers
Safe Hub uses the built-in motion sensors in mobile handsets to enable Worker Down. The hub then monitors the movement of the handset and its orientation. If, for example, the handset hasn’t moved for a length of time this could indicate that a lone worker requires emergency help, perhaps after a fall or other incident. Alternatively, a sudden jolt or change in elevation or orientation could indicate a fall. Worker Down then automatically raises an alert. But we recognize that lone workers at home may move less than they ideally should. We can decrease the sensitivity of the safety feature, to avoid false alarms if the smartphone doesn’t move for a length of time.
Is it 'working from home', or 'living at work'?
It's also important to bear in mind the longer-term issues of mental health and wellbeing when it comes to working from home. Lone workers face a higher risk of experiencing loneliness by the very nature of their work. However, it’s essential to make the distinction between being alone and feeling lonely. Many people enjoy the autonomy and freedom of working alone; they choose to be alone. Loneliness is an entirely different feeling; you can feel isolated and unhappy because you lack the right amount of positive social interactions. Lonely people are more likely to smoke, drink more than the national average, and eat a poor diet. If you're lonely, you're more likely to withdraw from life and stay at home, exacerbating the problem. All of this can have a cumulative effect on health.
Many people have complicated lives beyond work, so it’s vital they feel supported in their workplace, especially when that workplace is also their home. That's why we encourage corporations to remember that working from home is also 'living at work'. They can become business champions by putting their employees’ wellbeing first. One crucial way to address loneliness in lone working is by making home working employees feel part of the team. And knowing that their employers have their back when they're working can help to achieve that.
To find out more about how Safe Hub helps home lone workers who are 'living at work', contact one of the team today.
Call +1- 855-393-7668
Visit: www.skyalertsos.com
Email info@skyalertsos.com
About Sky Alert
Safe Hub, from Sky Alert, is an advanced security platform that protects people working alone. With pinpoint accuracy and lightning-fast response, Safe Hub is not just another 911 app. It's all-around protection for lone workers. Using a discreet personal device such as the SOS Fob, our advanced App on a smartphone, or the SPOT X satellite device, Safe Hub connects users with a state-of-the-art Monitoring Response Center (MRC). At the MRC, highly trained operatives can provide immediate assistance directing the police or paramedics to your GPS location in the fastest time possible.