{"id":87165,"date":"2024-10-02T11:08:35","date_gmt":"2024-10-02T11:08:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ecoonline.com\/preventing-isolation-ensuring-the-safety-of-your-frontline-lone-workers\/"},"modified":"2025-09-25T14:05:55","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T13:05:55","slug":"preventing-isolation-ensuring-the-safety-of-your-frontline-lone-workers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ecoonline.com\/en-nz\/blog\/preventing-isolation-ensuring-the-safety-of-your-frontline-lone-workers\/","title":{"rendered":"Preventing Isolation: Ensuring the safety of your frontline lone workers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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If you want to ensure the safety of your lone workers, the first step is knowing who and where they are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sounds simple enough, right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not always. How do you track potentially hundreds of people in multiple locations? These employees may not even label themselves as \u2018loneworkers\u2019. How can you make sure your safety policies address their needs?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was the topic of our latest webinar:\u00a0Preventing Isolation:\u00a0<\/a>Ensuring the safety\u00a0of your frontline lone workers<\/strong>. Heading up our expert panel was Nicole Vasquez, Director at\u00a0WorthwhileTraining<\/a>. Nicole has over 25 years\u2019 experience in helping organisations reduce the level of violence, aggression and safety risks for their employees. This includes developing a national program on Managing Conflict and Aggression for frontline staff in the UK\u2019s rail industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joining Nicole on our panel was Ryan Demelo, Director for Product Marketing at EcoOnline. Ryan provided insights from our recent\u00a0\u2018Lone Worker Landscape Report\u2019<\/a><\/strong>, in which we surveyed over 1200 lone workers and executives on the current challenges they face.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, our panel also featured Ryan Obsuszt, a specialised seller for EcoOnline\u2019s Lone Worker solution. Ryan O. took us through some real-world scenarios of lone working with EcoOnline customers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this blog post we will go through the key takeaways of the webinar.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t <\/section>\n\n\n\n

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CHAPTER 1<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Understanding the world of lone working<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s in a name?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The first issue tackled by our panel was what is meant by the term \u2018lone worker\u2019. Workers and their organisations may not use those exact words and they may not even consider themselves in that category. Our panel identified the following additional terms:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  • Lone\/ Solo working<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Remote working<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Distributed workers<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Home working<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Community workers<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Flexible working<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Agile workers<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Hybrid working<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Location independent workers<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    Adhering strictly to just one term may cause organisations to miss possible risk to \u2018hidden\u2019 lone workers. This is seen in an example brought up by Nicole, wherein an organisation had provided safety control measures for staff visiting clients homes but had nothing in place for the member of staff left alone at the office. Unfortunately, this staff member was attacked in the office by an irate service user.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Official definitions of lone working<\/strong>

    <\/strong>Nicole also provided some definitions of home working from governmental agencies in the UK and US:

    Health and Safety Executive (UK)<\/strong> Definition:

    \u2018those who work by themselves without close or direct supervision\u2019<\/em>
    Occupational Safety and Health Authority (US)<\/strong> Definition:

    \u2018an employee working alone, such as in a confined space or isolated location\u2019<\/em>

    \u201cNeither definition says, \u2018are on their own for 60 minutes, or 3 hours, or the day\u2019. Incidents can happen in the blink of an eye; you only need to be on your own for 5 minutes for something to occur.\u201d \u2013 Nicole Vasquez<\/em>

    The UK has further subdivisions of the above definition. Employees may be considered \u2018lone workers\u2019 if they are out of earshot or eye line of colleagues, for example in large factories. Employees who are alone when opening or closing up shop\/ offices may also be considered lone workers, at least for a period of time. The same can be said for cleaning and security staff.

    There is also a distinction drawn when it comes to travel. In the UK for example, commuting to work is not considered lone working, but travelling for work or during work hours is.

    Working in the community or going into the homes of others also present different risks for lone workers. The risks involved in lone working at home have not been adequately addressed.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t <\/section>\n\n\n\n

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    CHAPTER 2<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The risks of lone working<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    According to Nicole, lone working itself is not a risk<\/strong>, but it does change the likelihood of an event occurring and the potential level of harm.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    For example, in a typical office scenario, you may not be concerned about incidents of violence and aggression if a worker is alone. However, you may be concerned about social isolation from the rest of the team, or stress levels if there are no colleagues to communicate with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Nicole identifies 3 categories of safety issues for lone workers:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    • \u2018Traditional\u2019 health and safety issues (slips, trips and falls, being overcome by fumes)<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Violence, aggression and harassment<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Mental health and wellbeing<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

      Watch the breakdown of each of these categories below:<\/p>\n\n\n

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