Three effective ways to get your employees on board with a new tech solution
Seven out of ten technology launches fail to meet their strategic goals. How can you ensure your employees are engaged for success?
Seven out of ten technology launches fail to meet their strategic goals. How can you ensure your employees are engaged for success?
EPS needed a new solution that would allow staff to check in quickly and easily from their smart device without having to carry additional equipment when working alone.
EPS Group is a wet infrastructure specialist operating across the Republic of Ireland and the UK and employing over 500 people. Founded upon 52 years of experience, EPS has grown from a modest electrical and pumping services business into an innovative, internationally exporting product and service provider, now focused upon the water, wastewater and clean technology sectors.
Due to the varied nature of the workforce, employees within the housing sector are facing a growing number of large-scale threats which can affect both employee safety and business continuity. Employers have a duty of care to protect their workers, but this can prove challenging for large organisations with disparate staff.
Fires are a major concern for housing organisations such as associations and estate agents, particularly following the Grenfell Tower incident in 2017. The tragic incident which caused 72 deaths and injured over 70, due to a number of fire hazards present in the building. The exterior cladding was one such hazard and has found to be widely used in buildings around the world, creating a potential for similar incidents in the future.
This year, a building with the same cladding as Grenfell ignited in Melbourne, Australia and spanned 8 floors. Similar fires were also seen in Brazil, Dubai, Indonesia, Israel, and France in the past 4 years.
While the situations around Grenfell led to an extraordinarily high fatality rate, house fires are not uncommon. Recent statistics show that there were 19,656 reported fires in London alone in 2018, while 2% of all social renters experienced a fire in their homes in the year spanning 2016/17. Of this, 25 % were serious enough to require emergency response.
With housing employees spending much of their time in client’s homes, they are at risk of being caught up in fires while their employer is likely to be unaware of their location and whether they are able to evacuate the building safely.
Criminal activity is also becoming more common during working hours and in public spaces, creating more opportunity for employees working within the community to be involved in an incident.
Employees travelling between appointments and meetings can easily be caught up in such incidents which are extremely unpredictable and have largely changed in nature to random attacks on busy streets.
Riots and protests are also a threat across many parts of the world and innocent bystanders can easily get caught up in clashes and violent attacks.
StaySafe, the workplace safety solutions provider, has partnered with JLL to help protect more than 70 mobile technicians who work alone.
JLL, the corporate solutions, property management and real estate organisation employs over 80,000 employees worldwide and manages a number of different accounts across the globe.
The StaySafe mobile app allows JLL to protect its mobile technicians, who work alone and often from height, and to help quickly locate them and send assistance in an emergency.
Workplace safety firm StaySafe has launched a unique way of helping organisations and lone, remote workers check in during crisis events or emergencies, all through the use of three simple words.
StaySafe partnered with location technology company what3words to design a method of locating workers and sending immediate help.
The location tracking does not work through standard GPS coordinates. Instead, what3words has categorised the entire world into 3x3m squares. Each square has been assigned three words from the dictionary.
For example, a specific spot in Singapore’s Silver Gardens is called ///hint.sculpture.tester, while ///homes.like.tiles is a spot directly outside the Sydney Town Hall.
If an organisation needs to quickly locate lone workers in an emergency, they or the employee can use the app to send help. Furthermore, if an employee does not check in safely or raises a panic alert within the app, monitoring agents at the organisation or an external monitoring firm can be notified. These monitoring agents can verify the alert and dispatch assistance.
what3words CEO Chris Sheldrick explains, “Growing up on a farm, the fact that we had no way to describe an exact location troubles me to this day. What if a fire had broken out in a barn or if someone was caught in running machinery? With what3words now available in the StaySafe app, it’s extremely reassuring to know that people working alone or in remote locations can tell emergency services exactly where help is needed fast enough to prevent extensive damage or avoidable injury.”
Ambulance Tasmania used what3words to rescue a hiker in April last year. Now, what3words is included in the Australian emergency services app, Emergency+.
The company explains, “ Emergency+, which helps people to call the right emergency number and confirm their location. With what3words now available in the app, people can tell Triple Zero (000) exactly where they need help with just three words and officers on the ground and first responders can use the free what3words app to get directions straight to their precise 3m location.”
In New Zealand, emergency services can deploy the free what3words app onto team devices so agents and first responders can use it to find a person easily.
StaySafe CEO Don Cameron says the low signal move can provide more coverage than similar apps on the market so employers can be confident their employees are protected.
“Adding the what3words functionality simplifies getting responders to the exact location of an incident quickly.”
In the wake of the coronavirus outbreak and the subsequent lockdowns faced by businesses across the globe there has been an unprecedented increase in people working from home. Worksafe maintains guidance aimed at employers to encourage them to consider the safety of home workers (here).
“If you run a business which has staff working from home, you are responsible for talking through and developing policies with them on how they’ll manage their health and safety when working at home”.
MBIE’s business.govt.nz website
So how can you ensure home based staff are protected?
“When we talk about home working, we are often talking about logistics – how will people access systems, how will teams keep in touch? Safety isn’t always first on employers’ minds” says Don Cameron, CEO of lone worker solutions provider StaySafe. “However just because an employee is at home doesn’t mean you don’t have to worry about their safety. The duty of care remains the same wherever an employee is based. In the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak some businesses are navigating looking after lone workers for the first time. As H&S professionals the first thing that needs to be done is a risk assessment for these employees and measures put in place to ensure they are safe”.
As outlined by WorkSafe, one of the biggest risks is that there may be no one able to help, should something go wrong. Risk of an injury or medical emergency is the same for a home working employee as for one on office premises and employers have the same duty of care.
Employers also don’t have the ability to assess and control the home working environment. “Whilst for most people we would hope that being at home is a safe and suitable place to work, we really do not know what environment an employee lives in. Domestic abuse charities have warned that isolation will lead to an increase in violence in the home and the risk of the virus itself could also leave someone who lives alone vulnerable. The bottom line is, if someone if working for you, you have to take steps to protect them” says Cameron.
However, undertaking updated risk assessments is not only necessary for newly home-based employees.
The COVID-19 pandemic has also led to an increased risk profile for some existing lone working staff who continue to undertake vital work within our communities. Health services, housing authorities and charity workers are still visiting people in their homes at a time when tensions are likely to be running high, increasing the likelihood of violence and aggression. Social distancing and isolation measures have led to usually busy areas being left deserted, leaving staff vulnerable.
“We have had many companies get in touch with us since the outbreak who have concerns about keeping their staff safe, whether that is protecting new home workers or monitoring the safety of staff who now attend sites alone as part of social distancing measures. A water authority in Australia and a Housing Association in the UK increased the numbers of people using our lone worker app within days of their countries going into lockdown. It is a global safety issue employers are facing everywhere”.
Lone worker safety isn’t a new concept for health and safety professionals and the types of protection that businesses can offer staff are comprehensive. However, as with many industries, advancing technology is leading the way with regards to the solutions employers are choosing.
According to a 2019 Berg Insights Report, 20% of all lone worker solutions in Europe, and more than 40% in North America, are app based. This number is predicted to grow; worker safety devices based on GPS and cellular technology in Europe are expected to reach 1.1 million users at the end of 2022.
Typically lone worker apps consist of the app itself, which has a range of functions including panic button, GPS location, timed sessions, man down alerts and check-ins. Employee activity and the location of staff whilst at work is monitored via a cloud based hub where employers can respond to any alerts.
Lone worker apps are particularly suitable in the current climate because of how well they lend themselves to being trialled, rolled out and utilised by staff remotely.
Apps can be downloaded directly onto employees’ phones without the need for any additional equipment being delivered. At a time when supply chains are likely to be majorly disrupted, this is a big advantage. Monitors can be trained to use a system remotely via Zoom and staff protected quickly. Alternatively, the monitoring of staff can be outsourced to professional monitoring firms who will handle any alerts.
“We’re very used to rolling out StaySafe remotely.” says Stephen Robb, Director of Secure Mobility, StaySafe’s local partner. “We have managed roll-outs to over 1000 staff in Australia from the New Zealand. In this day and age, you don’t have to be in the same room, or even the same country as someone for them to get the most out of your product”.
Launching a new solution when you can’t train staff collectively on site poses another challenge for employers. As with any investment, it is important to know you are getting staff engagement and ROI. Again, apps have an advantage here.
StaySafe has recently launched a number of updates to help increase engagement and usage. In-app training walks new users step by step through how to use the app and our insights portal shows businesses who is using the app and how often. Our support services are available over the phone, email and webchat and we actively reach out to users who haven’t completed their training to encourage them to log in and start a session.
Stephen Robb, Director, Secure Mobility
“What started out as a forced arrangement may become a catalyst for more flexible ways of working” says Cameron.
We don’t know the long-term effects at this point, but it is likely that some businesses will find positives in their new working arrangements. The ability to work from home is believed to improve productivity, mental wellbeing and work-life balance. It reduces the numbers of people commuting and as such can also have a positive effect on the environment. We have the technology to do it safely – so why not?
StaySafe provides a lone worker app and cloud-based hub that monitors and protects thousands of lone workers around the world. Find out more about how StaySafe helps you protect your employees while they work in social isolation.
Over the last few months, COVID-19 has swept the globe, leaving behind a trail of fear, confusion and uncertainty. There is still a lot that is unknown about the coronavirus or the impact it will have on us as a society but from what we do know, it is currently spreading at an alarming rate and can be life-threatening.
Companies have been under increasing pressure to protect their staff, with some having to cease trading completely. The coronavirus has affected employees in almost every industry and due to its nature, no workers are exempt from the risk. With New Zealand having recently moved to level three, employers are having to consider the best ways to continue without risking the safety of their workforce.
Read moreA typical day for an investigator conducting a Board operation involves visiting sites, checking licences and making sure the quality of work being carried out is up to the standard required. Due to the nature of their roles, investigators working for the Board on industrial sites can be exposed to potential hazards such as slips, trips, falls and various other health and safety related injury and risk.
Jayson Thomas, Investigations & Complaints Manager at PGDB explains:
“Since our investigators spend a large amount of the day visiting different sites and carrying out investigations, it is important for us to know where our investigators are at any given time for health and safety reasons. We wanted something that could give us that information and that could also be tailored to the investigators’ operational requirements.”
Before launching StaySafe, the company relied on traditional communication methods such as calls and texts.
Read moreCrockers property management praise the simplicity and usability of the StaySafe smartphone app as they roll out the solution to protect their lone working staff.
Read moreWhen we think of lone workers we usually imagine those working in complete isolation such as a security guard manning a building at night, or a farmer working out in the middle of a field. However, while this may be true for many, lone working doesn’t always mean being completely alone.
Lone workers may very well operate in highly populated areas or alongside clients, customers and members of the public.
Narrowing our definition of lone workers down to those completely in isolation means that many of our employees are not being included in our lone worker policy and are not receiving the level of protection they need as a result.
So, what then constitutes lone working and how can we identify lone workers in our organization?
A lone worker is anyone working without the direct and immediate support of supervisors or colleagues. To put it simply, if an employee cannot be seen or heard by a colleague, they are lone working, whether that be for all or part of their working day.
Some of your lone workers will be easy to identify by assessing work patterns and roles. However, there may be times where you may not even be aware that your employees are lone working. It may be useful to talk to your employees and ask the below questions to identify any ‘hidden lone workers’ in your organization.
Once lone working practices have been identified, it is important that you risk assess each of these situations and put measures in place to ensure your employees are safe.
There are of course different risks associated with the level of isolation that comes with lone working. Those out in a remote and completely isolated location are more exposed to environmental risks that could lead to an accident, while those working alongside members of the public or in client’s home are at higher risk of experiencing violence and aggression.
We have produced an infographic that outlines some of the different types of lone working, examples of different roles associated with such situations and the risks that they may face.
If you would like to discuss identifying or protecting your lone workers, please get in touch via our contact form.