Question 1

What is Lone Working?

Accepted Answer

Lone working is actually defined by the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) as people who work by themselves without close or direct supervision. This doesn’t though mean that the worker is physically alone – it means that they are in a separate location to the remainder of their department. For example, a factory worker putting stock away by themselves would be classed as a lone worker in the same way as boiler repair person entering your house.

If an employee cannot be seen or heard by a colleague, they are classed as a lone worker – whether that be for all or part of their working day – and this also includes any staff who work from home.

In the UK, it is estimated that up to 8 million people are lone workers. That’s a whopping percentage of the UK working population. The NHS for example alone employs up to 100,000 healthcare professionals who work on their own each day.

Question 2

Who are lone workers?

Accepted Answer

The term lone worker is a term that’s as equally applicable to desk workers to work from any location in the UK as it is also to engineers or manual workers ‘out in the field somewhere’. They exist in all sectors, including those who work in the current circumstances:

From home
By themselves and away from a fixed base
On the same premises but also out of sight and sound of any colleagues
Outside any normal working hours
Alone but alongside any members of the public or in populated locations
Travelling alone during work hours
If left alone for extended periods of time

Question 3

Who could be a lone worker?

Accepted Answer

An engineer
An estate agent
A travelling community nurse
A salesperson
A hotel receptionist
A petrol station operative
A housing officer
A Laboratory worker
Delivery driver
Cleaner
Security guard
Parking enforcement officer

Question 4

Is Lone Working Legal?

Accepted Answer

To be clear, it’s not against the law to work alone and for many employees it is safe to do so. The HSE states that it will often safe to work alone. however, the law also requires you to think about and deal with any health and safety risks before people are allowed to do so.

Employers have a Duty of Care to ensure their workers are ‘reasonably safe’ and put measures in place to satisfy this. This also extends to contractors and self-employed people doing work for your business. Although there is no specific law related to lone working, general health and safety legislation must be complied with:

- Health and Safety at Work Act 1974
- Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999
- Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007
- Health & Safety Offences Act 2008
- Download our guide to health and safety legislation

Lone working rights and responsibilities
The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 sets out the general health and safety duties of employers and employees ‘so far as is reasonably practicable’ – meaning putting in place policies and procedures that mitigate risks that can be foreseen in advance.

Employer responsibilities
Employers are legally responsibly for ensuring employees are reasonably safe, meaning they must control the risks of injury or ill-health. This responsibility cannot be transferred or delegated to the employee themselves.

It is also the responsibility of the employers to check that employees do not have any conditions that make lone working an unsuitable risk. Under health and safety legislation, employers of lone workers must do five things:

Complete a full risk assessment

Make sure the job can be done safely by one person

Train, supervise and monitor the lone worker

Keep in touch

Respond to incidents

Employee responsibilities

Employees have a big responsibility to fully cooperate with employers to ensure their safety and not to take any unnecessary risks. This also includes following procedures and reporting potential health and safety risks to the company or organisation.

Question 5

What are the risks for lone workers?

Accepted Answer

Lone workers face the same hazards at work as anyone else, but there is a greater risk of these hazards causing harm as they may not have anyone to help or support them if things go wrong.

Lone working is actually considered a higher risk activity for a large variety of reasons. Lone workers may be more susceptible to attack because they are seen as a relatively easy target. If they are a victim of an accident or even another emergency situation,  there is no one with them to raise a call for assistance. An employee working alone is also statistically more likely to make poor health and safety decisions and for that matter take greater risks without a colleague around to share and discuss the decisions to be made.

Typically, a lone worker risks fall into one of these categories: 
people at risk
environment risk 
task-based risk

The most common hazards faced by most lone workers will vary strongly according to industry and job role and will include for example:

Manual handling

Verbal abuse

Slips, trips and falls

Driving for your work

Working around motor vehicles

Working with harmful substances

In a possible context of physical abuse

Working at height

Operating machinery and equipment

Question 6

How can I keep my lone workers safe?

Accepted Answer

There are few key things you should do to help better protect your lone workers.

a) Carry out a lone worker risk assessment

Under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, a general risk assessment must be completed by all employers; additionally, those with 5 or more employees must record significant findings. Although it’s really not necessary to conduct a separate risk assessment for any lone workers, they should be seriously considered in an employer’s general risk assessment. 

b) Creating a lone working policy

A lone working policy should include:

risks (listed by role or lone worker type) 

main definitions

background information and purpose statement

organisational commitment

clearly-defined responsibilities

guidance on any reporting incidents

any relevant support and contact details.

c) Provision of lone worker training
Additional training may also be needed for any lone working staff in order to deal with the specific risks when working alone. Without any colleagues around, it is often much more difficult for a company’s lone workers to receive help in the event of an emergency. Therefore, they really need to be fully trained to cope with any uncertain and unexpected situations such as injury or violence.

d) Working independently means that there are no colleagues around to point out a health and safety risk
This could easily lead to an accident or provide a helping hand in the event of an emergency. Therefore, lone workers demonstrably need to have the ability to identify and handle risks by themselves. Training is also such a vital step in ensuring the safety of all staff and for any lone working employees – tailored training is also particularly important. 

e) Implementing a lone worker service
Lone worker services should be fully accredited solutions that are purposed designed to monitor the safety of any employees working alone but also to act quickly in an emergency.

Ultimately investing in a lone worker service will have quite a number of benefits. Not only will you be meeting your duty of care, but staff will also feel significantly safer at work and more ultimately more valued as an employee. This in turn will reduce staff turnover and any associated costs that relate to recruitment.

In addition, when looking at the bigger picture, the cost of an employee suffering an injury or dangerous incident at work will result in much more crippling costs than protecting them in the first place.

Question 7

When is lone working not ok?

Accepted Answer

Certain high-risk situations are simply not appropriate for any lone workers to undertake. For example, the transport of explosives would never be assigned to just one person because it is simply too dangerous. If an employee feels unsafe completing a task by themselves, they could not be punished for not doing their job.

Question 8

How should lone workers be supervised?

Accepted Answer

HSE guidance clearly states that employers should ensure that they maintain regular contact with any lone working employees and have a means to call for help when faced with an uncomfortable or emergency situation. The actual amount of supervision required will be ultimately determined by the level of risk and the ability of the lone worker to identify and handle health and safety issues he or she faces. 

Here are some ways in which you could supervise employees:

- Periodic visits to site
 -Check-in texting
- Scheduled phone calls to the person
- Constant Team meetings (e.g. daily or weekly)
- RTLS Communication Lone working solutions can ensure that these requirements are met by providing lone workers with a means to contact their colleagues, check-in safely and raise any alarm in an emergency.

Lone Worker Systems for the Vulnerable

Ultra-Reliable Technology for All Sectors

Lone Worker Alarm Devices and SOS Buttons

Introduction

Key Benefits of Employing lone Worker Panic Alarms

Giving Personal Safety Alarms to Your Staff – Duty of Care

Our Man Down Devices

Location Transmitters

Key Features

System Components:

Lone Worker SOS-Mobile Emergency

Lone Worker SOS-Desktop Software

Lone Worker SOS-Button & Gateway

Lone Worker Alerting Pager TRIO

Alerting Pager sQUAD-Voice

Alerting Pager sQUAD-ATEX

Alerting Pager s.QUAD X35

Alerting Pager Hurricane Duo

Alerting Pager – s.PAGE x05

Welcome to Our Pager Systems

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