Find out more about the law on lone working, the main hazards and risks of working alone and offer advice on solutions for your business in the US.
For many organizations, lone working increases productivity, flexibility and allows businesses to operate on a wider scale. However, despite this, there are a number of risks that pose a threat to lone working staff. Lone workers do not have access to immediate help should an accident occur which often makes their roles more dangerous than office-based jobs. If a lone worker suffers a fall, is attacked by an assailant or has a medical accident and is unable to call for help, they could be seriously harmed.
So how can you ensure that your lone working staff are protected whilst at work? In this article, we’ll discuss the main risks and hazards associated with lone working, and take a look at different scenarios where lone working may be considered unsafe.
What is classed as lone working?
Lone working is when work activities are carried out 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 is for all or part of their working day.
Is it legal to work alone?
Working alone is completely legal and in most cases it is safe to do so. However, a risk assessment should be carried out on lone working activities so employers can assess and mitigate any potential dangers to their staff.
What are the laws on lone working in the US?
What is OSHA?
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is an agency of the United States Department of Labor and was created to ensure safe and healthy working conditions for individuals living in the United States. OSHA standards are rules that describe the methods that employers must use to protect their employees from hazards. There are OSHA standards for construction work, maritime operations, and general industry, which is the set of rules that applies to most worksites.
What is the law on lone working?
Health and safety legislation differs across states and many do not have specific policies for lone working.
Under OSHA’s guidelines companies who employ lone workers must account for each employee:
- Throughout each work shift at regular intervals appropriate to the job assignment to ensure the employee’s safety and health; and
- At the end of the job assignment or at the end of the workshift, whichever occurs first
Alongside this, employers should also implement their own regulations to help ensure the safety of their lone workers.
These could include:
- Conducting thorough lone worker risk assessments
- Producing a written health and safety policy and ensuring all employees understand it
- Taking steps to reduce or eliminate risk in order to create a safe working environment
- Providing information, instructions, lone worker training and supervision where appropriate
- Regularly reviewing and improving upon lone worker risk assessments and policies
The Washington State Department of Labor and Industries have also introduced a guide “Working Alone Safely: Controlling the Risks of Solitary Work.” The guide contains recommendations, such as, supervisors periodically visiting or observing lone workers and regular communication throughout a shift or period when someone is working alone. The guide also recommends the use of automatic warning devices and supervisors checking in with staff once the period of lone work is over.
Free download: Guide to lone worker risk assessments
Lone Working FAQ
What are the main risks and hazards that lone workers face?
Certain environments increase the risk to employees, particularly those in which customers may become upset, aggressive or take advantage of a lone worker.
Environments where alcohol, gambling and/or money are involved, as well as sensitive social work, can cause sudden mood changes and hostile behaviour. Utility workers often operate in rural areas, underground or with dangerous machinery and face environmental risks. If an accident were to happen, they may not be able to call for help.
Similarly, staff who travel to different locations as part of their role may not be able to notify managers should an accident happen whilst on the road.
In some environments, no matter how stringent the risk assessment or safety measures put in place, the risk is too great to allow for lone working. So how can you assess the risk to your lone workers and make the judgement call?
Lone worker risk assessments and policy
The first and most important step in determining whether your employees are safe to work alone is carrying out a thorough risk assessment for each employee/environment as appropriate.
View our full guide on lone worker risk assessments
If the risks identified through the process are too high or uncontrollable, you must not let your employees work alone under any circumstance.
If, however, steps can be taken to reduce risk to a controllable level, in line with legislation, it may be safe to allow your employees to work alone, following the implementation of a lone worker policy.
What is a lone worker policy? How do you know if your workers are safe?
A lone worker policy is a guide that sets out your companies’ rules on working alone and helps your employees to understand the risks of their role. It also provides your staff with practical advice and instruction on how to safely carry out their roles and what procedures to follow should an incident occur.
A regular review of both your risk assessments and lone worker policy will help you identify whether your lone workers are safe. You may also wish to carry out inspections to ensure safe work practices are being followed.
Using apps to monitor lone working
Being able to monitor your employee’s whereabouts is extremely important in keeping them safe, as accidents can occur at any time. Regular communications should be maintained with lone working staff and procedures put in place so that employees can quickly communicate with their employer and raise the alarm if needed.
Manual methods of monitoring can be time-consuming, unreliable and often include a large amount of paperwork. Significant advances in mobile technology have led many companies to switch to app-based lone worker solutions to help them monitor and protect their remote staff.
EcoOnlines lone worker solution is an easy-to-use app and online monitoring hub that offers a way for lone workers to raise an alarm in a dangerous situation. It monitors the location of lone workers in real-time via the hub so that assistance can be sent directly to an employee in an emergency.
Before a period of lone work or travel, employees start a timed session on the app which can be viewed by a monitor on the cloud-based hub. If an employee fails to end their lone working session safely, a session expiry alert will be sent to their employer or chosen monitor.
The app features check-in reminders which prompt users to check-in routinely to confirm that they are safe. If a worker finds themselves in a dangerous situation, they can trigger a panic alert and help can be quickly dispatched to their location.
