A lone worker is an employee who performs an activity that is carried out in isolation from other workers without close or direct supervision. Such staff may be exposed to risk because there is no-one to assist them. Being alone naturally puts a person in position and spots where you can only rely on yourself, in cases of mishaps or accidents it is usually dangerous since you are by yourself and have to take care of yourself. Some examples of lone workers are: construction workers, oil and gas workers, mobile workers especially for travelling agencies, utility workers, self-employed individuals and real estate agents. Here are certain common risks faced by lone workers:

1. Sudden sickness and the need to handle incidents manually.
2. Emergencies and accidents caused by work they carry out.
3. Physical and verbal abuse from members of the public, these abuses could include theft and intruding
4. There is inadequate attention being paid to the personal hygiene, health and general welfare facilities to ensure the basic health of workers.
5. Treatment delay and slow response to treating those in emergencies which arise due to a lack of immediate access to first aid treatment or assistance

As a result of the crucial role lone workers undertake, many countries all over the world have made legislations to assist and ensure the safety of lone workers. Many companies also now have methods to handling safety and of lone workers. Some of these methods are:

• Companies now have training programs built to help lone workers ensure their safety
• Conflict management training; a program designed to help the workers manage a conflict and prevent escalation
• Creating a document that contains lone worker policy, it is well known that written laws are harder to breaker
• Conducting risk assessment
• The use of technology to aid communication to help centers when there is a problem; use of monitoring system and equipment, use of trackers and also the use of GPS based mobile apps custom made for lone working.

Technology has been the biggest as it has played a huge role in securing the safety and well-being of lone workers; management now use monitoring systems and equipment such as panic alarms, man down (for fall and impact) detectors, special pendant tracker and lone workers app built with GPS that could be used for tracking and monitoring just to ensure their employees safety. As a matter of fact, Lone workers are now supported by cloud based automated monitoring system and specialized monitoring call centers. They are often referred to as Alarm Receiving Center (ARC) in the UK or Emergency Dispatch Center (EDC) in the US.

iHelp- Man Down System- Lone Worker Safety Solution (GPS010D)

As a company it is imperative you pay attention to the workers and ensure their safety. Lone workers are very vulnerable and must be carefully monitored, the iHelp is all you need to keep your workers safe. With some of these important features, the iHelp keeps employees safe while helping the employers monitor them. The Help is a key chain that doubles as a man down system, a device made specially to ensure lone workers safety. Some key features it possess are:

1. Location tracking: With the iHelp device you can always pinpoint the exact location of your workers even in real time, it utilizes LBS+GPS that allows an employer always locate the workers. This is particularly very important in cases of emergencies when there is a fall and the employee has to be located as soon as possible.
2. Fall detection: A fall can be of different magnitude, it could also vary based on what height the fall occurs from. Sometimes workers can fall and suffer instant fracture and dislocations, they could faint and the shock from their fall could cause collapse. With the iHelp device you can detect a fall with the diverse algorithm and multiple sensors in the device that triggers an alarm in the case of a fall. This way the instance the alarm goes off a first aid kit or even an ambulance can be sent to attend to the worker.
3. 2 way communication: it’s important to communicate with the workers, there could be the need to pass on a safety message to everyone while working in a danger zone. In cases like this the iHelp makes such possible, with its 2 way communication system the workers can report if they are injured and call for emergency health care. The device allows easy communication between the worker and the organization.
4. Water proof nature: There is a level of ruggedness that the iHelp build has, while on site the key chain could fall into a poddle if the lone workers site is a region that’s really water logged or has lots of water bodies. It would be terrible to have it fall into water and get broken, a worker could be droning while working and with the water proof device still be able to reach out for immediate help.
5. Single press SOS call button: With the single tap of a button, it becomes very easy to request an emergency attention. Once the SOS button is dialed, an alarm is sent to the monitoring zine and then help can be sent immediately to the required location. The iHelp provides this very delicate option that have saved many lone workers life and how to use it can be understood by any worker.
6. Free mobile apps: There is a free mobile app that can be downloaded on the app store, kindly search for “Ds tracker”. With this option even with your phone it is possible to get locations of your workers from anywhere, you don’t need to sit before a computer all day to monitor. There also exists a web tracking platform.

For employees working in the most hazardous sectors such as constructions, natural resources, healthcare, enforcement or even transportation. The iHelp device offers complete employees safety solution to ensure that workers are safe at all times and when they are in danger the employers are aware and can send help immediately.