enitial, a company that specialises in providing environmental and waste management services to many different public and private sector organisations, has taken the decision to deploy Lookout Call, an automated lone worker safety system, to improve the personal safety of its lone workees.
enitial is responsible for the safety of approximately 35 lone workers who spend most of their working days in very remote and isolated places, such as old quarries, reservoirs or disused land fill sites. If something goes wrong and they have an accident on site, it is crucial that that they are found quickly so that the relevant medical help and assistance can be provided.
Their work can involve monitoring gas, water, noise or dust levels in many different locations and when they go to site they are required to take a great deal of heavy, specialist equipment with them.
Why Lookout Call? When enitial decided to review its health and safety procedures and implement an automated lone worker safety system, to replace an existing manual system, it was imperative that the lone workers were not burdened with any additional equipment.
All lone workers, however, carry a mobile phone so they can keep in contact with their colleagues and the office. Lookout Call was selected because it integrated easily with existing working procedures and no specialist equipment was needed.
Safety in the workplace is paramount at enitial and Lookout Call has been incorporated into the organisation’s overall health and safety procedures. All lone workers are obliged to use the system when they go to site, as part of their terms of employment, and if they do not, they could face disciplinary action because they are putting themselves at risk.
The management team is able to ensure that lone workers are using the system by looking at the usage reports stored on Lookout Call’s website. These are accessible via a secure interface that is password protected. This helps them ensure that Lookout Call is being used to its full potential and help and assistance can be given to those who are not using the system as often as they should.
The company has also thought very carefully about its responder procedures because it is essential that lone workers are found quickly if the alarm is raised. The system has therefore been configured to call a dedicated responder mobile phone during office hours in case all the regular phone lines are engaged. For out of hours coverage, the system has been configured to call normal land lines. These numbers change regularly, depending who is on duty, but administration staff can easily update responder rotas via the website.
“Some of our projects may involve staff going to site in the middle of the night,” says Hannah Palacio, Process Manager of enitial. “By deploying Lookout Call, we do not have to man our office 24/7. Lone workers simply log onto the system and tell it where they are going and how long they will be by setting a timed activity. This means our responders are only woken up if an alarm is raised.”