How to Manage Lone Workers Safely

Start by mapping out all the situations in your organisation where workers may be alone. Consider: workers who are alone for extended periods (home workers, remote site workers, night security); workers who are temporarily alone (a supervisor during lunch cover; a lone employee working late); workers who are geographically isolated even if nominally part of a team (field workers, community nurses, estate agents); and workers in potentially hazardous environments without direct supervision (maintenance in plant rooms, warehouse work after hours, lone retail shifts).

Don't assume lone working is limited to obvious examples. A lone delivery driver, a night-shift cleaner, and a home-based administrator all present different lone working profiles. Categorise lone workers by the nature and duration of their isolation and the hazards of their work environment — the risk management approach will differ significantly between a low-risk home office worker and a lone maintenance engineer entering plant areas.

The risk assessment for lone working must address both the task hazards (the same hazards anyone doing this job would face) and the isolation hazards (hazards that are specifically increased by the absence of a colleague). Isolation hazards include: inability to call for immediate help if injured or taken ill; risk of violence or aggression from third parties (particularly relevant for healthcare, social care, retail, and enforcement workers); delayed discovery if incapacitated; risk of mental health deterioration from extended isolation; specific physical risks that require a second person (working at height alone, moving heavy items alone, manual resuscitation); and inability to implement certain procedures safely without two people.

For each lone working scenario, assess: How likely is it that something could go wrong? How serious would the consequences be? How quickly would it be discovered if something went wrong? What specific controls does the absence of a colleague require? Would this work be permitted to be done alone by a fit and competent worker?

The controls for lone working typically combine procedural, communication, and monitoring elements. Procedural controls: define which tasks may and may not be done alone (some activities — confined space entry, live electrical work on certain systems — must never be done by one person alone); establish clear start and end times for lone working shifts; define escalation procedures for emergencies.

Communication controls: establish a check-in protocol — the lone worker contacts a nominated contact at defined intervals or on arrival at and departure from locations; set a clear policy for what happens if a check-in is missed (how many missed check-ins before action is taken, who takes the action, what the action is). Technology: lone worker monitoring devices, smartphone applications, or GPS-enabled devices can supplement or replace manual check-in calls for higher-risk roles. These do not replace the risk assessment and procedures but can significantly improve the speed of response if something goes wrong.

Lone workers need additional training beyond what their non-lone-working counterparts receive. Training must cover: the organisation's lone working policy and procedures; the specific risks of their working environment; what to do in an emergency (how to call for help, what information to give, how to recognise when they need help); the check-in procedure and the consequences of not following it; dynamic risk assessment — the ability to assess whether a situation is becoming unsafe and to escalate or withdraw appropriately; first aid awareness (lone workers may need to manage minor injuries without immediate help); and violence and aggression awareness where relevant.

Check-in procedures are only effective if workers take them seriously. Where workers circumvent or ignore the check-in system, this must be addressed through supervision and, if necessary, disciplinary action — it is not merely a bureaucratic inconvenience but a safety-critical control.

The check-in system must be proportionate to the risk. For a home-based office worker in low-risk clerical work, a daily contact with a line manager may be sufficient. For a lone community nurse visiting challenging patients, a check-in call before and after each visit with a 30-minute response escalation may be appropriate. For high-risk lone working (maintenance in hazardous areas, lone security in remote locations), a real-time lone worker monitoring device with automatic fall detection and man-down alert may be required.

Critically: the check-in system only works if someone responds to it. The nominated contact must know what to do if a check-in is missed, must be available to receive calls, and must have clear authority to escalate (including calling the emergency services). A check-in system that logs missed calls but has no active response process is not a control — it is a false assurance.

Review the lone working risk assessment and controls after any incident or near miss involving a lone worker, and at intervals defined by the risk level. Where violence or aggression has occurred, review immediately — the threat level may have changed, and controls that were adequate before the incident may not be adequate now.

Survey lone workers regularly about the effectiveness of the controls — they are the primary source of information about whether the check-in system is workable, whether the emergency procedures are understood, and whether the isolation is creating risks that are not visible from the office. Act on the feedback; a lone working policy that exists on paper but is unworkable in practice will not be followed.