Deciding between equipping your staff with a panic button or safety app can be difficult, so we’ve pulled together some general guidelines to help you evaluate these two options for staff safety equipment.
Dedicated Safety Solutions for Lone Workers and At-Risk Employees
Dedicated safety solutions for employees working alone or in risky environments can be a great asset in achieving success. However, with so many options available, how do you choose the one that best fits your unique business needs?
This article will break down some questions to ask in order to help zero in on what matters most to you and enable you to find the best solution for your organization.
Understand the Risks Your Workers Face and Consider Potential Solutions
A plan for keeping lone workers safe can have many different iterations depending on context. Often the first big decision in building a lone worker safety plan is finding the right tools to keep your staff safe in a variety of emergency scenarios. This leads organizations to evaluate whether a wearable panic buttons, safety app, or combining the two is best from them.
4 Key Points to Consider When Deciding Between a Panic Button or Safety App
1. Is the Phone Accessible During an Emergency?
This seems like a no-brainer, but it’s an important place to start. Can the employee access their phone? Is their greatest risk a sudden or unpredictable incident or something they may be able to see coming?
If it's something they can see coming and have enough time to open their phone, the safety app may be sufficient. However, if the primary risk is sudden and/or has the potential to escalate quickly, a wearable panic button is likely more suitable.
2. Are Regular Check-Ins a Requirement?
In many provinces and states, it is a requirement for staff working alone to check in on a regular basis. It is also good business practice. If your organization currently has a lone worker check-in process in place, a safety app equipped with a check-in feature is a must. An app-based approach to regular check-ins can often provide the security needed, help reduce operational costs, and save time for your lone workers.
3. Do You Need to Keep Track of Staff Location Throughout the Day?
If you have staff that work in the field or deliver community/home-based services, ensuring you can locate those individuals in an emergency is likely an important component of your safety plan. Safety apps often provide some level of automated location tracking and reporting capabilities that improve efficiency and reliability for organizations when they need to locate staff during an emergency. Not all safety apps offer the same location tracking functionality. Ask to be sure.
4. How Quickly Do You Need Something in Place?
If speed is your primary objective, a safety app can be a great place to start. Safety apps can be downloaded, set up, and functioning within days, with minimal onboarding and training required. Hardware, on the other hand, requires shipping time, initial pairing and setup, and proper staff training. Even if your eventual need is a wearable panic button, starting with the safety app lets your team familiarize themselves with the process, and the wearable can be rolled out strategically, all the while keeping your staff safe with the app.
3 Steps to Follow to Help Match the Solution to Work Requirements and Employee Need
Properly matching the solution to the works requirements and needs of your staff is crucial to ensuring strong adoption and adherence to your overall working alone safety program. The type of solution you choose should be carefully matched to the level of risk for each employee, their daily tasks, and personal preference. Here are three steps you can follow to determine which staff should be using a panic button, safety app, or a combination of the two.
1. Develop Risk Profiles for Your Staff
Each role is unique. A one-size-fits-all solution can sometimes discourage employee uptake as staff compare their situation to others who may be more at risk, and vice versa. Instead, consider a simple risk profile assessment as part of your solution-building. A safety app is typically best for those with a low to moderate risk profile. Those with the highest risk profile would benefit from the added safety of the wearable panic button hardware. Risk profiles can also support in developing your policy surrounding how the safety app or wearable panic button should be used once implemented. For example, those in the moderate risk level may need to provide location updates more frequently through the safety app in comparison to those at lower risk.
2. Review Tasks to Assess Feasibility of Safety Apps and Panic Buttons
It is important to understand the daily routines of staff you are looking to protect and the situational context of the risks they face.
Is There a Need for Complete Discretion?
The ability to signal for help without others in the room knowing can be valuable in a number of situations and can only be done with a wearable device. When a person is demonstrating early warning signs of potential violence, the simple act of taking out a phone can contribute to escalating the situation. Quickly sending a discreet alert signal can help staff focus on de-escalating the situations while simultaneously knowing help is on the way.
Will Multiple Devices Complicate Work Processes?
Some roles may require fewer tools on hand and a reliable lone worker safety app may be the best solution. Similarly, if the position is shared and/or part-time, a safety app is implemented with greater ease than a wearable panic button.
3. Discuss Options with your Staff
Consider this: The best solution is one that gets used. Include your affected employees in the decision-making process. This will ensure the choice you make is one they can get behind. When they feel empowered, onboarding and overall usage becomes easier. It can also boost employee morale, helping to foster a safety culture you can be proud of.
Where to Start
Balancing Cost and Need
We get it. While cost isn’t the most important factor, whatever you choose needs to fit within the budget. Generally speaking, a safety app is a more affordable, universal solution. Whereas wearable panic buttons typically incur an upfront cost to buy the devices.
Here is where the risk profile assessment can be helpful. By matching solution to need, your dollar can stretch further with a hybrid approach.
Your First Choice Doesn’t Have to Be Your “Final Answer”
Business and individual needs change over time and a reputable safety partner will be prepared to help you quickly adapt. At times, a wearable safety device combined with the safety app may be the best solution, while at other times the mobile app alone will perfectly align with your safety needs.