Every 15 seconds, 151 people suffer a workplace accident and every year 321,000 people lose their lives at work, according to statistics taken from the International Labour Organisation. This seems inconceivable, particularly as most workplace accidents are preventable.

Conducting risk assessments is an integral part of adhering to health and safety legislation and meeting your duty of care to lone workers. Lone workers face a range of hazards and risks on a daily basis, that can differ from those based in a fixed or office environment.

Download our Guide to creating your lone working policy and put systems in place to support your employees.

A lone worker policy is an official written document that covers the risks faced by lone working staff and the responsibilities of both the employer and employee in ensuring that lone workers can work safely. Lone workers require their own policies and procedures to ensure they are protected from any specific risks and hazards.

Employers have a legal obligation to ensure that they look after their employees that work alone. This means providing safe systems, places to work, and suitable arrangements to ensure that their health, safety and welfare are cared for. Failing to meet these obligations may result in legal backlash. Many companies face hefty fines for doing so.

Under the Health and Safety at Work Act (2015), you must manage the risk to lone workers. The HSWA guidance for lone worker safety states that you should:

• Provide lone workers with an effective means of getting help quickly in an emergency

• Lone workers should keep in regular contact with another person (e.g. another worker) or, if regular contact is impractical, they should check in with another person at regular intervals.

In addition, the regulations state that an employer must have an effective means of communication with an employee who performs remote or isolated work.

Many companies choose to implement a specialist lone worker safety solution to ensure they meet this requirement

Here are some examples of what you may include in your lone working procedure:

• How often should the employee check in with you and through what means
• Which lone worker solution should the employee use to contact you (i.e. apps or devices)
• What should the lone worker do in an emergency and who should they contact
• How should the employee deal with aggression from clients or other members of the public

There may be many more steps that can apply to your lone working procedure. Make sure you cover all the bases and ensure that all steps are compulsory as this could save lives.

When creating your lone working policy, ensure that you follow our top tips to prevent any future issues from arising:

Keep it Simple

Your lone working policy should be as simple and concise as possible. Your employees need to be able to understand what the policy entails and what they are entitled to. Keep language simple and the layout of the document clear.

Review & update it regularly

You will need to regularly update your policies whenever big changes to the work activities occur. This includes new training courses, lone worker solutions, or needing a new risk assessment.

To help you get started with writing your lone working policy, we have created a comprehensive step by step guide for you to use.