Going mobile

Working in isolation can be demanding for a variety of reasons. Depending on the situation, lone workers can face increased physical threat and a higher exposure to potentially dangerous situations. With sites spread over thousands of square meters, warehouse and factory workers often find themselves out of sight and reach of colleagues for extended periods of time. Similarly, in sprawling complexes such as hospitals, staff may be isolated due to working irregular hours.

Protecting employees and complying with health and safety regulations is clearly a huge priority for any organisations with vast facilities, especially those within industries like utilities, manufacturing and across the supply chain.

As a result, establishing a healthy and safe working environment for lone workers can be different from organising the health and safety of other employees. Central to any safety strategy for lone workers is a reliable communications network. However, although we rely heavily on consumer mobile devices in our daily lives, for many reasons this is not suitable technology for robust internal communications.

Nurture your network

Most premises requiring lone workers, such as warehouses and factories, are usually located outside of major population centres, on the outskirts of towns and cities. Cellular coverage in these areas is rarely optimal, and as such, it is not suitable for critical communications between staff in remote corners of a facility. These types of facilities also tend to be built with heavy steel and other materials that can negatively affect cell coverage. On top of this, push-to talk functionality is often required in this type of work, along with multiple channels whereby several members of a team can interact with each other.

What’s needed is a dedicated network for each individual site in question, along with devices specifically designed for the task in hand. Equipping employees with a purpose built in-building mobile device means that they are instantly contactable no matter where they are physically located within the building.

When deciding on an appropriate mobile safety strategy, there are a number of factors that must be taken into account. Firstly, it’s important to consider how to set up the mobile communication system to deliver the specific functionality that will help keep employees safe. This might be push-to-talk capabilities to support group calling, alternative text-based messaging options, or specialist apps and alarms that detect when the user is running, has fallen, or is in a dangerous situation.

Another key factor is the range over which the solution needs to operate. Does team management need to connect isolated employees within one area, or across an entire facility? Will staff need to communicate over multiple levels, including basements and other potential black spots? It’s important to consider the greatest distance that employees will roam on a day-to-day basis, to make sure the most isolated workers are not put at risk through lack of connectivity.

Consistent connection

Guaranteed voice quality is a key issue that must be addressed for utilities employees. This is a particular issue for organisations with very large sites, including storerooms, elevators, basements and stairwells, which are very common in the sector. For lone workers, it’s essential that within these areas, ‘dead zones’ or decreased voice communication quality are not encountered. Cellular networks are simply not sufficient in this respect – their voice quality is notoriously unpredictable.

In these circumstances, a DECT (a digital wireless technology for cordless telephones and a wireless office) or Voice over Wi-Fi network offers a mobility solution that a traditional consumer mobile network simply cannot. These networks are privately owned and managed, giving you complete control over placement of base stations or access points – and therefore consistency of coverage throughout your entire facility. The devices used by lone workers also play a part in ensuring that voice quality remains consistent. When maintaining communication is essential, durability, water resistance and shock absorbency may all be required. It’s for this reason that BYOD policies attempting to integrate the use of consumer devices are generally not suitable in warehouse, industrial and healthcare environments.

Reducing risk

Risk is often an integral part of working in a sector like utilities, especially for lone workers, but with proper planning this risk can be managed. A well considered mobile communication system using purpose built devices makes it easy to detect and mitigate situations where workers are in need of assistance, or suspicious activity has been reported.

By ensuring quality coverage throughout their buildings, utilities companies can also boost operational efficiency by maintaining constant communication with employees. Such a device strategy protects staff, while enabling them to do their jobs without the inconvenience of inadequate technology.