KEY POINTS
* Lone workers typically are very self-motivated and independent by nature, so a command and control style of safety management often is ineffective.
* Using Internet-based programs can help promote communication and safety among lone workers, but should not be relied on exclusively for training purposes.
* Working together with lone workers can help managers better understand their needs and help them invest in safety while in the field.
Monitoring and managing the safe behavior of a workforce can be a difficult task, even in an enclosed environment. Yet employees who work autonomously create even greater challenges for safety managers and workplace supervisors.
Although the term “lone worker” also covers those performing individual jobs on a worksite – such as a job task in an area of the plant that cannot be easily viewed by co-workers, or even a receptionist in a large office building – the needs of remote workers who cannot be supervised through conventional means present perhaps the greatest challenge.
'The issue of managing lone workers is one more organizations are facing,' said Robert Pater, managing director of the training program MoveSMART for Portland, OR-based Strategic Safety Associates. Autonomous work is a growing trend. “The model that many organizations are using is to get out to where the work is,” he said. “We have found that almost every organization has some lone workers. … Autonomous workers are [accounting for] an increasingly large percentage of the workforce.”
* Lone workers typically are very self-motivated and independent by nature, so a command and control style of safety management often is ineffective.
* Using Internet-based programs can help promote communication and safety among lone workers, but should not be relied on exclusively for training purposes.
* Working together with lone workers can help managers better understand their needs and help them invest in safety while in the field.
Monitoring and managing the safe behavior of a workforce can be a difficult task, even in an enclosed environment. Yet employees who work autonomously create even greater challenges for safety managers and workplace supervisors.
Although the term “lone worker” also covers those performing individual jobs on a worksite – such as a job task in an area of the plant that cannot be easily viewed by co-workers, or even a receptionist in a large office building – the needs of remote workers who cannot be supervised through conventional means present perhaps the greatest challenge.
'The issue of managing lone workers is one more organizations are facing,' said Robert Pater, managing director of the training program MoveSMART for Portland, OR-based Strategic Safety Associates. Autonomous work is a growing trend. “The model that many organizations are using is to get out to where the work is,” he said. “We have found that almost every organization has some lone workers. … Autonomous workers are [accounting for] an increasingly large percentage of the workforce.”
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