The two most common approaches to phone-based check-in systems are call centre-driven and cloud-based automated monitoring.

Employees are required to call in to a designated receiver after a predetermined time.  Check-in frequency is based on a job risks assessment, though is commonly hourly or bi-hourly.

Example:

Traditional lone worker check-in processes require all employees to periodically cease their work to manage a check-in. When it’s time to check in, the employees are required to call a co-worker who is on call, their supervisor, and/or a call centre. Alternatively they may call in to an automated phone system.

Potential Issue:

What seems to be a straight-forward process, sometimes gets ignored because the one that is performing the check-in might be in the middle of an important task. Fully manual call-in plans rely heavily on human decisions and memory, which allows for possible forgetfulness, errors and missed steps, yielding a less reliable solution.

On the other hand, the business is losing productivity during the employee’s check-in process since a lone worker must to pause their work task in order to make a call.

Businesses must balance the scheduled interruption with the need for productivity. Compounding the situation, the time to detect an incident is limited by the check-in interval itself. A two-hour check-in respects the business’ bottom line but also leaves a large window for risk. Your employee could be anywhere after two hours.

Suggestions:

We suggest companies move toward a electronic solution that provides a configurable check-in timer, which requires the employee working alone to check-in on a more frequent basis, but at the same time, simplifying check-in procedure to just a press of a speed-dial button, or a check-in button on a smartphone or device.

This automatically delivers a timed safety alert on a pre-configured or custom interval, and such safety alert could be done through an audible, visual and/or tactile indication by aperson-worn safety monitoring device or smartphone.

The convenience that came with this kind of solution is that all he/she has to do is to press a check-in button, while still having the flexibility for more options. If the check-in button is not pressed when required, a missed check-in alert will immediately be transmitted to monitoring personnel.

Learn more about various electronic solutions.