Safety Monitoring Devices

Posted on by lwsa-admin

Safety monitoring devices are dedicated for monitoring in areas beyond cellular capabilities, and/or local environmental conditions.

Some of the conditions that these devices can detect include dangerous level of gases or fall detection.  Some of the devices also have satellite functions, which enable the device to communicate with the monitoring centre even when it is out of range.

Examples

These companies offer some of the most trusted devices in the market, that have been used widely in Canada.

How to Pick a Device?

  1. Complete a full assessment of your actual workers’ individual needs. Fully understand their connectivity capabilities for cellular coverage, or otherwise. In almost all cases it is recommended to have a device with communication abilities, as opposed to just a local alarm.
  2. Look for a distinctive light or indicator that shows the active monitoring status because the workers need to know and trust that they are continually being monitored.
  3. Look for solutions and features to avoid false alarms. These could be 2-way messaging function so that the monitoring team can more accurately and easily assess the situation, but other solutions may be possible.
  4. Understand your organization’s need and understand if the monitoring system would be a good fit to your organization in part or as a whole. Good device solutions should be decided for each worker’s or group’s unique needs.
  5. Look for back-end services which can support multiple devices, including both dedicated devices and smartphone apps (and also potentially phone systems) so that the benefits of the dedicated devices can be leveraged for those in need, while also choosing alternative options wherever suitable.

Potential Issues

Here are a few limitations that employers have to consider.

  1. A dedicated device will require a dedicated connection (either cellular, radio, satellite or wifi). While this may extend coverage range beyond cellular coverage areas, there may be additional costs for connectivity. A cost/benefit analysis should be done for each worker/workgroup.
  2. Dedicated devices may add a specific and significant value, however be aware that they serve only the purposes for which they are built. As such, there may be an expense in deploying dedicated devices. A cost/benefit analysis should be done for each worker/workgroup.
  3. Battery life can also be an issue. Check if the app service you are evaluating has protocols and fall-backs to account for battery life.