Lone workers in New Zealand and Australia are often required to go beyond geographical areas where cell phone coverage enables them to easily communicate their location. However, for some lone workers, the geographical area in which they perform their roles has some zones where there is no cell phone coverage, or where that coverage is unreliable. Other workers operate largely out of cell phone coverage altogether, meaning they’re not contactable for long periods of time.
Many businesses and government departments in New Zealand and Australia are expressing concern over employee safety, particularly when they’re on their own and out of reach. Much of that concern is based on a genuine interest in the well-being of their lone workers. But recent changes to legislation have also prompted this renewed attention to the needs of those working by themselves.
New Health and Safety at Work General Risk and Workplace Management Regulations specify that PCBUs (a person/entity conducting a business or undertaking) must manage any risks to the health and safety of their lone workers. If these risks are not able to be eliminated, they must be minimised, as far as is reasonably practical. Of course, each work situation varies and PCBUs will need to weigh up the risks faced by lone workers on a case-by-case basis.
This New Zealand company specialises in lone worker safety by offering a range of solutions and hardware. They’ve noticed an upsurge in interest in their offering. Be it through legal obligations or genuine concern, they’re being contacted by more and more businesses and government departments in New Zealand and Australia, curious about what they can do to protect employees who find themselves working on their own. To help that Kiwi company provide that protection in New Zealand and Australia, they’ve looked offshore to another company based in Canada.
Blackline Safety has its headquarters in Calgary and delivers some of the most sophisticated Lone Worker duress devices in the world. Blackline has created a number of world-first lone worker wearable devices, and when combined with their smartphone app, they deliver critical safety monitoring features to keep lone workers safe all over the world – including New Zealand and Australia. For example, most of New Zealand’s district councils use Blackline Safety products when their employees are out in the field. For those councils, and the people working for them, it has proven to be an effective and reassuring investment.
Lone worker monitoring is backed by Blackline’s Live cloud-hosted monitoring and configuration portal and the option of 24/7 live monitoring. This portal is considered to be at the heart of all Blackline safety monitoring solutions. It equips businesses and government organisations with world-leading alert management tools, compliance dashboards and comprehensive configuration management of fielded devices. All these things combine to keep a lone worker connected and to reduce the risks they face.
There is nothing to separate Blackline Safety in Canada and this Kiwi company when it comes to lone worker safety in New Zealand. Blackline Safety Solutions are integrated via API to the NZ company’s monitoring station so when an alert hits servers in Canada, it also hits response software in NZ. It’s an international reaction when a lone worker needs help, and it’s a fast one. It’s as if those lone workers have an angel by their side no matter where they are.
