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Working alone is now an integral part of everyday working life in many industries. However, lone working often entails specific risks and challenges for the company.
Ensuring the safety of people working alone in such situations while at the same time complying with legal requirements has increasingly led to a digital revolution in the field of occupational safety in recent years.
In particular, digital personal emergency signal systems in the form of lone worker apps have established themselves as indispensable tools for responding quickly and effectively to emergencies in lone working situations and ensuring lone worker protection in various working environments.
But how do these apps work and when are they used?
The most important facts in brief
✓ Working alone involves specific risks and poses particular challenges for companies. The safety of people working alone must be guaranteed.
✓ Digital personal emergency signaling systems such as lone worker apps have proven to be indispensable tools for responding quickly and effectively to emergencies and ensuring the protection of lone workers.
✓ The use of a lone worker app offers advantages such as automatic and manual emergency triggers, precise location functions, efficient alarms and simple management via a dashboard.
How an app for working alone works
An app for lone workers integrates various Features to ensure safety when working alone:
1. emergency release
An app for lone workers as a digital personal emergency signal system enables both manual and automatic emergency triggers.
Automatic personal alarms, also known as automatic personal alarms, offer special protection through various Features, such as the position or rest alarm, as an emergency signal can also be triggered in the event of unconsciousness or immobility.
The time alarm can be helpful when working alone for a limited period of time, as it triggers an emergency signal after a predetermined time.
In addition to the automatic Features , a manual SOS button is normally also available to manually activate the personal alarm in the app.
2nd alarm
In an emergency, the reporting chain is set in motion to alert the emergency contacts as quickly as possible. All relevant information is transmitted efficiently to enable a rapid response to the emergency situation.
As with a conventional personal emergency signal system, there is a pre-alarm that can be deactivated in the event of a false alarm.
Emergency contacts can be contacted by email or text message in many stand-alone apps, depending on your preference.
3. localization
Localization in an emergency must be precise and fast. This is crucial in order to locate the person concerned and provide targeted assistance.
There are various options for localization via an emergency app, such as satellite positioning (GNSS), GPS positioning, localization via WLAN / WiFi as well as via Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) and Ultra-Wideband (UWB). You can find out more in our article"How does indoor positioning for emergency signal devices work?"
The use of Bluetooth beacons significantly improves the indoor location of people and is therefore considered a promising solution, especially for applications that require maximum accuracy.
4. administration
Administrators can manage all settings flexibly via a dashboard. Management can be carried out in two ways: Centrally via the cloud or individually per smartphone.
CALIMA prefers centralized management via the cloud, as this ensures uniform management of all users and devices. Updates, settings and configurations can also be easily applied to all devices in this way, which makes system maintenance easier.
Centralized management also enables detailed analysis and reporting on the use of the system, allowing the effectiveness and acceptance of the Lone Worker App to be monitored.
Advantages of a lone worker app
Effectiveness
The advantages of a lone worker app are particularly evident in its effectiveness. Its targeted effectiveness enables employees to access the app quickly and efficiently in lone working situations and to complete their tasks on their own without having to worry about their safety or health.
User friendliness
The applications are generally designed to be very user-friendly and intuitive. This feature ensures that employees can easily use the app without extensive training.
Flexibility and cost savings
A decisive advantage is that the stand-alone apps can be used on commercially available smartphones as digital personal emergency signal systems using public telecommunications networks (PNA-11).
This means that companies can often make use of employees' existing company smartphones, which makes additional investments in special hardware superfluous.
This flexibility leads to considerable cost savings and makes lone worker apps one of the most cost-effective solutions in lone worker protection.
Fast alerting via smartwatches
The practical applicability of the lone worker apps is enhanced by the option to use them on smartwatches. This integration enables even faster and more discreet alerting in an emergency, which is particularly important in critical situations.
Seamless integration into existing processes
The use of a lone worker app can be seamlessly integrated into a company's existing processes. This makes the app not only effective, but also extremely practical and future-oriented.
The lone worker app thus becomes an important part of the company's safety measures.
Legal basis
The legal basis for working alone in Germany is regulated by the German Social Accident Insurance (DGUV), among other things.
According to § 25 of the accident prevention regulation "Principles of Prevention" (BGV/GUV-V A1), employers are obliged to provide suitable technical or organizational personal protection measures in addition to the general protective measures so that help can be summoned immediately in the event of an accident or acute illness and directed to the scene.
The obligation of employers to ensure that persons working alone are protected by suitable technical or organizational personal protection measures is also laid down in Section 8 (2) of DGUV Regulation 1.
The risk assessment in accordance with Section 5 of the Occupational Health and Safety Act also requires the employer(s) to identify the hazards associated with working alone and assess the specific working conditions. Find out in this article whether carrying out a risk assessment is mandatory.
An important prerequisite for occupational safety apps in Germany is development based on DGUV Rule 112-139 and the specifications of DIN VDE V 0825-11.
For which industries does it make sense to use a lone worker app?
Logistics
The use of a lone worker protection app is particularly helpful in logistics, as employees often work in automated warehouses and large storage facilities where they are sometimes working alone. An emergency call app enables them to respond quickly and efficiently to emergencies, ensuring the safety and protection of these employees at all times.
Horticulture
For horticulture, the use of a lone worker app is important as employees often work in different environments, whether alone on site or as a team spread over extensive areas. In this industry, where hazards range from paving work to tree care, the app enables a quick response to critical situations.
Building construction and civil engineering
In building construction and civil engineering, the use of a lone worker app is of great importance, as construction workers often work out of call and sight of other people. The use of a lone worker app can be a sensible solution for improving occupational safety, especially for work such as driving and unloading bulk materials or for extensive construction projects where employees may be working alone. Find out more about occupational safety on the construction site.
Security service
In security services, employees often carry out patrols in hazardous areas, sometimes alone. An app for lone working enables rapid emergency triggering, efficient alerting and precise localization, which is particularly important so that employees can request help and initiate the rescue chain when working alone.
Building cleaning
In the building cleaning industry, an app for working alone is crucial, as cleaners often work at night or at weekends. Cleaning teams may also work alone at times, as they are often spread out in large buildings and therefore work out of sight and earshot of other people. An app for lone working can therefore help to ensure safety in various work situations.
Industry
In industry, even in large companies, it makes sense to use a lone worker app, as people often work alone, especially when carrying out maintenance and servicing tasks such as monitoring large production facilities. An emergency call app provides an improved sense of safety, especially in large plants, by quickly initiating the rescue chain.
Craft
The use of a lone worker app is particularly helpful in the trades, especially for self-employed tradespeople who work alone in their workshop or on site at the customer's premises. An app enables an emergency to be triggered quickly so that help can be summoned quickly in an emergency.
Forestry/agriculture
Employees in forestry and agriculture often carry out activities alone, be it driving tractors at night or handling chemicals and machinery.
Due to the large areas involved, working alone in forestry and agriculture is sometimes unavoidable. An app therefore contributes to safety in rural and agricultural environments by enabling a rapid response in an emergency.
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Why is a lone working app for lone working so important?
A lone worker app enables a quick response to emergencies by providing both manual (volitional) and automatic (non-volitional) triggers for personal alarms. This is particularly important as rapid assistance in critical situations can save lives.
Apps for lone worker protection also ensure efficient alerting via a reporting and rescue chain. In emergency situations, relevant contacts are notified immediately and all necessary information, such as the location, is transmitted.
This function enables a coordinated response and helps to reduce possible consequential damage and to react and provide first aid as quickly as possible in an emergency.
The location function of an app can be carried out both via WLAN and via Bluetooth beacons for indoor positioning and ensure precise and fast location determination in an emergency. This is crucial in order to find the person concerned quickly and provide the required help in a targeted manner.
With a stand-alone application such as CALIMA, it is also possible to manage the settings and access reports and statistics via a dashboard. This allows the use and efficiency of the system to be continuously monitored.
Conclusion: Effective protection through stand-alone apps
As digital personal emergency signaling systems, lone working apps are a helpful solution to the challenges posed by lone working situations and help employers to comply with their legal obligations in occupational health and safety.
A digital emergency system for lone worker protection offers precise and flexible alarm, location and management functions that make it easier to trigger an emergency signal in an emergency.
With their intuitive operability and the option of using them on standard smartphones, they not only offer a modern alternative to existing systems, but also a more cost-efficient solution.
Overall, a lone worker protection app not only helps companies to meet their legal obligations, but also to respond effectively and in a timely manner to the specific requirements of lone working.
