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Posted By Malcolm Greenhouse
Hi, I am looking into the use of a monitored lone worker alarm system for housing officers and call out repair staff. Could anyone tell me of their experiences of such systems. What works and what does not. In particular I suspect that ease of use for the user will be the main driver as they all require some sort of initialisation as far as I can see. If you have a lone worker system that includes off site monitoring I would be really grateful if you could share your experiences.
Mal
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Posted By Margia
We use a combined mobile phone/satellite tracker as part of our lone worker management, and we have the devil's own job to get staff to use it properly. For some reason they suspect management are spying on them. If you decide to go down this route, make sure you get union involvement and support otherwise it will be a complete non-starter.
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Posted By Bob Youel
You can get any type of system you want today e.g. person / self activating - obvious / hidden etc plus many combinations in between
Risk ass & that will give you what you a good outline. Note costs can vary considerably
Try the web for other info
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Posted By Bob Thompson CMIOSH
I work alot with social workers who at times are under significant threat, we used a system called orbis which we found exellent, as it all externally monitored. this cuts out the middle man as some systems depend a nominated manager within the organisation checking a website on a regular basis.
Regards bob
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Posted By bob safe
Bob says beware of lone worker systems operating through mobile phone networks. I was involved in starting a pilot project involving these types of systems. This particular company said an awful lot more than their prayers in the sales blurb and when it came to be operational the system was full of flaws ommitted at the sales part of the deal.
As mentioned before, it can be a nightmare getting staff to use it and I did have the unions on-side, it was still rejected and eventually failed after the organisation pumped £40 grand into it.
An important point to remember is, the system will not prevent an incident and may not necessarily speed up a response to aid the worker, seen it happen and staff badly assualted as a result. It all comes down to risk assessment and effective training to deal with the circumstances, big complicated area of work.
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Posted By Kieran J Duignan
Curious how deep-seated motivational problems devalue the return on investment in alarm systems
The observations of Margia and Bob about 'the devil's own job' (revealing choice of expression!) to 'get staff to use the equipment is not necessarily a comment on the equipment.
Margia's observation about the belief that management are 'spying' indicates motivational issues that need to be addressed in themselves.
Neither risk assessment nor training can adequately counterbalace distrust in management.
About 25% of the £40K. that Bob refers to could have enabled management to change their own behaviour without a lot of pain to them and a significant reduction in dysfunctional behaviour that reduces the effectiveness of any warning system
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Posted By bob safe
Have to agree with Kieran there, in the situation i was involved in the morale was shocking and the introduction of the system was to me a knee jerk reaction that management tried to force upon employees following a near fatality. I have no doubt there are other systems on the market far better than that i was working with, however I'll never be convinced by these systems, they're a bolt-on and only really work in conjunction with other control measures.
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Posted By bob safe
OOOPS!
Nearly forgot.
Actually,m the system I was involved with was anything but easy to use.
The company supplied us with PIN Numbers for each operative, turned out they were all wrong, two week delay.
Upon reissue of the PIN numbers they failed to supply the correct number of digits resulting in users being "locked out", 3 week delay
Upon testing of system following complaints from employees it was discovered even when they ran over their booked time, the system failed to notify them or move through the escalation process the system promised. The company stated this was due to another company using the system as a reminder and subsequently cutting off service to other users.
To summarise, my employer bought a system that was too complex, incapable of dealing with service demands and badly promoted by management - there was no consultation other than with union reps direct who didn't appear to think it through very well.
In the end I refused to waste my time dealing with the problems it created because it resolved none. I heard the system was dumped about a month after i left, unfortunately the company still bragg of their system so be wary of who you use and test them hard!
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