SECURITY CALL OF DUTY
Dave Whittle, CEO Positive Response, highlights the Duty of Care obligation for FMs to protect lone workers, who are at risk of verbal and physical assault.
When we refer to the ‘lone worker’, we often have a picture in our mind of people who work by themselves or without close or direct supervision: such as the person in a small workshop or in a retail kiosk, home workers, postal workers, home helps or community nurses, and estate agents or sales reps visiting domestic and commercial premises.
In facilities management, the most common image of the lone worker is the security guard patrolling the company’s grounds on their own. Yet, as economic circumstances dictate the streamlining of people and efficiency of resources, there are many other industry examples where FM staff might find themselves vulnerable and alone, for example; people who work as cleaners or maintenance and repair staff, often outside of normal working hours, but sometimes they are just working separately from others in large commercial buildings, leisure centres or factories and warehouses. But the lone worker could even be the person who is responsible for opening up or locking the building.
There is no legal requirement indicating that lone working must not happen however, earlier this year, the new health and safety guidelines and related liabilities, published by the Sentencing Council, came into effect with a key addition of ‘targeting vulnerable victims as an aggravating feature’. This highlights the responsibility of businesses, under Duty of Care, to identify all potential hazards, and take the necessary steps to prevent them. And this includes the risk of violence at work, where any employee is at risk from verbal abuse, physical threat, or crime-related injury. It is essential that people working alone in FM must not be overlooked in an organisation’s health and safety and staff security agenda.
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Keeping staff safe and protected gives them peace of mind and improves staff morale and staff retention. Safer and more efficient working practices do not need to be costly or time-consuming. In fact, in the long-run they can save money and have a positive effect on the organisation’s bottom-line. Incidents of front-line staff suffering abuse, pain, anxiety and stress create a poor image for the organisation, can make staff recruitment and retention difficult, and can result in higher insurance premiums.
“DANGEROUS
SITUATIONS CAN, AND DO, ESCALATE IN A VERY SHORT TIME.”
For lone worker situations, a risk assessment should be undertaken as part of the broad duties under the Health and Safety at Work Act (1974) and The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations (1999). The risk assessment should indicate any significant risk, detailing how the risks should be adequately controlled for lone working to continue, as well as identifying the correct level of supervision or backup required. Control measures may include training, instruction, communications, supervision and personal protective equipment (PPE).
However, it is not just the legal implications that focus the need for a high level of staff security.
CCTV is a popular method for keeping staff safe in the workplace however, used in isolation, this is often not enough to support a safer and reassuring environment for employees in the everyday workplace. Potentially dangerous situations can, and do, escalate in a very short time. A 24-hour audio monitoring and response service, operated by trained staff, offers the added protection of allowing an operator to listen in and watch, should staff have any concerns.
The reassurance that an operator can interact with any area at any time provides great comfort to staff. Often, by interacting at an early stage, many initial situations of potential risk are diffused. Through a combined use of CCTV, microphones, loudspeakers, PIR two-way communication and trained staff, the tools to prevent escalation are immediately accessible for managing most situations. This includes situations where a lone worker might have had an accident or fallen seriously ill. After a period of inactivity the worker is connected automatically to an operative who can then talk with them and alert the emergency services.
Having someone there to provide some comfort and reassurance is invaluable for staff.
www.positiveresponseuk.com
twitter.com/TomorrowsFM
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