Following a large organisational restructure and the amalgamation of its subsidiary operations, Genesis Housing Association has recently rationalised its lone-working systems to a single system from Guardian 24.
Extending the use of its existing Guardian 24 system and replacing another in-house lone-working system, the mobile phone-based system will now be used by all of Genesis’s 500 regular lone-workers.
Thomas Kennedy, senior health and safety advisor, Genesis Housing Association, said, “We discovered that various parts of the organisation were using different paper- and IT-based systems, so we were keen to implement a single uniform process, meaning all employees had the same level of protection and making the situation easier to manage.”
The Guardian 24 software turns a standard mobile phone into a personal safety device for lone workers. It allows staff to log visits to customers and confirm their safe return, and provides the means of raising an alert if they feel threatened or need emergency help. Genesis staff can now leave details of their movements and location via their mobile device. If a user fails to notify the system when they finish a set task, Guardian24 will attempt to contact them. If they do not answer and their safety cannot be verified, Guardian24 will then alert a nominated contact at Genesis.
If a user feels at risk, they can also use a panic alarm function by pressing an assigned key on their mobile device, even if it is locked or in standby mode. This will call a nominated contact who can listen live to the incident via a two-way communications channel and assess the response needed. All recordings are saved and can be used as legal evidence. If the mobile device has GPS, this can also be used to locate an employee in an incident.
Guardian24’s web interface allows Genesis’s health and safety team to monitor the system’s usage and automatically starts a process of investigation into what prompted the device to be activated.
