Lone Working Policy and Procedures

Facilitating safe lone working starts with clear policies and procedures that are clearly communicated and easily accessible.

Lone workers face unique risks and challenges due to the nature of working out of sight or earshot of colleagues. This means that lone workers require their own set of policies and procedures to ensure they are protected from risk.

What is a lone working policy?

A lone working policy is a written document that provides guidance for employers and employees on the company’s processes when lone working. It should offer practical health and safety guidance that employees working alone can apply to their roles, outline the responsibilities of both the employer and employee, provide information on how to report safety concerns, and instruct managers and team members on how to respond in an emergency.

Although not a legal requirement, an effective lone working policy can help to promote a strong safety culture among employees, improving confidence while lone working and simultaneously reducing incidents, accidents and injuries.

Lone working policies should be accessible and easy to understand. Lone workers and their managers need to familiarise themselves with the document, and a copy should also be issued to new employees who will work alone and to any relevant contractors or temporary workers.

Gathering risk information for a lone worker policy

The risk information in any lone worker policy is one of the most important aspects of the document, so take time to consider the full scope of risks and scenarios experienced by all employees working alone.

The key to a strong lone working policy is to consider all of the potential risks that lone workers face and offer best-practice guidance. This will give lone workers the freedom and confidence to make informed decisions about their safety.

When considering risks, it’s worth reviewing your accident book to see what incidents have occurred in the past and then putting measures in place to prevent this type of incident from occurring again. It may also be worth consulting other companies within your sector to see if there are common incidents that haven’t occurred at your company but may be likely to.

To make sure all areas are covered, you could also use these methods to gather information about potential risks:

• Focus groups with employees
• Surveys and questionnaires
• Observe staff in their working environment
• Formal auditing

Download our guide for help conducting a lone worker risk assessment.

Tips on structuring a lone working policy

Policies must follow a standard format to ensure consistency. Your business may already have a standard policy template so you won’t have to start from scratch. Here are a few things to remember when creating a lone working policy:

• The style should match other policies within your organisation
• Use a simple structure that makes it easy to find everything
• Write in clear, concise language and in the third person
• Don’t include words that imply choice, such as “should” and “may”
• Do not use information that will date, such as names or web addresses
• Spell out words the first time, then show the acronym in parentheses, e.g., Lone Worker (LW)

Ensure your policy stays up to date by updating it whenever your risk assessment is updated or new health and safety procedures are implemented

What should be included in a lone working policy?

A lone working policy sets out organisational commitments and expectations whenever an employee is required to work alone. There are eight key elements that all lone working policies should include:

Risks

Add specific risk situations and how to handle them. Break down risks by job roles, lone worker type or department if your organisation has different risks that aren’t applicable to all lone workers.

Purpose & Background

Provide a rationale for the policy, with background information such as why the policy exists, how it relates to your organisation’s values and how it will help protect lone workers.

Definitions

Define who a lone worker is and what your organisation views as lone working. These definitions will make it clear who the policy is written for and in what situations it applies. Here is an example definition of a lone worker from our Lone Working Policy template.

A lone worker is an employee who performs an activity that is carried out in isolation from other workers without close or direct supervision.

Download our guidance on how to identify a lone worker.

Where a lone worker service is being implemented, the policy should also define measurements such as usage. For example, does usage mean simply having a lone worker device switched on, should workers record voice memos before each appointment, or does it mean they have to check in and out at the start and end of each shift.

Organisational Commitment

Your lone working policy provides a great opportunity to let employees know how much your company cares about their safety. Your organisation may already have an overall safety commitment – you could use this or write a specific one for lone workers. Here is an example of an organisational commitment to safety from the well-known car manufacturer, Ford;

Barclays also state its commitment to safety;

Responsibilities

The policy needs to be clear on who is responsible for what, including employees themselves. For example, employees need to take reasonable care of their own personal safety, including not putting themselves in a situation that could compromise their safety. Make this clear by outlining the procedures lone workers are expected to complete while working alone (e.g. check in with a buddy upon arrival at a site).

Managers and supervisors need to be aware of their responsibilities which may include completing a lone working risk assessment, being an escalation contact, and reporting incidents in the correct manner.

Senior managers also have responsibilities to ensure the company’s procedures are compliant with health and safety laws and regulations.

Include information on lone worker devices too e.g., who is managing usage (managers) and what employees are responsible for (making sure their devices are charged etc.).

Reporting

It needs to be clear to whom an employee should report incidents. Whether it is through a formal logging system or as simple as telling the correct person and filling out a form. Reporting lone worker incidents is important as it can often present an opportunity to learn or uncover a new risk.

Lone Worker Services

Providing personal safety devices is one of the most effective ways of protecting lone workers and is the first choice for many employers. By implementing an employee safety service, lone workers can have 24/7 support from trained alarm handlers who have direct access to the emergency services in a life-threatening incident.

Help & Support

The most effective way to keep your employees protected is to have an open line of communication about how safe they feel and any areas for improvement. To maximise this, make sure you include information on who employees can contact if they have concerns about their personal safety or have any ideas for how health and safety protocols can be improved. Name and provide contact details for external agencies, charities or a union.