How Municipalities use Ok Alone

Within a municipality, city or town there are many, many jobs that need to be taken care of. These jobs are done by civil servants who work directly for their local government. The roles can vary from librarian to health visitor, from grounds keeper to social worker, but one thing these jobs have in common is that people will be alone for part of their day.

Many people who work for their local authority fall under the banner of being a ‘lone worker’. This means although there may be other people around, e.g. in another lab, or different area of a care home, employees cannot be seen or heard by another member of staff during their shift. Staff are also considered ‘alone’ if there are only members of the public around or if they are with an inexperienced member of staff who is not trained to handle specific situations that may arise.

The easy solution to this common situation is to give staff a lone worker system that can be carried on their person at all times. The best way to do this is have staff use a lone worker app that can be downloaded on to their smartphone. One such app is Ok Alone, a simple app that is intuitive to use and monitors lone workers to keep them safe.

Ok Alone is used by many municipalities throughout Canada, the UK, the US and Australia.

Parks and Facilities Lone Workers

One city that uses Ok Alone does so for its Parks and Facilities staff. The town is fairly rural with large expanses of forest surrounding it. Staff use the lone worker system while off site to keep in touch with management. The GPS setting on Ok Alone can be adjusted by workers so their location can be updated either every 1-2 minutes, or every 10 seconds and is precise to the square metre.

Water Management Lone Workers

Ok Alone allows local governments to keep their departments in compliance with provincial and federal guidelines related to health and safety. In one town water technicians are required to check in every two hours, or more frequently for riskier environments. The high risk feature of Ok Alone allows workers to adjust the frequency of their check in depending on the environment and situation they are entering. Ok Alone allows local authorities to meet their working alone policy requirements.

Enforcement, Community Liaison and Compliance Officers

Some local community workers are required to go into people’s residences during their shifts, this is especially dangerous when they are alone. One town has equipped its Bylaw Enforcement, Community Liaison and Compliance Officers with Ok Alone. These workers can use the built in ‘Help’ button to alert their management that they need immediate assistance. If it is not possible to use the Help button, as it could potentially escalate a situation, workers are also able to use the discreet multi tap feature on an iPhone to summon help.

As municipalities and local governments employ people across many different departments they need a lone worker solution that is flexible, adaptable and easy enough for all their workers to use.