Business Trends for 2025: Prioritising Lone Worker Safety

The next twelve months promise to be eventful ones for lone workers.

It’s estimated that around a fifth of us currently work alone for at least part of the working day.

That fraction will likely grow in 2025 as hybrid and remote work continue to change the paradigm of where and when we carry out our work duties.

As such, it’s never been more important to prioritise lone worker safety and have the technology and policies in place to keep workers safe.

Below, we take a look at how we can make the new year a safe one for lone workers.

Risk Assessments

Businesses that expect their workers to go it alone must adhere to all workplace laws and regulations.

The main health and safety regulations that businesses should have in mind is the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations (1999), which stipulates that an employer must carry out a risk assessment of all its work sites, including the ones lone workers can be expected to work on.

Businesses with more than five people are legally obliged to record and document this risk assessment and also the steps they have taken to mitigate the risks they have identified.

In general, a lone worker risk assessment must:

Identify the hazards and risks the lone worker might encounter while out on a job.
Implement control measures to mitigate and manage those risks.
Provide lone workers with the necessary information and training that will allow them to understand the risks they face and how best to deal with them when they arise.

Training

An essential part of any robust lone-worker safety regime is training.

This doesn’t just mean keeping staff up to date on how to safely use the tools and apparatus they regularly use to do their jobs, but also involves familiarising staff with the technology used to keep them safe and sound.

There are a host of lone-worker safety devices on the market – from simple two-way radios to more advanced GPS lone-worker apps and alarms.

If an employer opts to kit out its lone workers with one of these pieces of tech, it’s important that the worker is trained on how it works and is familiarised with all its functions.

Technology

Lone worker apps are especially useful when it comes to keeping remote workers safe, as they are easy to use, convenient and cost-effective.

Apps run on compatible Android and Apple devices and operate quietly in the background of the device, sending regular updates back to base and allowing the lone worker to call for help should he need it.

An added layer of protection comes in the shape of a True-Man Down detection system, which monitors a worker in real-time and alerts the base and the emergency services if it suspects the worker is injured or incapacitated.