The rapid rise of hybrid working has redefined the boundaries of occupational health & safety. While traditional lone worker policies focused on engineers, maintenance teams, social care staff and field operatives, today’s lone workers increasingly include home-based employees, mobile professionals, inspectors, surveyors, drivers and out-of-hours staff. The challenge for leaders attending the Occupational Safety & Health Forum is clear: lone worker risk must be managed wherever work takes place, not just in traditionally hazardous environments…
New Lone Worker Profiles Emerging
Hybrid and remote work have created categories of lone workers who were previously overlooked, including:
- Employees working alone from home for extended periods
- Staff conducting one-to-one visits in clients’ homes or community settings
- Mobile inspectors visiting remote or rural sites
- Shift workers logging in during off-peak hours
- Field-based roles with no regular supervision
- Engineers and technicians servicing distributed sites
These roles may appear low risk on paper, but they present safety challenges including medical emergencies, slips and falls, verbal aggression, isolation, and delayed response times.
Technology That Fits the Modern Workday
To protect this diverse workforce, organisations are deploying flexible, unobtrusive lone worker solutions designed for multiple environments.
Key technologies include:
- Smartphone safety apps with SOS alerts, timed check-ins and GPS location sharing
- Wearables (pendants, wristbands, badges) with discreet panic buttons and man-down detection
- 5G and LTE-M devices offering stronger connectivity in rural and indoor environments
- Body-worn video for roles with high aggression risk, such as community care
- Geofencing to monitor high-risk zones or restricted areas
These tools enable employers to maintain real-time visibility over dispersed staff without imposing heavy intrusion or admin burden.
Building Lone Worker Safety into Hybrid Workflows
Technology alone cannot mitigate risk: it must be embedded into everyday processes. Best practice for hybrid lone worker safety includes:
- Clear policies defining when and how lone worker equipment must be used
- Regular check-ins managed through automated digital systems
- Escalation procedures that connect monitoring platforms to supervisors, control rooms or ARC (Alarm Receiving Centre) services
- Situational awareness training covering personal safety, de-escalation and hazard recognition
- Ensuring employees know how to activate equipment discreetly under stress
Consistency is essential: lone worker tools must be used every time, not only in perceived high-risk scenarios.
A Culture of Support, Not Surveillance
For many hybrid or remote staff, safety solutions can feel intrusive if not presented correctly. Leading organisations position lone worker technology as a welfare support system, emphasising duty of care, wellbeing and fast emergency response rather than monitoring performance.
Engagement improves significantly when employees understand that equipment exists to protect them — not to track their productivity.
Future-Ready Lone Worker Protection
As work becomes increasingly decentralised, lone worker safety is evolving from a niche requirement to a mainstream OH&S priority. By adapting technology, policy and culture to the realities of hybrid working, organisations can protect employees wherever they are, not just when they’re on-site.
As we move into 2026, managing lone worker risk means managing the modern workforce itself.
Are you searching for Lone Worker Safety solutions for your organisation? The Occupational Safety & Health Forum can help!
Photo by Nicolas Lobos on Unsplash
