Lone Worker Personal Safety
Mental Health Matters were fined £30,000 plus an extra £20,000 towards the cost of prosecution in February 2010. They admitted a breach of health and safety laws in sending trainee Ashleigh Ewing to her killer's flat on her own.
Such a tragic situation should be a wake up call to all in management.
All companies have a legal duty of care to staff working by themselves, many of whom can be described as a Lone Worker.
Our clients range from accountants to charity employees working in outreach.
Personal Safety for Lone Workers is more than just investing in technological back-up
Personal Safety for Lone Workers is much more than just kitting staff out with technology. This can be very useful, but the most effective personal safety provision is training staff to spot and avoid/minimise where possible. Through the use of Six Sigma Process Management we can minimise your risks to start with.
If you can't stay away from danger we can train your staff to manage a conflict situation and protect themselves. Technology can be a great tool as part of this, but you also need to know how to carry it, use it and fit it into your risk reduction programme. Unskilled use of technology can inflame an already dangerous situation. We train people to be confident and rely on themselves, but can also help you with the technology! Ask us to review your requirements.
What is a Lone Worker?
A Lone Worker can be defined as an accountant visiting the home office of a customer. A Lone Worker can be a council employee providing foster care transport. You might consider yourself a Lone Worker yourself when travelling a long distance either to and from work or on behalf of your employer.
All of the above types of Lone Workers can find themselves in vulnerable, unfamiliar situations. A company always has a duty of care to safeguard the personal safety of employees going about their business.
Click here for our Lone Worker Personal Safety leaflet
We complement our conflict management and stress management training modules with streetwise personal safety training for all types of Lone Workers.
What we provide is a fabulous boost to the confidence of your staff, which in itself is an excellent first step to ensuring they are not picked out as an obvious potential "victim" just because they are working alone.
We believe that if you prepare for the worst, then you avoid the worst.
We enable your staff to be able to say "no" to people and to stand their ground assertively without being passive or aggressive.
Our training revolves around creating challenging realistic Lone Worker staff scenarios which we train your employees to deal with. We encourage staff to get away as soon as possible in a nasty confrontation, but if they cannot because their path is blocked or the situation is becoming very threatening, then we help your Lone Workers master very basic self protection techniques. They gain an immediate boost in confidence because they know they have already defended themselves successfully under pressure. Intriguingly this helps staff with their ability to use their new assertive techniques and makes them even less of a potential victim in the first place.
This is not martial arts training. The training enables your Lone Worker to dramatically enhance their own awareness, confidence and self protection skills. It increases assertiveness skills and the ability of your staff to stay safe.
On our personal safety courses you don't have to wonder:
"Will that excellent technique doesn't work?" or "I'll never remember all that". We prove to your Lone Worker staff that they can protect their own personal safety, because they do it in very realistic circumstances on the course itself.
The MAX difference
We make our training so realistic that you will know for sure that our training works.
Whether it be a verbal confrontation or a physical one, we only provide practical relevant training - that works.
As part of the Lone Worker course, we change personality from the friendly instructor to the most obnoxious intimidator when we put dark glasses on. We revert back to normal when we take the glasses off again. It sounds simple, but it is very powerful. Ask anyone who has experienced it - we can give you references ranging from children to ex military personnel.
We train our physical protection techniques asymmetrically. This is not martial arts where many situations are choreographed - he does that then you do this....... Your Lone Worker needs to learn effective techniques which do not rely on whether for example your right hand is grabbed or not. If he grabs your left hand then you still need to be able to protect yourself.
What happens if your intimidator is fuelled on drugs or alcohol - or both? We pressure test our training with the Lone Worker to give them the confidence that they are very well prepared to provide for their own personal safety - they know it works even under the most horrible circumstances.
We tailor our training to our clients' requirements and ensure Lone Workers experience custom made practical training relevant to their circumstances.
Other Options to be included in your Lone Worker training package:
Root Cause Analysis and Security Process Improvement
Restraint & Breakaway Techniques
These can all be used in conjunction with other Management Training or as a stand-alone item on a Conference or Meeting Agenda.
If you have any queries about course content or would like to discuss a specific requirement please contact us.
We uniquely apply FAST Defence Technology on Lone Worker courses.