Housing services provider Altwood Group is using an app, running on iPads, from StaySafe Business to protect its staff and monitor their safety using GPS and alerts.
The StaySafe Business app and surrounding cloud-based monitoring service tracks a lone worker’s location via GPS and alerts their manager if they don’t check-in within a specified time. The app runs on iOS, Android and BlackBerry platforms and offers a range of functions including a panic button, working session expiry and low battery warnings, GPS tracking, inactivity and duress alerts. If an employee activates the app’s panic button or fails to check in, alerts are automatically triggered on screen and via text and email, allowing Altwood to take immediate action.
Sundeep Dhesi, chief executive, Altwood Group, said, “Our staff all use iPads so having a safety device that runs on a device that they already have to hand means that they rarely forget to use it. Employees visit several locations a day so to know when they are checking in and out and be able to track their location enables us to know that they are safe at all times, even when travelling between locations. We’ve tried other devices in the past but none has had the range of features, accuracy and ease of use that StaySafe has.”
Don Cameron, CEO, StaySafe Business, said, “Lone workers can be seen as an easy target; research has shown that 84 per cent of housing association workers have been verbally assaulted and eight per cent have had a weapon used against them. StaySafe Business helps to ensure that any employees who find themselves in danger can discreetly signal for help and be found quickly, before a situation has the chance to escalate.”
