Writing a Policy

Best practice means protection

Writing a policy gives clear instructions and expectations of how to fulfil safety responsibilities within your role. We want to give you the best chance of writing a policy that encourages people to use Peoplesafe regularly and benefit from its protection. Our guidance gives more detail on responsibilities, reporting, help and support that will make using Peoplesafe simple and easy for your team, setting them up for long-term success.

Here is what the HSE have to say

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Customers who use our best practice can achieve adoption rates of 97%. We track adoption as users who have their device/app actively used post implementation & training

Meghan Sproul - Peoplesafe Onboarding Specialist

What to include in your policy

Policies must follow a standard format to ensure consistency. Your business may already have a standard policy template, so you won’t have to start from scratch.

Here are a few things to remember when creating your lone working policy:

The style should match other policies within your organisation
Write in clear, concise language and in the third person
Don’t include words that imply choice, such as “should” “could” and “may”
Do not use information that will date quickly, such as names or web addresses
Spell out words the first time, then show the acronym in parentheses, e.g., Lone Worker (LW)

MANDATED?

If you have people at high risk, you should mandate the use of personal safety equipment and state how employees will be disciplined for non-compliance. If it isn't mandated and an incident occurs, the person's manager and your organisation are vulnerable to prosecution.

Purpose & Background: Provide rationale for the policy, with background information such as why the policy exists, how it relates to your organisation’s values and how it will help protect lone workers.

Risks: Add specific risk situations and how to handle them. Break down risks by job roles, lone worker type or department if your organisation has different risks that aren’t applicable to all lone workers. Read more here.

Responsibilities: The policy needs to be clear on who is responsible for what, including employees themselves. Read more here.

Reporting: It needs to be clear who an employee should report incidents to and how Managers should report on use of personal safety equipment.

Help & Support: Provide clear routes to seek support internally and at Peoplesafe.