‘Stay With Me’: Keeping Lone Workers Safe | Blogs

Back in early 2000, we were proud to pioneer the first dedicated lone worker service to the UK market to help protect people working within potentially dangerous environments. During this time, we have worked with industry experts and customers to continually enhance our service to match the needs of modern-day workers.

We now protect over 40,000 people each year in a wide range of sectors and tailor each solution to perfectly match the needs of each individual client. One example of our innovation is our ‘Stay With Me’ (SWM) service, which we first released almost 4 years ago, to provide people with an active or discreet way of alerting our operators of a potential issue. This service can be used either actively or discreetly, depending on the individual situation.

Active

As an example, if a person was about to cross a dark car park at night and felt uncomfortable, then they could simply say the phrase “Stay With Me” into their device or phone App to alert our operators of a potentially threatening situation. Our operator would then remain on alert and actively remain with that person until instructed otherwise.

Discreet

Alternatively, there may be a situation where a person could be acting strangely close by and you would like an operator available without drawing attention to the device and potentially escalating the matter. This can be performed by a simple button press of our device or phone App, our operator would then silently listen in and ensure that a situation did not escalate.

When our Alarm Receiving Centre receive a genuine Alert, we make sure that 2 operators are managing the situation, this enables us to continuously monitor the live audio and stay in contact with the person whilst a second operator makes relevant escalation calls to the emergency services and dedicated escalation contacts.

Our professionally trained operators are based at our fully accredited 24/7/365 ARC (Alarm Receiving Centre) in the Wirrall, UK. Our ARC team have direct Police control room access and can bypass 999 services, saving valuable time in the case of an emergency for their frontline staff.

Our lone worker services are responsible for helping to protect over 40,000 people within the UK alone, and it is through continual investment and innovation that we can create services such as ‘Stay With Me’ and continue to lead the way. We are proud to offer this incredible feature completely free of charge as part of our regular Lone Worker Services, ensuring that our customers get the most advanced technology without the burden of extra cost.

There are many cases where our lone worker services have played a critical role in the day-to-day safety of staff, but we sometimes find ourselves in more unusual scenarios. In one such case, we were delighted to work with our customer, Places for People, to help support one of their employees, Clare Moore who set herself an incredible challenge to run the Virtual London Marathon to raise money for Children in Need. We were able to support Clare with our RedAlert Smartphone App, to help keep her safe during the long evenings and early mornings of training.

Clare had this to say “I have recently trained for the Virtual London Marathon and was fortunate to be able to use the Orbis Red Alert Protect App. I always take my phone with me when I run to give me security should I need to contact someone, but having the App gave me an added level of safety knowing that I can alert someone if I needed and also just to be there on the end of the phone if I felt unsafe. Fortunately, I didn’t have to alert anyone but having it there gave me that extra bit of security. The support I received from Orbis Protect was excellent and really appreciate their guidance in using the App.”

Some other amazing feedback from our customers include –

Redrow Housing

“We recently had a situation where one of our sales consultants used the Orbis device as she felt in an uncomfortable situation with a member of the public. The ARC Call Handler supported the call, stayed on the line and contacted the Sales Manager and Site Manager, which allowed the Site Manager to head straight to the sales office and provide immediate assistance to the Sales Consultant.”

Colchester Parking

“The monitoring service that is provided is invaluable to our officers who often need the reassurance that they are protected whilst on patrol in known troublesome areas. This is not a service provided by all lone worker service providers but a necessary one for us. Simply, our officers could not go out on patrol without them and therefore they keep our parking operations across North Essex running. Good, constant communication from Orbis means we are always kept up to date on latest services and products available.”

One of the most valued and important services Orbis provide is the monitoring service in which our officers can request an operator to stay on the line and monitor a situation that is likely to consist of aggressive or confrontational behaviour at some stage. Our Officers have great confidence in this.”

Brighter Futures

“There are a number of key benefits to the lone worker solution we have chosen. The device is easy to use and not cumbersome. Leaving the amber alert is quick and simple and having the GPS tracking is a big bonus. The best asset of the device is its ability to be used discreetly. All our staff undertake lone working and conflict management training however, given that some of our customers can be unpredictable, a situation can still arise that a staff member is uncomfortable with.

Being able to activate the device without potentially escalating a situation is a huge bonus that gives our staff comfort and confidence when working. This was one of the main reasons we chose this device rather than a phone app which could be seen by a customer as threatening.”