Lone Worker Safety Products: What’s the Return on Investment (ROI)?

If you read the title of this article and thought to yourself, “The answer is right there—the ROI is worker safety!” you are correct—partially. The main incentive for purchasing lone worker safety products is, of course, to protect lone workers. However, there are other business factors at play.

Each business must go through an evaluation process before making the decision to purchase a lone worker safety solution. ROI is a critical part of this calculus. Due diligence is necessary before making any significant purchase for a business, and many businesses rightly ask what the ROI is for lone worker safety products. While it’s not always a black-and-white answer, purchasing a lone worker safety solution does have an ROI—and it can take many forms.

Lone Worker Safety as Insurance

First and foremost, a lone worker safety solution is essentially insurance for your business. Your business likely pays for all different types of insurance, from fire to accident to auto insurance and beyond. It’s important to think of lone worker safety as the same thing. Like any insurance, you pay for it and hope that you never have to use it.

You are paying for peace of mind, but your ROI materializes in those unfortunate situations when an incident does happen and the safety product is needed. With the right product, like a wearable panic button, you can mitigate the damage of an incident and help prevent harm from coming to your employees. Purchasing a lone worker safety solution is like wearing a seatbelt while driving—you can’t afford not to do it!

Reduces Probability of Incidents

The ROI for a lone worker safety protection investment, however, goes beyond an insurance policy. In the case of a safety incident, it’s not just the victim who is affected. A safety incident can do serious damage to your business operations in the form of work stoppages, lawsuits, audits, and more. While a safety solution can’t guarantee that it will prevent incidents, it can certainly reduce the probability that an incident will happen—and mitigate the aftershock if it does.

Implementing a lone worker safety program also helps create a culture of safety in your organization. Increasing both safety awareness and safety practices among your employees will ultimately lead to a better defense against safety incidents that protects your workers—and your bottom line.

Making an investment in a lone worker safety solution is a hedge against risk—and a smart business decision. In order to realize the ROI, though, you must choose the right product and partner. The “right” partner will vary and depends on your organization’s specific needs. After taking an in-depth look at your company’s specific needs, seek out products and solutions that match your situation. Once you do choose a solution provider, make sure to pilot the program using a small group or groups before implementing it long term and across the entire organization. This will help you reduce the risk of choosing the wrong system—and improve your ROI.

Serese Selanders is the Founder and CEO of SolusGuard. SolusGuard delivers a suite of workforce safety solutions that include not only a best-in-class safety alarm but also rich features such as employee check-in and -out, compliance reporting tools, and additional customizations depending on individual customer needs. Selanders has over 25 years of business experience in financial and technology industries. In addition, she is an active volunteer with a number of community organizations. Selanders has been formally recognized for being an exemplary leader and innovator.