Five tips for using software to fulfil your duty of care to your employees

Duty of care is defined as “a moral or legal obligation to ensure the safety or well-being of others.” (Oxford languages). Particularly post-pandemic, considering an increase in remote and hybrid working and the number of lone workers in the UK, an organisations’ obligation to provide a duty of care to its people has never been more apparent. How can software help you achieve your duty of care goals? Here at Track24, we suggest five tips for using software to ensure your duty of care to your employees is met. These will help keep your people safe and secure, manage their wellbeing, promote effective communication, and implement a positive workforce culture. According to Mind charity, “FTSE 100 companies that prioritise employee engagement and wellbeing outperform the rest of the FTSE 100 by 10%.” Source.

Keep up communication channels 

Whatever your duty of care software, use mass notifications to ensure your staff are easily alertable, able to raise alerts and confirm whether they are safe in any situation or location. Use messaging features to regularly check in on the wellbeing of your staff. “60% of employees say they’d feel more motivated and more likely to recommend their organisation as a good place to work if their employer took action to support mental wellbeing.” Source. Communications notifications can be sent via one-way messages, two-way messages, or broadcast messages. Optimised duty of care platforms will provide all three capabilities. One-way communications might be notifications or alerts sent from operator or administrator to end-user, two-way communications allow the end-user to respond, for example, with their safety status and broadcast messages enable messages to be exchanged between groups of people, which the operator or administrator creates. 

Realise the importance of risk management

Part of an employer’s duty of care to their workforce is to execute effective risk management. Taking into consideration the changing landscape of how we define a high-risk environment, employers must be able to protect their people not only in unprecedented circumstances and crisis scenarios but also day-to-day, in any situation. Duty of care means it is important to understand the location and safety status of your people. This might be during a critical event or regular business operations if your staff are working at remote sites. You must have your employees’ consent to track their location, of course. A privacy-first outlook should always be adopted when working with risk management features. Many duty of care software will enable you to request two-way communication throughout the duration of a critical event or otherwise, to ensure a positive outcome.

Leverage lone worker support 

It’s generally estimated there are over 6 million lone workers in the UK, as of 2022. Are your lone workers included in your communication loop? Are you optimising your use of software to check in on both the wellbeing and safety status of your lone workers? Lone working can be isolating, so it’s vital to keep a track on workforce wellbeing. Some duty of care software has messaging features exclusively for your lone workers. Be sure to determine whether active tracking permissions are in the hands of the end-user, so your chosen software always respects your employees’ privacy. Our own location intelligence platform, AtlasNXT features a protect module called Overwatch, which enables employers to fulfill a duty of care to their employees and their families, keeping them safe anywhere, any time. End-users always provide consent to be tracked, meaning their privacy is protected.

Harness HR integration

“89% of HR leaders agree that ongoing peer feedback and check-ins are key for successful outcomes.” Source. Duty of care software can enable you to communicate with employees across all locations, providing them with the information they need easily and efficiently. Some operational risk management, communications and duty of care providers offer you the opportunity to integrate your existing HR systems and databases into their platforms. Having all of your information in one place, will not only enable you to best support your employees’ duty of care, but it will also help you run your operations as smoothly as possible. 

Duty of care with precise document sharing

Wise employers will know employees work better when they are healthy, motivated, and focused. Ensure staff are provided with documents which contain information on how your organisation will support their mental health and wellbeing and where they can access help if they are struggling during their induction and throughout their employment. Guarantee that employees can access wellbeing and safety documentation by investing in a duty of care software which declutters the document storage landscape. Make sure your staff have the relevant, correct, and updated information to hand, no matter what the location or situation. Does your entire workforce know where to find documents? To ensure the safety and wellbeing of employees in all situations, warrant they can easily access all the information they need.

Here at Track24, we’ve provided you with a useful guide for choosing and using a software which will enable you to fulfil your duty of care to your employees. To find out how Track24’s next-generation location intelligence platform, AtlasNXT can help you deliver your duty of care to your employees, click here: https://atlasnxt.com