Employers

Suzy Lamplugh Trust acknowledges what an extremely difficult time this is for employers at the moment and would like to express our support in any way we can. We know that you are experiencing the most stressful and daunting time in relation to your business and employees. We would urge you to continue dialogue with your employees about the changing risks they may face, especially on the frontline as key workers, as part of your routine risk assessment and mitigation to keep your staff safe.

 

Follow our safety tips for keeping your employees safe while they work at home as they are now lone workers;

• Ensure they each have a work colleague or buddy they can check in with at the start and end of each day.
• Ensure you have an open dialogue with your employees so that they can raise any concerns about risks they may be facing
• Maintain a culture that prioritises workplace personal safety to reassure your employees that they have your full support

 

 

Employees

Suzy Lamplugh Trust condemns all violence and aggression in the workplace, both on and off-line, and urges respect for all frontline workers at this extremely difficult and stressful time: no worker deserves to experience violence and aggression for simply doing their job.

If you are experiencing increased levels of violence and aggression as a key worker still doing your job in these extremely difficult times you can follow our 5 tips for de-escalating and defusing situations until you can safely exit the situation;

• Listen - this assures the person you are taking their concerns seriously
• Empathise - this helps the person see you understand their situation
• Acknowledge/Ask Questions - to find out exactly what is making the person angry
• Paraphrase - to show the person you have really understood their concerns
• Summarise - to highlight the issue they have raisedFollowand show that you understand them

Have a plan in place for safely exiting the situation or a way of covertly raising the alarm and calling for help. Make your employer aware of all the risks you are facing and report all personal safety incidents to help address risks for colleagues.

 

Lone Workers

For those of you now unexpectedly finding yourself working from home, did you know you are a lone worker? A lone worker is anyone working out of sight and supervision of your colleagues. Employers still have a legal duty to keep you safe whilst working from home - and employees must follow all safety policies and procedures provided to them. For example; have you got a buddy system in place? A buddy system is a system where an allocated colleague checks in with you regularly to make sure you are safe at the beginning and end of each lone working day.

 

Follow us on Twitter for lots of advice about how to stay safe as employers and employees in these unusual and difficult times: @Live_Life_Safe