Lone worker check-in card

For the late close, the night clean or the empty site. Pick the risk and the shift, put in the real names and numbers, and get the check-in times, the longest anyone could be hurt before someone is on the way, and what the buddy does minute by minute when a check-in is missed.

Where and who

Place or job Address and which entrance Keys and alarm code (who has them, not the code)

Working alone Their phone Shift starts Shift ends

Risk

Low: every 2 hoursLocked building, no cash, no public, no ladders or machines Medium: every hourCash on site, public can get in, wet floors, step ladders, late night, driving between sites High: not aloneConfined space, live electrical work, a fall that needs a rescue, hot work, past violence at the place

Any of these moves the job up a level:

Who answers

The buddy is awake for the whole shift and watches the check-ins. The second contact can get to the site.

Buddy Buddy's phone Second contact Their phone Emergency number Code word for "I can't talk"

Also check in after

Steps that happen anyway: cash dropped, floor 2 done, alarm set. They are extra check-ins, not instead of the timed ones.

Kept in this browser only. Nothing is sent to us.

Make the check-ins a daily checklist the buddy can see, with the name and time on every tick: open tick-tock-done.

How to use it

Agree the risk and the times with the person who will be alone, not for them.
Put in real names and phone numbers. A buddy asleep at home is not a buddy.
Print one card for the worker and one for the buddy, or copy it to both phones. The buddy sets a phone alarm for each check-in.
When a check-in is missed, the buddy follows the ladder by the clock, and writes down the time and the reason when the worker turns up fine.

How it works

Low risk checks in every 2 hours, medium every hour, both on arrival and on leaving; a timed check due within 15 minutes of leaving is folded into the leaving one. High risk is not given a schedule: that work waits for a second person. Being new to the site or task, a medical condition, no signal or a past incident moves the job up one level.

The worst case is someone hurt just after a check-in: nobody knows until the next one is missed, and the ladder sends someone 20 minutes later. So the time alone is the longest gap between check-ins plus 20 minutes, and the emergency call comes at the gap plus 30. The average is half the gap plus 20. Compare that with the 3 to 4 minutes OSHA reads as "near proximity" for first aid where serious injuries are possible.

The levels, the ladder and the rules behind them (OSHA, the UK's HSE, British Columbia's section 4.21) are in Working alone on a late close or an empty site. The intervals are our suggestion, not a regulation: your own risk assessment and your regulator's requirements are the ones that count. This card is not an alarm: it does not call anyone by itself.