A customer has booked a visit, but has anyone checked what the worker will find on arrival? Before setting up the activity in a lone worker app, establish the site arrangements. This LoneApp guide focuses on visits to another employer’s workplace, where useful safety information needs to pass between organisations.
At a glance
- Ask the host about site risks and controls before the visit.
- Confirm access, local help and the limits of the job.
- Resolve missing arrangements before sending someone alone.
Start with the host’s information
HSE’s guidance for Great Britain says an employer sending a lone worker to another employer’s workplace must ask about its risks and control measures. A booking confirmation or a familiar customer name does not supply that information.
Use the answers alongside your own assessment of the task and worker. The following questions are a suggested practical briefing format, rather than a prescribed legal form.
- Who will meet the worker, and which areas may they enter?
- What hazards or other work could affect the visit? What controls apply?
- Will someone remain on site for the whole appointment?
- How are emergencies reported, where are the exits and what local assistance is available?
- What should happen if access, staffing or the planned work changes?
Practical example: an IT support visit
Consider a North East IT support business booking a technician to configure office computers at a client’s premises. The appointment begins during normal opening hours, but the proposed finish is after reception closes.
The gap would be the arrangements for that final part of the visit. A visitor pass would not establish whether the technician can leave normally, who remains available locally or how a responder could gain access if assistance were needed.
Before confirming the booking, the manager would ask the host to explain those arrangements. They could agree an earlier appointment with the work completed while the host contact remains present. If later access is necessary, the employer would assess and agree suitable controls before authorising it; staying late should not become the technician’s improvised solution.
The job brief would also limit the visit to the agreed computer work. If the customer requests a different task or access to an unfamiliar restricted room, the technician would pause and seek advice rather than treating the original booking as permission.
Once the visit is assessed as suitable, LoneApp could support an activity with the expected duration, agreed check-ins and a short task or location note. The lesson is to close the information gap with the host first: an app cannot establish safe access or make an unsuitable visit acceptable.
Check the plan still fits on arrival
Ask the worker to confirm the actual arrangements match the briefing. An absent contact, a closed entrance or work happening in the intended area is a reason to pause and contact the manager before proceeding.
HSE recommends setting limits on lone work and ensuring workers recognise when to seek advice. Make that authority practical: tell the worker whom to call and what to do while a decision is made. Avoid leaving them under pressure to complete the booking regardless.
Put one upcoming visit through the check
Choose a customer visit and record the host’s answers, any unresolved points and the decision about proceeding alone. Give the worker the relevant instructions and ensure your responder can access the information needed to help.
For LoneApp, complete readiness checks, test response arrangements and enable live monitoring before live use. Delivery depends on connectivity, permissions and configured channels. LoneApp does not replace risk assessment, safe working or employer response arrangements, and does not include a staffed alarm receiving centre.