Protect, connect and detect: how wearable devices are turning the tide in worker safety

The risks and challenges facing business are evolving on a daily basis. Increasingly, staff safety is a key concern, both for businesses and individual workers. The risks faced by employees, whether they’re visiting a client’s home or serving in a retail setting, include the growing threat of physical violence and verbal abuse.

Recent research from Safe Work Australia¹ showed that 87% of frontline workers had experienced abuse in the past 12 months, with 12.5% experiencing physical assault. At Truis, we believe in putting people first. To help keep our clients’ employees safe, we’ve partnered with Duress, an Australian-owned industry-leading developer of wearable safety tech. We spoke to Trav Heaven, founder and CEO, to find out how their devices are improving the safety of frontline workers across Australia.

Why is there a need for safety devices?

Aggression against workers is rising exponentially. Lone workers are working extended hours in retail, while health, community and government workers are visiting client homes to deliver services.

It was a lone worker scenario that launched Duress’s shift from personal safety to worker safety. “We were approached by a real estate agency who wanted to support their staff. Their property managers were usually young women, essentially putting a photo of themselves up on realestate.com.au and saying ‘I’ll be here, by myself, at this time’, and they were getting harassed and assaulted.”

“The aggression is from a small percentage of the public, but it’s getting bigger and much more violent. We see this across the board—every retailer, every community organisation, it’s just getting bigger and bigger.”

What support do the Duress devices provide?

The core functionality is safety alerts for emergency incidents—wearers of devices are able to activate a live video stream, which is connected to Duress’s dedicated monitoring centre to determine whether it’s a real threat or simply a mistaken activation. If it’s a genuine emergency, Duress escalates to live video, enabling the team to observe what’s happening while they organises priority response from emergency services.

However, the devices go far beyond being a wearable panic-button—and for good reason.

“If we look at our average, organisations probably make a real duress call once a month. We know what’s going to happen, but we don’t know when—so we need workers to have the devices on them. Unfortunately what can happen, particularly in retail where staff skews to a younger demographic, is that they often feel like they don’t need to have the device on them,” Trav says.

“People aren’t going to carry a button they think they’ll never use—so that’s where we added additional features like two-way communication, safety check-ins and team assistance alerts.”

“We’ve got amazing safety functionality beyond our live streaming audio and video, including internal alerting, push-to-talk communications, location safety scores, and even fall detection.”

What kind of improvements have the devices delivered for organisations?

A recent deployment of the discreet Falcon device in a major department store delivered remarkable results: “we saw a 24% drop in aggression against staff in just 30 days,” says Trav.

It’s a serious improvement from such a small device, and the added visual deterrent from the larger Eagle device delivered even sharper results. “When we replaced it with the Eagle, our body-worn camera, aggression dropped by 54%.”

While body-worn cameras can be perceived to be intimidating, for the Duress team, when it comes to worker safety there’s no arguing with the data. Sentiments from staff show they agree. “We survey our customers every year. In the most recent survey, we saw a 97% increase in staff satisfaction by having the devices—they felt they were appreciated.”

In addition to improving safety, one large Australian retailer also found a 51% reduction in theft after they implemented the Duress system—something Trav believes is due to the same deterrent factor that triggered such a significant drop in aggressive behaviour.

What does the future look like for wearable safety technology?

“Over the last nine months, we’ve been building a massive update called SafeSense. It analyses what’s happening in real time, so it detects language, volume, tone, posture, weapons, occluded weapons and micro-movements on the face that suggest aggression.” When the device detects a volatile and risky situation, it automatically activates. “Users don’t need to do anything, the device automatically starts getting them assistance.”

Testing has shown that in many instances the devices are able to activate before the wearer even realises they’re in a potentially dangerous position, with help already on the way before the situation escalates.

“We’re not relying on the user to have to do anything. We’re there in the background, keeping them safe."

The next steps

For businesses looking to keep their staff safe, Trav says the first step is understanding the need. “You don’t need a swiss army knife style approach. Our system is modular, so organisations can pick and choose the features for each individual.”

Partnering with Truis means that organisations are able to streamline the deployment of the Duress system, ensuring it meets cybersecurity requirements and integrates effectively with their platforms. “It’s about what’s the most efficient, responsive and seamless way of keeping people safer than they currently are.”

If staff safety is a priority for you, the team at Truis and Duress are here to help. You can make your workplace safer almost instantly, just by booking a call with Truis here to get started.

Prepare for the year ahead

After launching in 2016 to support domestic and family violence victims in Australia, Duress expanded their goals to keep teams safe across a wide range of industries. Duress is the only company in the world that streams live video, audio and location to an A1-graded 24/7 monitoring centre, capable of triaging and escalating calls to emergency services. With a commitment to evolving to meet the changing needs of the businesses they support, Duress is now keeping over 20,000 teams safe across Australia, New Zealand, the UK, and the USA. To find out more about their devices and functionality, visit their website.

Sources

¹  https://data.safeworkaustralia.gov.au/report/work-related-violence-aggression-australia