Lone Worker Policy: What to Include (With a Free Template)

October 23, 2026
Facilities technician in a navy uniform inspecting equipment with a flashlight and clipboard alone in a dim mechanical room

Key Takeaways

  • A lone worker policy should define who counts as a lone worker, require a risk assessment before anyone works alone, set check-in and monitoring rules, name who responds when something goes wrong, list work that must never be done alone, and require training and an annual review.
  • In the U.S., federal OSHA has no general standard dedicated to working alone, but the General Duty Clause still requires protection from recognized hazards. Washington State requires panic buttons for certain isolated employees, and California requires most employers to maintain a workplace violence prevention plan.
  • British Columbia and Alberta set out specific working-alone duties in regulation, and UK employers must manage lone working risks under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations.
  • The free template below gives you section headings and fill-in text you can adapt to your organization in an afternoon.

A lone worker policy is the written commitment that sets out how your organization identifies, controls, and responds to the risks employees face when they work without a colleague nearby. It turns good intentions into rules people can follow: when to check in, what to do if someone goes quiet, and which jobs should never be done alone.

Who needs a lone worker policy?

Any organization with people who work out of sight and earshot of a colleague, even part of the time, benefits from one. That includes the obvious groups (home health and hospice staff, social workers, utility and field technicians, inspectors, security officers, real estate agents, delivery drivers) and the less obvious: the receptionist who opens the building, the cleaner on an evening shift, the employee working from home, and the manager who regularly stays late.

The test is simple. If an employee were injured, ill, or threatened right now, could someone see or hear them and help within minutes? If not, they are working alone, and your policy should cover them.

What the law says about working alone

There is no single global rule, so a policy should be built on the rules that apply where your people work.

United States

OSHA stated in a 1999 interpretation memo that, outside the electric power standard, there is no general OSHA standard covering an employee working alone, except in specific situations such as emergency response, interior structural firefighting, and permit-required confined spaces. Employers still have a broad duty under the General Duty Clause, Section 5(a)(1) of the OSH Act, to provide a workplace “free from recognized hazards” likely to cause death or serious physical harm. OSHA’s workplace violence page names working alone or in isolated areas as a factor that may increase the risk of violence.

Some states go further:

  • Washington. RCW 49.60.515 requires hotel, motel, retail, and security guard entities and property services contractors to provide a panic button to each isolated employee. Under the current text, an isolated employee is a janitor, security guard, hotel or motel housekeeper, or room service attendant who works where coworkers can’t respond to an emergency without being summoned, or who spends at least half of their working hours without a supervisor or coworker present. The device must be carried by the employee, be simple to activate without passwords or start-up delays, and let responders accurately identify the employee’s location.
  • California. Under Labor Code section 6401.9, in force since July 1, 2024, covered employers must establish, implement, and maintain a written workplace violence prevention plan, keep violent incident logs for at least five years, and train employees, according to Cal/OSHA’s guidance. Lone workers who face the public belong in that plan.

Canada

Canada’s Centre for Occupational Health and Safety advises employers to check the regulations in their area because some jurisdictions have specific working-alone laws. Two of the most detailed:

  • British Columbia. OHS Regulation sections 4.20.1 to 4.23 require employers to identify hazards before assigning someone to work alone, eliminate or minimize them, and maintain a written procedure for checking the worker’s well-being at set intervals and at the end of the shift, with a designated person who records each check. Training and an annual review are required.
  • Alberta. Part 28 of the OHS Code treats working alone as a hazard and requires an effective communication system with regular contact at intervals appropriate to the hazard.

United Kingdom

The Health and Safety Executive states that employers must manage the risks to lone workers under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations, and that some high-risk work (confined spaces and work near exposed live electrical conductors among them) requires at least one other person to be present.

What a lone worker policy should include

A strong working alone policy is short enough to read and specific enough to act on. These are the elements that matter most:

Section What it answers
Purpose and scope Why the policy exists and who it covers
Definitions What “working alone” means in your organization
Roles and responsibilities Who assesses risk, who monitors, who responds
Risk assessment How lone work is assessed before it starts and reviewed afterward
Restricted lone work Tasks that must never, or only with approval, be done alone
Check-in and monitoring Intervals, methods, and who receives check-ins
Communication and equipment Phones, panic alarms, and other devices staff must carry
Emergency and missed check-in response Step-by-step escalation with time limits
Training What workers, monitors, and managers must learn
Reporting and review How incidents and near misses are logged and how often the policy is updated

How to write and roll out the policy

  1. Inventory lone work. List every role and situation where someone works alone, including travel and after-hours work.
  2. Assess the risk. For each, consider violence, medical events, falls, hazardous energy or materials, driving, location, and time of day. Ask the people doing the work; they know where the near misses happen.
  3. Decide what’s off-limits. Some tasks should require two people, either because a regulation says so or because your assessment does.
  4. Set controls. Check-in schedules, visit plans, communication devices, and escalation steps.
  5. Write it plainly. Use the template below, then cut anything your teams won’t read.
  6. Train and sign off. Every lone worker and every monitor should acknowledge the policy.
  7. Test and review. Run test missed check-ins, review after any incident, and update at least annually.

Free lone worker policy template

Copy the text below into your own document and replace everything in [brackets]. Have it reviewed against the laws that apply in your jurisdictions before you adopt it.

[Organization name] Lone Worker Safety Policy

Policy owner: [Title, e.g., Director of Health and Safety] Effective date: [Date] | Next review: [Date, no more than 12 months later]

1. Purpose

[Organization name] is committed to protecting the health and safety of employees who work alone. This policy sets out how we identify and control the risks of working alone, how we stay in contact with lone workers, and how we respond if a lone worker needs help or cannot be reached.

2. Scope

This policy applies to all employees, temporary staff, and contractors engaged by [Organization name] who work alone at any time, including [list: field visits, home visits, after-hours work in our facilities, travel between sites, remote work].

3. Definitions

  • Lone worker: Anyone who works without a colleague close enough to see or hear them and to help promptly in an emergency.
  • Monitor: The person designated to receive check-ins from a lone worker and to start the escalation procedure.
  • Check-in: A confirmation from the lone worker, at agreed times or events, that they are safe.

4. Legal and policy basis

This policy supports our obligations under [list applicable laws, e.g., the OSH Act General Duty Clause; RCW 49.60.515; California Labor Code 6401.9; BC OHS Regulation sections 4.20.1 to 4.23; Alberta OHS Code Part 28] and works alongside our [Workplace Violence Prevention Plan / Emergency Action Plan / Home Visit Procedure].

5. Roles and responsibilities

  • Senior leadership: Provides resources and holds managers accountable for this policy.
  • Managers and supervisors: Complete risk assessments, approve lone work, assign monitors, and ensure training.
  • Monitors: Track check-ins, log them, and start escalation without delay when one is missed.
  • Lone workers: Follow the check-in schedule, carry required equipment, report hazards and near misses, and stop work if they feel unsafe.
  • [Health and safety committee or representative]: Is consulted on risk assessments and check-in intervals.

6. Risk assessment

Before anyone is assigned to work alone, the manager will complete a lone worker risk assessment using [form name] that considers: the task, location, time of day, travel, history of violence or aggression at the location or with the client, medical fitness to work alone, and the means available to summon help. Assessments will be reviewed [annually / when the task changes / after any incident].

7. Work that must not be done alone

The following tasks require at least two people: [e.g., confined space entry, work on energized electrical equipment, work at heights above X, first visits to clients flagged for aggression, cash handling after X p.m.]. Exceptions require written approval from [title].

8. Check-in and monitoring

  • Lone workers will check in [on arrival at and departure from each site / every X hours] and at the end of each shift.
  • Higher-risk work identified in the risk assessment will use [shorter intervals / live location sharing / professional monitoring].
  • Check-ins will be made by [phone call / text / app / wearable safety device] to [monitor title], with [backup title] covering when the primary monitor is unavailable.
  • Before each field visit, workers will record [address, client name, expected start and finish times, vehicle] in [system].

9. Communication and safety equipment

Each lone worker will be issued [mobile phone / wearable panic button / safety app] and must keep it charged and carried on their person while working alone. Devices will be tested [monthly].

10. Emergency and missed check-in response

If a check-in is missed, the monitor will:

  1. Within [5] minutes: call and text the worker.
  2. Within [10] minutes: try alternate contacts and the site or client contact.
  3. Within [15] minutes: notify [manager on call] and review the worker’s visit plan and last known location.
  4. Within [30] minutes, or sooner if there is any sign of danger: send [a colleague / security] to the location or call 911.

If a worker activates an emergency alert or uses the agreed duress word [word], the monitor will treat it as an emergency and call 911 immediately.

11. Training

All lone workers, monitors, and their managers will complete training on this policy, the check-in procedure, equipment use, situational awareness, and [de-escalation] before working alone, with refresher training every [12] months.

12. Reporting incidents and near misses

Employees must report any incident, threat, or near miss involving lone work to [title / system] within [24 hours]. Reports will be reviewed by [team] and used to update risk assessments and this policy.

13. Review

This policy will be reviewed at least every 12 months, after any serious incident, and whenever work arrangements change.

Approved by: [Name, title, signature, date] Employee acknowledgment: I have read and understand this policy. [Name, signature, date]

How Silent Beacon supports a lone worker policy

A policy sets the rules; equipment determines whether people can follow them in a real situation. Sections 8, 9, and 10 of the template are where Silent Beacon can help.

Fast, discreet emergency calling for section 10. Silent Beacon’s 2.0 panic button is a wearable panic button that pairs with the employee’s smartphone over Bluetooth® and uses the phone’s cellular or Wi-Fi signal. Emergency Alert Mode calls the number your policy specifies, which can be 911, through the device’s own two-way speakerphone, while text, email, and push alerts with GPS location go to your monitors at the same moment. Silent Mode does the same with the speaker and light off, for situations where a visible call could escalate things.

Check-In Mode and Footsteps Mode for section 8. Check-In Mode lets the worker send an “I’m OK” message with their location to chosen contacts without unlocking the phone. It is a manual check-in the worker sends; it can’t be scheduled and doesn’t send automatically, so your monitor still owns the schedule and the escalation. Footsteps Mode shares a worker’s live location with contacts during higher-risk moments, such as walking to a client’s door at night, and optional 24/7 monitoring is available.

Control Center for sections 5, 12, and 13. Administrators use Control Center, Silent Beacon’s cloud admin interface, to manage users and devices and review alert history, which supports incident review and the annual policy update. Location is shared only during an active alert, a privacy-first design that helps with employee trust. Organizations are typically operational in under two weeks.

Frequently Asked Questions.

Sources

Get a Quote for Your Team

A lone worker policy only protects people when it is specific, trained, and tested, so adapt the template, name your monitors, and run your first test missed check-in this month. If you want help equipping the people your lone worker policy covers with fast emergency calling and check-ins, Get a Quote and talk to a Silent Beacon safety expert.

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