Strengthening Lone Worker Safety Through Crisis Readiness
At this week’s NSC Safety Congress & Expo, EcoOnline’s Xavier Braham outlined the importance of integrating lone worker protection with crisis management.
- By David Kopf
- Sep 19, 2025
At a Learning Lab session Wednesday at the National Safety Council (NSC) Safety Congress & Expo, Xavier Braham, Solutions Consultant with EcoOnline, urged employers to strengthen both lone worker protection and crisis management practices, warning that gaps in either area can quickly escalate into life-threatening incidents.
Braham pointed to hidden challenges that safety leaders often underestimate. “About 60 percent of lone worker incidents are occurring on second and third shifts or with weekend staff; times when supervision is at its thinnest,” he said. Without immediate visibility or discovery, minor injuries can become severe or even fatal, he cautioned. Contractors and temporary staff compound the problem, making it difficult for organizations to know exactly how many employees may be working alone at any given time.
Integrating Monitoring and Crisis Response
EcoOnline’s approach, Braham explained, focuses on GPS-enabled monitoring, automatic fall detection, and dual notification systems that alert both monitoring centers and direct supervisors. “That dual system ensures emergencies are never missed and that the response is both coordinated and immediate,” he told attendees.
Braham emphasized that lone worker safety and crisis management cannot be treated as separate silos. A missed lone worker alert can become a crisis, while an external emergency such as a fire can leave isolated employees exposed. Integration, he said, is the key to resilience.
He illustrated the point with case studies. Black & McDonald, a contractor with a large and diverse workforce across North America, deployed EcoOnline’s lone worker solution to streamline escalation protocols and bolster employee confidence that help was always available. Subsea 7, which operates a global fleet of vessels in 32 countries, used EcoOnline’s incident management platform to unify offshore and onshore responses, improving coordination and communication.
Building “Zero Harm Readiness”
Braham outlined key steps toward what he called “zero harm readiness.” These include:
- Expanding visibility of lone worker exposure.
- Conducting and documenting drills regularly.
- Automating escalation protocols to ensure response in minutes, not hours.
- Documenting every decision and action for compliance, liability, and continuous improvement.
- Embedding preparedness into organizational culture so responses become “muscle memory.”
“Real-time visibility isn’t optional; it’s mandatory preparedness,” Braham said, adding that resilience, defined as the ability to withstand today’s and tomorrow’s disruptions, should be viewed as a competitive advantage.
Braham’s underscored that lone worker safety and crisis readiness are inseparable. Companies that fail to document, drill, and integrate their systems risk chaotic responses when emergencies strike.
“When emergencies and crises happen, they’re not a possibility—they’re going to happen,” he said. “The way you respond in real time is what protects your people and your business.”
About the Author
David Kopf is the publisher and executive editor of Occupational Health & Safety magazine.