How Well Does Your Company Protect Women in the Workplace?

Working alone can be a risk, especially for women

Workplace assaults inflict significant stress upon directly impacted employees. Beyond the immediate repercussions of physical violence, individuals embroiled in such incidents frequently endure lingering psychological effects that persist for years following the occurrence.

Women are particularly at risk, the retail sector for example employs more than 2.8 million workers in the UK and nearly 60% are female. In addition, more and more female shop assistants work in the evening and are on their own. This results in additional dangers, as a large part of the assaults occur two hours before and after closing time. But what can be done to protect especially female employees who work alone from threats or theft?

Abuse and attacks on UK shop workers rises to 1,300 incidents a day, the number of incidents against staff rose by 50% in the year to September 2023, compared to 870 the previous year.

How to protect your sales staff from robberies

Robbery can never be 100% avoided, but the risks can be minimised with the appropriate security measures. According to the Health and Safety Act, employers are obliged to protect their staff as much as possible when they are working outside the call and sight of others. Especially for women working alone in retail, there is an increased potential for danger, as they are supposedly “easy prey” for criminals. It is therefore of great importance for employers to introduce appropriate measures for security against assaults, theft and threats.

Modern lone worker devices, such as a safety watch or alarm, react immediately in the event of a dangerous situation and offer lone workers in the retail sector optimal protection against assaults. At the same time, employers fulfil their duty of care through their use.

Functions of lone worker alarms

Lone worker alarms distinguishes between an active and passive alarm triggering. If a robbery takes place in a shop, jeweller’s, supermarket or grocery shop, employees have the option of making a silent emergency call at any time, which is received directly by an emergency call centre. If, on the other hand, something happens to an employee during an assault and the device does not detect any movement for several minutes, the emergency call is triggered automatically.

The emergency Safety Watch for discreet alarms

The Safety Watch is more discreet than the classic lone worker device. The advantage is that it looks just like a normal watch or smartwatch. Should a retail worker find himself in danger, he can trigger an alarm with just one movement of his arm. This does not further provoke the burglar until the first helpers arrive. In addition, the Safety Watch offers the possibility to start a discreet doubt recording: In case of an aggressive customer, a silent alarm can be triggered as a safeguard. The control centre is thereby alerted and listens in, but only intervenes if an emergency situation should actually arise.