A vendor-neutral buyer’s guide for employers with staff who work alone: what lone worker apps do, the safety features that matter for your risks, privacy and legal questions, how to run a pilot and the mistakes that leave lone workers unprotected.
A lone worker is anyone who works without direct supervision or close contact with coworkers for some or all of their shift. That includes home care aides and nurses visiting clients, security guards on night patrol, cleaners in empty offices after hours, utility and maintenance technicians, delivery and sales staff, real estate agents showing properties, gas station and convenience store clerks on late shifts and farm workers in remote fields. Many employers have more lone workers than they realize, because working alone is often only part of a shift. Our guide to lone worker safety covers the wider program.
With the EZTime time clock app, employees clock in from their phone with GPS and managers approve hours from anywhere.
An app is a control measure, not a safety program. Before you compare products, list who works alone, when, where and doing what, then rate the hazards. The answers drive the features you need. Our lone working risk assessment walks through the process.
| Main hazard | What you need from an app |
|---|---|
| Routine solo work with low risk | Scheduled check-ins with automatic escalation when missed |
| Violence or aggression (security, retail nights, home visits) | Discreet panic button, silent alarm, optional live audio, fast escalation |
| Falls, collapse or medical events (maintenance, heights, older workers) | Fall detection or no-motion (man-down) alerts that trigger without the worker pressing anything |
| Remote areas with poor signal | Satellite or offline-capable devices, check-in before entering dead zones |
| Driving between sites | Check-in at arrival and departure, location sharing during travel only |
| Hazardous environments (confined spaces, chemicals) | Dedicated intrinsically safe devices; a phone app alone may not be appropriate |
An alert is useless if nobody acts on it. Decide who monitors alerts on every shift, including nights and weekends, and what they do in the first minutes: call the worker, call a nearby colleague, send a supervisor or call 911. Some vendors offer a professional monitoring center for an extra fee, which can make sense when you have no one on duty around the clock. Write the response procedure down, train responders and test it with drills. Measure how long it takes from alert to first contact.
| Option | Strengths | Limitations |
|---|---|---|
| App on company or personal smartphone | Low cost, nothing extra to carry, easy rollout | Battery drain, phone may be in a bag, coverage limits, personal phone concerns |
| Dedicated lone worker device (pendant, badge) | Physical SOS button, long battery, some have fall detection | Extra hardware cost, charging and loss management |
| Satellite messenger or satellite-enabled device | Works beyond cell coverage | Higher cost, slower messaging, needs sky view |
| Smartwatch integration | Quick access, some motion sensing | Compatibility varies, battery life |
Many employers mix options: the app for most workers and dedicated or satellite devices for the highest-risk or most remote roles.
Workers who help choose and test the system are much more likely to use it. If they find it annoying, they will quietly stop.
Buying checklist complete.
| Question | Yes / No |
|---|---|
| Features match the hazards in our risk assessment | ☐ |
| Alerts reach a responder on every shift, 24/7 if needed | ☐ |
| Escalation chain and response procedure written and tested | ☐ |
| Works in our real locations, including low-signal areas | ☐ |
| Easy to use with gloves, in the dark and under stress | ☐ |
| Battery lasts a full shift with location on | ☐ |
| Location shared only during work or active sessions, with notice | ☐ |
| Data retention and access rules defined | ☐ |
| Pilot completed with worker feedback | ☐ |
| Training plan for workers and responders | ☐ |
US rules on working alone are narrower than many buyers expect:
Even without a general rule, the employer’s general duty to provide a safe workplace still applies. The shipyard standard is a useful model for any industry: regular, scheduled contact and a final check at the end of the shift, with a written plan for what happens when a check is missed.
EZTime is a time tracking, scheduling and team communication app, not a lone worker safety system. It does not provide SOS buttons, check-in timers or fall detection, so it should not be used as your lone worker alarm. It can support the surrounding workflow: schedules show who is working alone and where, clock-ins by mobile app carry a GPS stamp or happen at an NFC tag at the site, approved clock-in locations can be limited with geofencing and Advanced plans keep GPS location history during work time. Managers can send announcements with safety reminders and assign tasks such as patrol checks with photo proof. Many teams run EZTime alongside a dedicated lone worker solution.
A lone worker app is software, usually on a smartphone or dedicated device, that lets employees who work alone check in, raise an emergency alert and share their location, and that escalates to a responder when they do not respond or an alarm is triggered.
There is no general federal OSHA rule requiring a lone worker app. Employers must still protect workers from recognized serious hazards, and some specific standards and state rules require communication or monitoring for certain work. An app is one way to meet those duties.
Often yes, with clear notice about what data is collected and when, limits on tracking outside work, and in some cases reimbursement. Some employers provide company devices instead.
A check-in confirms the worker is safe at set intervals and escalates if missed. A panic or SOS alert is triggered by the worker in an emergency and escalates immediately.
It depends on the risk. Higher-risk tasks need shorter intervals. Set intervals from your risk assessment and make extending a timer easy, so workers do not ignore it.
Generally no. OSHA says there is no general standard for working alone except in specific situations, such as emergency response, interior structural firefighting or permit-required confined spaces. It encourages employers to set up emergency procedures, such as providing a wireless notification device or phone. Some state plans and industries have their own rules.
An app is often enough for workers with reliable signal who carry a phone. Dedicated devices with satellite connectivity, fall detection or a physical SOS button make sense in remote areas, hazardous work or where phones are not allowed.
EZTime records clock-in location by GPS, with geofencing on Advanced plans and up. It is not a lone worker alarm, but it shows who is working and where shifts started.