Protection Matters More Than Ever
September 1, 2024 by Chris Allcard, Lone Worker Services Director
Protecting those that protect us
As many of us continue to work from our desks at home – or even the kitchen table – it’s clear that our working routines have changed dramatically in just a few weeks.
That said, for Reliance Protect it is very much business as usual, despite the challenging conditions created by the COVID-19 pandemic. Through our approach to business continuity driven by our ISO27001 and wider Reliance High-Tech ISO22301 accreditations, we were able to shift to remote working with relative ease.
We are still shipping new orders, delivering training sessions (remotely), supporting customer queries and, more importantly, monitoring our users 24/7/365. Across the Reliance High-Tech company, our staff have key worker status as we continue to support our customers in the NHS, Local Authority, utilities and critical national infrastructure sectors.
Protecting NHS workers on the frontline
For our customers in critical areas such as the NHS, it is anything but business as usual, as they work around the clock at the very frontline of the battle against the coronavirus.
To manage its precious resources in unprecedented times, NHS managers are having to respond and move staff around from department to department quickly, and in some instances increase the levels of remote and lone working, to meet demand. Many of these workers are working remotely for the first time. Keeping them safe – and doing their invaluable work – is essential.
Having delivered multiple frameworks to the NHS for over ten years, keeping frontline NHS staff safe is at the heart of what we do. We are protecting thousands of workers in hospitals, temporary sites such as testing centres, and out in the community. Keeping them safe to treat those hit by the virus as well as those with severe but unrelated medical conditions.
Keeping key workers safe
Elsewhere, our devices are helping one of the UK’s largest retailers keep its people safe in trying circumstances. Our personal safety devices protect the engineers who are travelling around the UK, ensuring stores remain open and operate to full capacity in times of enormous demand.
Our solutions are also protecting retail delivery drivers as they work ever harder and face increasing – and clearly unacceptable – frustration from some sections of the public. This includes our personal safety devices and recently launched body-worn cameras.
Local authorities are calling on Reliance Protect to keep social workers and those involved in helping the most vulnerable in our communities safe from harm as they go about their jobs.
Field engineers keeping crucial parts of our Critical National Infrastructure operational are working even more remotely than before. There are fewer colleagues in back offices able to keep an eye on them, and they are often attending sites where there are no other people present. Our devices are keeping them safe and reassured as they go about their jobs.
Rising to the challenge
As these organisations add new people and move them around to meet demands, so we have introduced a new short-term, flexible deployment offer with a minimum contract period of only three months. We have seen a rapid take-up of this solution by the NHS over recent weeks as NHS Trusts scale up and reorganise their frontline resources, and ensure they are kept safe as they address the immediate needs of the fight against the pandemic. And, as retailers add to their fleets of delivery drivers to meet massive customer demand, our devices can keep them safe also.
We have also developed more flexible remotely accessible user training options through e-learning, web conferencing, and telephone-based, to help organisations manage new users and redeploy them as necessary, as they move people around and reallocate resources. Getting new users live and allocating and reallocating devices can easily be performed via Focus, our new online customer portal.
In these challenging times, it’s essential that those we rely on are free and able to get on with their jobs. Indeed, that’s all they want to do. So while most of us stay home and stay safe, give a thought to the safety of those who are out there hard at work on our behalf.
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