What is a lone worker?

A lone worker is someone who carries out their work without close or direct supervision of a colleague. If something goes wrong, they have nobody nearby to help.

The definition

A lone worker is an employee, contractor, or volunteer who carries out their work without close or direct supervision from a colleague. They do not need to be entirely alone. They may be the only person from their organisation at a location, or working outside normal hours when others are not available.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) in the UK defines lone workers as "those who work by themselves without close supervision." OSHA in the United States and equivalent bodies in Canada use similar framing: workers who lack co-worker support in their immediate environment.

The test is not whether someone works in a building alone. It is whether, during the working period, there is no colleague nearby who could assist, check in, or raise an alarm if something went wrong.

Common lone working roles

Home care workers

Visiting clients at their homes, often vulnerable individuals, without a colleague present during the visit.

Estate agents

Conducting property viewings or valuations alone in empty properties, sometimes with people they have never met.

Charity outreach workers

Visiting vulnerable individuals in the community, often in unfamiliar areas, with or without colleagues nearby.

Field engineers

Working alone at customer premises or remote sites, sometimes outside normal hours or in locations with limited signal.

Opening and closing staff

Employees who arrive first or leave last, working alone during the period when colleagues are not yet present or have left.

Mobile workers

Delivery, maintenance, or trade staff who travel between jobs without a colleague. Nobody tracks their location in real time.

Why it matters for employers

Lone workers face a specific risk that workers in shared spaces do not: if something goes wrong, nobody is immediately there to help. The risks vary by role: violence and aggression for care and outreach workers, accidents and medical events across all lone working roles. But the underlying problem is the same: delayed detection.

Employers across the US, UK, and Canada are required by law to assess and manage workplace risks, including lone working. The duty is proportionate. You do not need a call centre on day one, but "we did not know anyone was working alone" is not an acceptable position after an incident or inspection.

For detail on legal expectations, see our duty of care overview and UK lone worker legislation guide.

What employers typically need to do

Identify who works alone

List all roles and situations where someone works without a nearby colleague, including part-time staff, volunteers, and contractors.

Assess the risk

What could go wrong? How likely? How severe? Controls should match the actual risk, not a worst-case or a tickbox.

Put controls in place

Check-in procedures, SOS capability, an escalation chain, and records of monitoring activity. Match the control to the risk level.

Keep records

Timestamped evidence of who was monitored, when alerts fired, and who responded. Ready for inspectors, insurers, or clients.

Common misconceptions

Our workers carry phones, so they are fine. A phone they can call for help on is not the same as a monitored check-in system. If they cannot call, or choose not to, nobody knows until they do not come back.

We are too small to need this. There is no employee headcount below which lone working risk disappears. A care agency with five workers visiting clients alone has the same duty as one with fifty.

An ARC or call centre is required. For most teams, manager-alert monitoring with exportable records is proportionate to the risk and meets standard duty of care expectations. ARC monitoring is required when your risk assessment, insurer, or client contract specifically demands it. Not required by default.

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