Almost half of British employers failing to monitor staff location

Almost half (48%) of employers do not require staff to log their whereabouts when travelling for business, according to a YouGov survey commissioned by Track24, the leader in security tracking and risk management solutions for businesses.

Of the 2,000 respondents surveyed by YouGov, 31% travel for work at least once every three months but only 15% were ‘very confident’ their company would have an effective process in place to deal with an emergency.

However, the results revealed that it was not just employers that were unaware of the law, with 45% of respondents stating that they thought they alone were the ones responsible for their safety when travelling abroad for business.

Tim Grant, CEO of Track24 comments: “Economic globalisation means more people are travelling for business than ever before. While some of the companies we encounter have basic employee location recording processes set up, normally consisting of a spreadsheet and emergency phone number, many have nothing in place at all.

“Organisations have duty of care obligations towards their employees or to persons performing services for the organisation. As companies expand their operations internationally, the need to locate employees and quickly identify who needs help in an emergency becomes more important.  A natural disaster such as an earthquake or a violent episode such as a riot can suddenly jeopardise an employee’s safety. If an employer records the location of all employees, while they are working on the company’s behalf, they will be able to better respond to an emergency situation.”

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The results also reveal that only 22% of respondents would contact their employer first if an emergency occurred while they were working remotely; 45% would contact a family member first. Grant reflects: “While this statistic did not surprise us, it did reinforce the need for businesses to take employee location management seriously, and to put the processes in place to allow workers to report back on their location and status in the easiest and most effective way possible.”

The survey was commissioned to launch Track24’s Employee Location Management System (ELMS), a highly cost effective technology solution that enables companies to better satisfy their duty of care requirements, to quickly locate employees and identify who needs help when employee safety is threatened.