Employers Responsibility on Lone Workers - Essay Example

LONE WORKER Objective: - The objective of this review is to find out if a lone worker on completion of his/her assignment leave the job with complete satisfaction. Design: - Journals and books in connection with 'working alone' were examined. Results: - Three main views were extracted from the review: 1) A general concept of work and workers. 2) Employers' responsibility on lone workers. 3) Workers interest on their lone work. Conclusion: - Complete satisfaction is purely a dependant factor that varies with the employees' participation in executing the lone job and also dependant upon the employees' circumstances and circumstantial interest to continue the job. Introduction: - Although the lone workers work in a secluded place and time, the lone work system is an intertwined organisational system of working wherein some workers are necessitated to work alone. Depending upon the nature of work, the employers assign the lone job to some employees considering their skills and capabilities. However, the choice of accepting the assignment lies always with the employees. While bringing out the required outcome from lone work system, both the employer and the employee share their own responsibilities in the smooth running of the show. 1. A GENERAL CONCEPT OF WORK AND WORKERS: From time immemorial there prevails a perennial question: 'why do people work' answer to this question is still not arrived at with a stern mark that this is the correct answer. This is because every individual has his/her own idea of the work that reflects in the answers given. However, most of the people universally contend that people work for meeting a primary need of remuneration and satisfying the selves with secondary needs by means of satiated primary needs. Keeping apart the issue of people who meet their ends without working, a sense of mutual interaction, enriched with the satisfaction of the soul, is found underlying in the concept of work. (David A. Tansik, et al, 1980). Concrete needs such as, high income, prestige good chance for promotion and security underlie the universal concept of 'work'. (Rothman Robert A. 1987) Lone worker is one works in solitude. Employees who work away from their business base are also come under this lone worker category. Mobile workers like sales people too work alone. And people who work from their home and selected group of self-employed persons are in the same band of lone worker group. In any work place, the freedom of work is the most wanted need of any worker apart from the payment of salary. People want to work at their own pace, to break at their wish, do some demy official-cum-personal bits of works such as making data entries intermittently sandwiched between cups of tea. Job satisfaction is conceived in the light of above said freedom only. (Robert Schrank, 1978). Job satisfaction is a positive emotional state reflecting an affective response to the job situation. (Edwin and Locke, 1976). Perhaps during the initial/entry stage of a job, the satisfaction over the job might creep on the individual worker in relation to the quality and productivity.. But the job satisfaction is not so strongly related to the productivity. (Grey Jerry et al,1984). Thus the job satisfaction begins to dissipate, when productivity linked perception on extrinsic rewards take a form. The urge to quit the job usually is budding at this stage. A relatively strong negative relationship exists between the intent to stay and voluntary turnover. (Steele and Ovalle et al, 1984) Self-employed persons are usually enjoying the freedom of their work. Many factory workers, office staff and even executives feel boredom in their job due to psychogenic illness and come out of the realm of the monotony to switch over to self-employment. The psychogenic illness does not spare even lone workers who are virtually alienated from their co-workers. Feeble interpersonal relations tend to create boredom and subsequently to psychogenic illness. (Michel J. Colligan, 1978). Disparity over sex and race, which were prevalent during yester years, had mounted heavy pressure in the concept of work. There was an exponential progression of thirst for freedom in job along with the urge to seek a job at the earliest. The Equal Pay Act in 1963 outlawed wage discrimination by race, national origin and sex. The disparity in earnings between American men and women had proven more robust, because segregarion continued to relegate most women to low paying jobs and since jobs in which women women predominated paid less. (Kallebagh and Rachel A. Rosenfield, 1990). During the concluding decades of 20th Century, the tendency to purchase more services fuelled the growth of service jobs, which began to knock at the doors of prospective candidates' areas of origin. Significant response from several individuals for such offers in turn stimulated the demand for low wageworkers. A growing number of mostly women workers were doing paid work at home presenting a cottage industry like look. (Borris Eileen and Cynthia R. Daniels, 1989). 2. EMPLOYERS RESPONSIBILITIES: Employers are responsible for ensuring that lone workers for whom they are responsible are not placed at increased risk. Where staffs undertake lone working, managers must ensure that the structures and procedures are in place and adhered to in order to demonstrate as far as reasonably practicable, that staff are safe if something untoward occurs. 2.1. RESPONSIBILITIES IN CONNECTION WITH SAFETY: An employer has to carry out many duties in connection with providing and maintaining of safety to lone workers. Some vital parts of their duties in this regard include: a) Assessing the hazards of the work place. b) Getting the worker's input about their work and arriving at possible solutions. c) Investigating the incidents at the workplace. d) Taking corrective action to prevent potential risks. e) Providing appropriate training and education. f) Establishing a check-in procedure, keeping regular contact with the lone workers. g). Positioning the lone workers in locations of highest visibility and in cases of remote places, formalising the use of security systems like surveillance cameras. Lone workers who handle cash are to be treated with special care to avoid burglary and robbery. Taking protective measures in such cases is a prerequisite for effective management of lone working system. A good cash controlling policy is considered the most effective deterrent. In addition to embedding cash-chests to the ground, frequent clearance of cash from lone workers to such a level that the cash balance of the work place of a lone worker is not attractive to a robber. Possible publicising the fact that the place is often maintaining a low level of cash balance would lower the interest of a robber to select the place as his target to rob. 2.2. RESPONSIBILITIES IN CONNECTION WITH RISK ASSESMENT: It is essential that the risks of lone working be taken into account when risk assessments are carried out. Hazards that usually the lone workers face are: - Accidents or emergencies arising out of the work and the lack of first aid equipment. Fire. Inadequate provision of rest, hygiene and welfare facilities. Violence from within and outside their working atmosphere and Manual handling. 2.3. RESPONSIBILITIES IN CONNECTION WITH PREVENTION OF VIOLENCE: In addition to the provision of personal alarms, procedures should be devised to minimise the risk of violence from the public, e.g. elimination of handling cash, constant changes of route when transporting valuables, adequate building security for out of hours working. Consideration should be given to the fact that women working alone are particularly at risk. Prudent adherence of safe work procedure reduces the possibility of encountering violence. The procedures are to be scrupulously followed at the beginning and at the end of every shift. Proper training to behave with an intruder is an additional benefit that may be derived from such safe work procedures. Maintaining complete security with proper security systems is the primary defence against break-ins. 3. WORKERS' INTEREST ON THEIR LONE WORK: The interest with which a lone worker performs his duties in a secluded place or time plays crucial role in effective running of the lone work system. Apart from following the guidelines stipulated in the rules that govern the working system, a lone worker is supposed to have his/her own vigil at all moments, while performing the duties. Immediate and effective communication with the manager/supervisor regarding any unpleasant or unexpected incident on the duty spot of a lone worker facilitates easy alleviation of any problems. Lone workers who supply all possible feed back to the investigating authorities about the nature of their work and changes in environment suffer comparatively less due to workplace contingencies. 3.1.WORKERS' THIRST FOR RECOGNITION: Although the lone workers need the help of their line managers in coming out of problematic situations, they become capable of creating new ideas in resolving several bottle-necks that arise in discharge of their duties. Theses ideas are really noteworthy in many instances. When these are recognised in their right sense, it paves way to create an enthusiastic realm around the workers and also act as a fine lever for the employer in evolving an acceptable work strategy. Even when the nature of problems looks alike at several areas, the intensity differs glaringly. Consequently, the ideas of workers to come out of the crux form a great source of idea bank. Companies and firms that are in glorious position throughout the world that keep crisis and distress away are enjoying the benefits of good idea system especially from the employees' idea bank. The Japan Management Consulting1 Services emphasises on the building of a business vision to bring the strategy to all the company employees in an appealing manner. The consultancy is of the view that many turnaround endeavours are facing failure only because of the neglect in this part of strategy phase. Workers, especially the lone workers feel enormously elated, when their ideas are recognised by their administration in bringing out necessary out come. It almost equals awarding a monetary incentive, since they begin to feel part of their employers' growth. On the other hand, suppression of the ideas from the employees in a company rather than promoting them to excite better ideas makes the firm sick. The result of squandering the employees' ideas is avoidable poor performance making the employees lose interest in their jobs and dropping trust off their management. CONCLUSION: Apart from salary-based security, lone workers focus their interests mainly on personal security, hygiene and maintenance of status in their workplaces. They need theses securities in order to execute their jobs in an efficient manner. Communication among workers and employers plays a crucial role. Not only in times of emergency, but also in discharge of their duties, the lone workers appreciate spot directives from the employers/managers. Provision of mobile phones in such cases helps a lot to have a constant link between lone workers and employers. Omega IP2 has recently released a phone based lone-worker protection system. It allows the users to discreetly alert the managers/ co-workers at distant places. The system can be set to call the workers' mobile every 10-30 minutes. Users are to enter a PIN to confirm that they are not in danger. Non-answering the call and entering wrong PIN automatically connect to an alarm that sets emergency contacts at once. Many other user-friendly operations like Microsoft Out look, web browser, e-mail and even telephone can be configured to the system. Technological innovations when combined with efficient management smoothly bring the working environments in an appealing atmosphere. This in turn brings about god and nice results both for lone workers and employers. Completion of their assignments in such fragrant environment alone places the lone workers in complete satisfaction. Reference List--- Borris, Eileenand Cynthia R. Daniels, 1989, "Home Work: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives on Paid Labour at Home", Urbana, university of Illinois Press. David A. Tansik, et al, 1980, "Management: A Life Cycle Approach", pp295, Richard D Irwin, Inc, Illinois Edwin, Locke, 1976, "The Nature and Causes of Job satisfaction", In Marvin Dunnetter edition, Hand Book of Industrial and Organisational Psychology, pp1293-1349, Chicago, Rand Mcnally Gray, Jerry and Frederick stark, 1984, "Organisational Behaviour:Concepts and Applications", 3rd edition, Columbus, Ohio, Charles E. Merril Kallebarg and Rachel A. Rosenfield, 1990, "Gender Inequality in the Labour Market: A Cross National Perspective", Presented @ the 12th World Congress of Sociology, Madrid. Michael J. Colligan and William Stockton, "The Mystery of Assembly-line Hysteria", Psychology Today , June 1978,pp93 Robert Schrank, "Ten Thousand Working Days", 1978, Cambridge Mass, MIT Press. Rothman Robert A. 1987, "Working: Sociological Perspectives", Englewood Cliffs, N.J. , Prentice Hall. Steele Robert, Neston Ovelle, 1984, "Review and Meta Analysis of research and relationship between behavioural Intentions and Employee Turnover", Journal of Applied Psychology, 69:673-686 Read More