Openreach is launching a new personal safety app for all of its 27,000 employees, following a surge in abuse and assaults which have become the leading cause of injury among its workforce.
Created by Peoplesafe, the app will help protect Openreach’s engineers and office-based staff in the event of safety incidents when they’re working alone, at height or just on their commute to and from home.
Recent incidents involving Openreach engineers have included being spat at, pushed down stairs, threatened with dogs and knives, punched and kicked and even barricaded into homes and vans.
Since April last year there’s been around 700 incidents of either physical or verbal assaults and threats, including incidents where our people have needed time away from work to recover.
What’s also been seen is an ongoing increase in racially motivated incidents.
Adam Elsworth, Safety Director, Openreach said: “Nothing’s more important than the safety of our people and making sure everyone gets home each day safe and well.
“That’s why we’re constantly looking at ways to protect our people as they go about their work, whether that’s through training, PPE, specialist kit like climbing harnesses or new technologies.
“The Peoplesafe app gives our people an added layer of safety while on the job and particularly for many of our colleagues that work alone for long periods of the day.
“It also helps us to address an area we have less control: attacks by members of the public.”
The app, which has already been through a successful trial in the company’s Service Delivery unit, offers features such as: SOS and fall alarms connecting directly to a 24/7 control centre; GPS tracking for emergency responders to pinpoint locations; instant two-way audio and direct police dispatch and commute monitoring and critical event alerts.
Naz Dossa, CEO, Peoplesafe said: “Protecting Openreach’s engineers has never been more critical as public aggression towards frontline workers continues to rise across all sectors.
“Partnering with Openreach reflects our shared commitment to setting new standards in employee safety and demonstrates how safety can be operationalised at scale – embedding protection into everyday operations while giving leaders clear, efficient oversight of risk across a vast workforce.
“Together, we’ve created an integrated solution built around our technology platform that connects to seamlessly Openreach’s systems and enables them to protect their people at scale.
“This isn’t just about technology – it’s about giving Openreach employees the confidence that they are never alone, even in the most challenging situations and at a time when safety incidents are rising.
“I’d like to personally applaud the Openreach safety teams on leading the way in how they protect their people, underlining their culture of care across the organisation.”
The app will be installed on all devices carried by Openreach engineers as well as being offered as an optional safety precaution for its office-based staff.
