Frequently Asked Questions About Lone Worker Safety

A lone worker is any employee who works by themselves without close or direct supervision. This includes field technicians, home healthcare workers, utility inspectors, retail staff on solo shifts, property managers showing units, oil and gas workers at remote sites, and many more.

Under Canadian occupational health and safety legislation, employers have a legal duty to identify and protect workers who perform tasks alone or in isolation. See how CheckMate protects lone workers across all industries.

Lone workers face three categories of risk:

• Physical risks — slips, trips, falls, workplace violence, and equipment accidents
• Medical emergencies — cardiac events, heat stress, allergic reactions, with no one nearby to help
• Environmental hazards — remote locations, extreme weather, confined spaces, hazardous materials

The core danger is delayed response. When something goes wrong and no one knows, minutes matter. A lone worker safety system closes that gap by ensuring someone is always monitoring and ready to act.

A lone worker safety system is a combination of technology and human monitoring that ensures workers who operate alone are regularly checked on and can call for help instantly. It typically includes timed check-ins, panic alerts, GPS tracking, and a professional monitoring centre.

You need one because Canadian law requires employers to have effective procedures for checking on lone workers — and because relying on a "buddy system" or manual phone calls creates gaps that put workers and your organization at risk. Learn about CheckMate's complete protection system.

A lone worker app sends alerts — a lone worker safety system acts on them.

Apps can detect that something is wrong, but without a professional monitoring centre behind them, alerts go to a supervisor's phone who may be in a meeting, driving, or asleep. CheckMate is a complete safety system: detection (app, devices, satellite), response (24/7 trained operators at a ULC 5-Diamond monitoring centre), and documentation (automated compliance records).

The difference is accountability.

CheckMate sends automated check-in prompts to workers at intervals you set — every 15 minutes, every hour, or any custom schedule. Workers confirm they're safe with a single tap on the Safe Alone app, a button press on the SOS wearable, or a phone call.

If a worker misses a check-in, our monitoring centre is alerted immediately and begins the escalation protocol.

Our trained operators act immediately. First, they attempt to contact the worker directly. If there's no response, they contact the designated supervisor or emergency contact. If the situation can't be resolved, they dispatch local emergency services using the worker's GPS location.

This entire escalation happens within seconds of a missed check-in — not minutes, not hours. Every action is timestamped and documented for your compliance records.

CheckMate's panic alert is completely silent. Workers can trigger it from the Safe Alone app with a single tap or from the SOS wearable — no sound, no visible screen change, nothing that could escalate a dangerous situation.

The alert, along with the worker's GPS location, goes directly to our 24/7 monitoring centre. Operators begin response immediately while the worker focuses on staying safe.

Yes. CheckMate captures the worker's GPS location with every check-in and every alert. The dashboard shows all active workers on a live map so supervisors can see who's checked in, who's overdue, and where everyone is.

GPS data is only captured during active work shifts — not during personal time. All location data is encrypted and stored securely on Canadian servers.

CheckMate's satellite device connects via the Iridium satellite network, which covers 100% of the earth's surface — including the most remote parts of northern Canada. Workers can send check-ins, panic alerts, and GPS location from anywhere, even with zero cell signal.

For workers near landlines, phone-based check-ins are also available. No coverage gap means no safety gap.

Real people. Every alert goes to ProTELEC's ULC 5-Diamond certified monitoring centre, staffed 24/7/365 by trained operators — not automated bots, not AI, not a phone tree.

ProTELEC has been monitoring safety systems for over 50 years. When your worker needs help, a trained human is already on the line coordinating the response.

CheckMate offers six products to fit any work environment:

• Safe Alone App — smartphone-based check-ins and panic alerts
• SOS Wearable — discreet wearable panic button
• Satellite Device — Iridium-connected for areas with no cell coverage
• eALERT — escalation and notification system
• Phone Check-ins — call-based check-ins from any phone
• CheckMate Dashboard — real-time monitoring, reporting, and compliance management

All are backed by 24/7 live monitoring. See the full breakdown on our Solutions page.

The Safe Alone App works on any modern smartphone — iPhone or Android. No special hardware is required for most workers.

For high-risk environments or areas with no cell coverage, CheckMate also offers the SOS Wearable and Satellite Device. Many organizations use a combination: the app for urban and suburban workers, satellite for remote locations.

Yes. The CheckMate Dashboard shows every active worker on a live map — who's checked in, who's overdue, and where they are. Supervisors can monitor field teams, remote staff, and facility workers from a single screen.

The dashboard also includes full incident history, compliance reporting, and exportable audit logs.

Yes. CheckMate is designed to complement your existing OHS program, not replace it. It integrates with your current safety procedures, escalation chains, and reporting requirements.

Compliance reports can be exported for internal audits, WCB claims, and OHS inspections. CheckMate adds the monitoring and documentation layer that most safety programs are missing.

Yes. Every Canadian province and territory has occupational health and safety legislation that requires employers to have procedures for checking on workers who work alone or in isolation. The federal Canada Labour Code Part II also applies to federally regulated industries. For a plain-language overview of Canadian working-alone best practices, see CCOHS: Working Alone.

Beyond provincial OHS acts, Bill C-45 (the Westray Bill) creates criminal liability for organizations and individuals who fail to take reasonable steps to protect worker safety. Lone worker monitoring isn't optional — it's a legal obligation.

Bill C-45 (the Westray Bill) amended the Canadian Criminal Code to establish criminal liability for workplace safety negligence. It means that officers, directors, and managers can be held personally criminally liable if they fail to take reasonable steps to prevent workplace injuries or death.

For companies with lone workers, this means you need documented proof that you have effective monitoring and response procedures in place. CheckMate creates that audit trail automatically — every check-in, every alert, every operator action is timestamped and recorded.

Requirements vary by province:

• Ontario — OHSA requires employers to demonstrate due diligence in protecting lone workers
• Manitoba — WSH Regulation Part 9 mandates risk identification, safe work procedures, and 3-year reviews
• British Columbia — WorkSafeBC regulations (sections 4.20.1 to 4.23) require written check-in procedures, training documentation, and annual reviews
• Alberta — OHS Code mandates hazard assessments and communication systems
• Saskatchewan — OHS Act requires employers to take all reasonably practicable steps

CheckMate is designed to meet or exceed requirements across all provinces.

CheckMate automates the documentation that compliance requires. Every check-in is timestamped with GPS location. Every missed check-in triggers a documented escalation. Every operator action is recorded.

This creates a complete, auditable paper trail that demonstrates your organization is meeting its duty of care obligations under provincial OHS legislation and Bill C-45. No manual spreadsheets, no gaps in records.

CheckMate generates detailed records including:

• Check-in logs with timestamps and GPS coordinates
• Incident reports with full escalation timelines
• Operator action logs
• Missed check-in records and response documentation
• GPS location history

All reports are exportable for OHS inspections, WCB claims, internal audits, and legal proceedings. This documentation is often the difference between demonstrating due diligence and facing liability.

Fast. The Safe Alone App can be downloaded and set up in minutes. Full onboarding — including customized check-in schedules, escalation protocols, emergency contact setup, and team training — typically takes 1 to 2 weeks.

Our onboarding team handles the configuration so your safety managers don't have to become IT experts.

Minimal. The Safe Alone App is designed to be intuitive — most workers are comfortable using it within minutes. CheckMate provides onboarding materials, walkthroughs, and ongoing support.

We also offer training sessions for supervisors on the dashboard and compliance reporting features. The goal is zero friction for frontline workers.

Yes. We offer a free trial so you can test CheckMate with a single team or location before rolling out across your organization. This lets your workers and supervisors experience the system firsthand — check-ins, alerts, dashboard, reporting — with full monitoring centre support.

Most organizations scale to full deployment within weeks of their pilot. Start your free trial.

CheckMate uses simple per-user, per-month pricing starting at $17.50/user/month. Volume discounts are available for larger teams. There are no long-term contracts required — you can scale up or down as your workforce changes.

Contact us for a custom quote based on your team size and requirements.

Everything. Your monthly per-user fee includes:

• Safe Alone App access
• 24/7 monitoring centre support
• GPS tracking
• CheckMate Dashboard for supervisors
• Compliance reporting and audit logs
• Customer support
• Software updates

No hidden fees, no setup charges, no surprise costs.

The return goes beyond dollars. A lone worker safety system reduces your liability exposure, helps lower WCB premiums through documented safety programs, ensures compliance audit readiness (avoiding fines and penalties), and improves worker confidence and retention.

When you factor in the cost of a single workplace incident — legal fees, WCB claims, lost productivity, reputational damage — the investment pays for itself many times over.

CheckMate protects lone workers across all industries. Our most common verticals include:

• Healthcare — home care nurses, community health workers
• Oil & Gas — field technicians, pipeline inspectors
• Government — bylaw officers, social workers, inspectors
• Retail — solo-shift employees, stockroom staff
• Education — custodians, after-hours maintenance
• Utilities — line technicians, meter readers
• Construction — site supervisors, heavy equipment operators
• Agriculture — farm workers, equipment operators
• Property Management — showing agents, maintenance staff

If your people work alone, CheckMate can protect them.

Absolutely. CheckMate is designed to scale from 10 workers to 500+. Small businesses get the same 24/7 monitoring centre, the same trained operators, and the same compliance documentation as large enterprises.

Working alone regulations apply regardless of company size — and so does your duty of care. Per-user pricing means you only pay for the workers you need to protect.

All CheckMate data is stored on secure Canadian servers. Data is encrypted both in transit and at rest. ProTELEC maintains strict data handling protocols as part of our ULC certification requirements.

Your worker location data, check-in records, and incident reports are accessible only to authorized users within your organization and our monitoring centre operators during active alerts.

ProTELEC's monitoring centre holds ULC 5-Diamond certification — the highest rating awarded by Underwriters Laboratories of Canada for alarm monitoring centres. This means our facility, technology, operator training, and response procedures meet the most rigorous standards in the industry.

ProTELEC has been operating for over 50 years, processes 3.8 million+ safety checks annually, and currently protects 9,000+ workers across 900+ Canadian organizations.

Three key differences:

• 24/7 human monitoring — CheckMate alerts go to ProTELEC's ULC 5-Diamond certified monitoring centre with trained operators who take action, not just notifications to a supervisor's phone
• Complete coverage — our satellite device means workers are protected even in areas with zero cell service, which app-only solutions can't offer
• Canadian compliance depth — CheckMate is built specifically around Canadian OHS legislation with automated documentation for Bill C-45 due diligence, provincial compliance requirements, and WCB reporting

We're also backed by ProTELEC's 50+ years of security and monitoring heritage — not a startup, not a tech company trying to solve safety with software alone.