January 10, 2023

Preparing your workforce to adopt life saving technology

Column by Jules Reed
January 10, 2023
5 MIN TO READ
Jules Reed

Tended has been making safety technology now for around five years. During this time, over 10,000 wearable safety devices have been deployed to organisations and quite often, we have come across leaders who worry they will not get their staff to engage with the product.

Unfortunately, this is a challenge that businesses encounter time and time again. Despite the benefits of safety technology and wearable safety devices, workforces can be reluctant to embrace them with blind faith. It’s yet another change to their routine and they are, quite understandably, suspicious about being tracked at work.

Likewise, introducing new and potentially unfamiliar technology can often cause resentment. Imagine working on the job for 20+ years only to have a tech company come in and tell you that there’s a way to do it better, safer and more efficiently! It can ruffle some feathers if communicated carelessly.

This is why around 70% of change initiatives fail in the workplace - improper integration and deployment of change, results in resistance and low buy-in from employees.

Our commitment to ensuring optimal workforce engagement

When properly deployed and successfully accepted by the workforce, our Wearable can transform the safety of teams in high-risk industries, putting an end to preventable accidents and near-misses onsite. As our mission is to make the world a safer place and save lives with technology, successful workforce adoption is absolutely imperative to us.

After all, without successful adoption and correct usage by employees, the technology won’t save lives. This is why the engagement of the workforce will always be our priority.

Our approach is based on mutual respect with employees, offering full transparency about how the technology works. With every trial of the Wearable, our Behavioural Scientists are there on the ground with the workforce, engaging in discussions, gathering feedback and answering questions on a personal level. We start by building trust.

Initiating this healthy dialogue from the get-go ensures that throughout the deployment process, teams feel comfortable voicing any concerns or hesitations, allowing us to address these first-hand and help mitigate any potential pushback. We also provide empirical feedback to show the value they are adding to the overall safety culture, as well as their own personal safety.

Monitoring safety, not workers

More often than not, workforce hesitancy comes from privacy and data concerns. Understandably, having a geofencing device attached to them at all times is going to raise some questions!

We are committed to protecting user privacy and we do not capture personal data from our Wearables. The device is randomly allocated on site and Tended can only see the whereabouts of the device in proximity to the safe zone. We cannot identify individuals.

We exist to improve worker safety through technology, while protecting their privacy. We take this very seriously. From design to implementation, our customer’s right to privacy will always come first for us.

Ensuring early and sustainable adoption

Hesitation to adopt new initiatives in the workplace can also stem from a poor safety culture. Having personally worked with Tended to build and facilitate an incredibly comprehensive safety culture improvement platform, this is something we live and breathe.

As such, in addition to being on the ground with teams, we can also support businesses with engagement strategies, resources and recommendations; all designed to lift deeply-ingrained cultures and drive positive behavioural change. This can be easily combined with the use of Tended’s Wearable, to create a completely tailored engagement strategy suited to individual needs.

Following successful deployment, our customers then get ongoing proactive behavioural support. This approach ensures teams continue feeling comfortable with the solution and that new employees are familiarised with the technology.

This can be as light touch or involved as needed and includes workshops, site visits and materials to support communication.

We’re dedicated to improving safety

Our mission is to make the world a safer place using technology and this is evident in our products and services. We go the extra mile to ensure our clients, from CEOs to frontline employees, are set up for success. Using behavioural science to inform strategic engagement activities, we enhance the user experience, along with incredible, market leading technology - it’s what sets us apart.

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