Workplace distancing tech takes off

One of the  consequences of COVID-19 has been the emergence of technologies that have been adapted or built from scratch to ensure the safety of workers.

The technologies include – and are not restricted to - contact tracing apps on phones and body worn social-distancing systems that warn of encroachment from others.

“We’ve seen a surge in demand for lone worker safety devices,” said Naz Dossa, CEO of Peoplesafe, a provider of lone worker protection services in Britain. “The need to maintain safe social distancing and limit the total number of individuals at indoor locations means that many workers are now classed as ‘lone working’ - either they work entirely alone or out of earshot from colleagues for at least some of their working hours.”

Indeed, a global survey conducted by PwC found that just under a quarter (23 per cent) of chief financial officers were to make support for workforce location tracking and contact tracing their top priority when planning a return to working on site. Interestingly, some of those CFOs might be considering offerings from PwC, which has developed its own suite of COVID mitigation technologies, including an app called CoronaManager that uses ‘Bluetooth handshakes’ and geofencing for contact tracing of those who download it.