Working Alone Risk Assessment Checklist For Australian Employers

Working alone is rarely dangerous in itself. What makes it a hazard is what happens next when something goes wrong and nobody is there to notice.

That is the whole subject of a working alone risk assessment. Not whether the task is risky, but how long a worker could be in trouble before anyone knows, and what you have put in place to shorten that gap.

This guide covers duties under the model work health and safety laws. Requirements vary between states and territories, and some industries carry additional obligations.

What Counts As Working Alone

A worker is working alone when they are isolated from the assistance of other people because of location, time or the nature of the work. Distance is not the deciding factor. Assistance is.

That definition catches far more work than most employers assume.

Situation	Alone by	Why it counts
A field technician on a rural site	Location	Help is hours away, and mobile coverage may not exist
A retail worker opening or closing	Time	The building is empty, and the street may be too
A cleaner in an office block at night	Time and location	Present in a large building with nobody who would notice
A community nurse on a home visit	Location and setting	Inside a private home with no control over the environment
A worker in a plant room or cold store	Location within the site	Colleagues are on site and would not hear or find them quickly
A person working from home	Location	Genuinely isolated from assistance during the working day
A driver between depots	Location and time	Alone for extended periods, often outside hours

Note that the person working from home row is not a technicality.

Work health and safety duties extend to the home when the work is being done there, which is covered further in psychosocial hazards at work.

Regulation 48: The Duty Most Employers Miss

As a person conducting a business or undertaking (PCBU), you must manage the risks associated with remote or isolated work.

That much most employers know. The part that is routinely missed sits in the same regulation.

That distinction matters commercially as well as legally. An employer who has assessed the hazards of a task and issued a procedure has done half the job.

If the worker cannot reliably reach help, the duty is not met however good the procedure is. See regulation 48 and Safe Work Australia’s guidance on remote and isolated work duties.

Obligation	Source	What it means in practice
Manage the risk of remote or isolated work	Regulation 48	Identify who works alone, assess the exposure, control it
Provide effective communication	Regulation 48	A system the worker can actually use where they are, tested, with someone at the other end
Manage risks generally	Regulation 34	The primary duty applies to the task as well as the isolation
Apply the hierarchy of control	Regulation 36	Eliminate the lone work where reasonably practicable before relying on procedure and training
Review controls on events	Regulation 38	Review after an incident, a new hazard, an ineffective control, or before a change
First aid provision	First aid duties	Arrangements must account for a worker who may be alone and unable to self-treat. See Safe Work Australia on first aid

State regulators publish practical guidance on this, including SafeWork NSW and WorkSafe Queensland.

Who Works Alone, And Where The Risk Concentrates

Lone work is spread far wider than the industries usually associated with it. What varies is which of the seven checklist factors dominates.

Setting	Typical lone worker	The factor that dominates
Health, community and disability services	Home visit nurses, support workers, case managers	Location and unpredictable environments. Often combined with occupational violence risk
Retail and hospitality	Opening and closing staff, single-operator sites	Time of day, cash handling, and the visibility of the site from outside
Cleaning and facilities	Overnight and early-morning staff in empty buildings	Nobody would notice for hours. Communication is usually the weak point
Field service, trades and utilities	Technicians on remote or client sites	Distance from help, and coverage gaps that make communication unreliable
Transport and delivery	Drivers between locations	Length of time alone, and stops at unfamiliar addresses
Agriculture	Operators on properties with plant and livestock	Distance, terrain, and often no reliable mobile signal
Security and monitoring	Patrols and single-guard sites	Deliberate confrontation, at night, alone
Remote and hybrid office work	Staff working from home	Rarely assessed at all, though the duty applies

The last row is the one most often left out of a working alone risk assessment.

A worker at home with a medical event is isolated in exactly the sense the duty contemplates, and almost no organisation has considered how long it would take to notice.

The Working Alone Risk Assessment Checklist

Work through each factor for every role or task where someone may be alone. Mark it yes or no, and where the answer indicates risk, record the control rather than the intention.

These are the seven factors this page has always carried, with the question to ask and the controls that reduce each.

#	Factor	What to ask	Controls that reduce it
1	The nature of the work	Is it appropriate for this task to be done alone at all? Would an injury here be immediately disabling?	Prohibit specified high-risk tasks alone, such as work at height, confined spaces, live electrical or heavy plant, and record the decision in your risk assessment framework. Two-person rules for named tasks
2	The location of the work	Does the location increase the risk of violence, or delay help arriving?	Pre-visit location screening, client history flags, agreed abort criteria, changed site access, lighting and secure entry
3	First aid and emergencies	Are there procedures for post-incident management? Could this worker treat themselves or raise an alarm if injured?	First aid provision suited to lone work, emergency plan naming who responds, tested response times, and equipment the worker can reach one-handed
4	The length of time working alone	How long will they be alone, and does that cross a shift change when nobody is expecting them?	Limit duration, stagger shifts to remove sole-occupancy periods, define a maximum interval between contacts
5	Communication	Does the worker have a communication system that works where they actually are?	Verified coverage, satellite or radio where mobile fails, duress function, and a monitored response at the other end. This is the regulation 48 requirement
6	Training of the lone worker	Have they been prepared for working alone specifically, not just for the task?	Training on the check-in system, de-escalation, emergency procedures and the explicit right to withdraw. Recorded by person and version
7	Knowledge sharing and whereabouts	Does anyone know where this worker is, and would they notice if a check-in were missed?	Scheduled check-ins with an escalation trigger, shared movement records, and a named person responsible for noticing
8	Anything else specific to your situation	What do the people doing this work say is the risk?	Consultation as a standing item. Lone workers usually know exactly where the gap is, and a risk-aware culture is what gets them to say so

Record the completed assessment.

Under regulation 38 you will need to review these controls after an incident, when a new hazard is identified, when a control proves ineffective, or before a change to the work.

That review is far easier from a documented baseline than from memory.

Building The Communication System The Law Requires

Because regulation 48 names effective communication specifically, this is the part of a working alone risk assessment most likely to be examined.

A system is effective only if it works where the worker is, the worker can use it in the state they will be in, and somebody is at the other end.

Element	The question	What good looks like
Coverage	Does it work at the actual location, not at the depot?	Coverage verified on site. Satellite or radio where mobile fails. Written record of which sites have gaps
Usability under stress	Can it be triggered injured, one-handed, or in the dark?	A single button or pull cord rather than an app requiring several taps and a password
Someone at the other end	Who receives the alert, and are they always available?	A named role with a rostered backup, not an inbox or a general number
Response time	How long from alert to someone acting?	A defined and tested time, with an escalation path if the first contact does not answer
Missed check-in handling	What happens when nothing is heard?	Silence treated as an alarm, not an absence. This is where most systems fail, and it is a good example of continuous monitoring applied to safety
Testing	When was it last tested end to end?	Scheduled tests including out of hours, with the results recorded

Controls That Work, In Order

The hierarchy of control applies here as it does to every hazard, and lone work is one of the areas where the top of the hierarchy is genuinely available more often than employers assume.

Level	What it means for lone work	Example
1. Elimination	Remove the lone working itself	Two-person rostering for the task, rated on your risk matrix like any other control. Move the work to hours when others are present. Stop single-staffed opening or closing
2. Substitution	Replace the activity with a lower-risk one	A phone or video consultation instead of a home visit. Remote monitoring instead of a physical patrol
3. Isolation	Separate the worker from the hazard	Secure entry so the worker is not accessible to the public. Barriers at a single-operator counter
4. Engineering	Change the environment or equipment	Automatic duress with fall detection, lighting, CCTV with live monitoring, vehicle telematics
5. Administrative	Change how people work	Check-in schedules, buddy systems, movement records, training, the right to withdraw
6. Personal protective equipment	Protect the individual	Personal duress devices, satellite communicators

Most lone worker programmes consist of a device and a procedure, which are levels 6 and 5.

Both are legitimate and both are the weakest available. A regulator will ask what was considered above them, and for lone work the honest answer is often that two-person rostering was possible and was ruled out on cost.

That may be defensible, and it needs to be documented as a decision rather than left unexamined.

Emergency Response And What Happens After

A working alone risk assessment is incomplete until it answers what happens in the worst case, and who does what.

Stage	What it requires	The failure mode
Raising the alarm	The worker triggers it, or a missed check-in does	Only the first is covered, so an unconscious worker raises nothing
Someone receives it	A named role, rostered, available across all hours lone work occurs	The alert goes to a supervisor who finishes at 5pm
Locating the worker	Known location, or location data from the device or vehicle	The last known location is the depot they left six hours ago
Physical response	Who attends, from where, in how long. Emergency services if needed	Nobody has calculated the actual travel time to the furthest site
First aid	Arrangements that assume the worker cannot self-treat	A kit in a locked vehicle the injured worker cannot reach
After the event	Investigation, control review under regulation 38, and support for the worker	The incident closes without the controls being revisited

What Evidence Looks Like

What you will be asked	The record that answers it	How long it should take
Did you identify who works alone?	The completed checklist per role or task, dated	Minutes
Is it in your risk register?	A register entry with an owner, controls and a review date	Minutes
What communication system did you provide?	The system, coverage verification, and evidence it was tested	Same day
Who monitors it?	A named role with rostered coverage, and the escalation path	Same day
Did you train them for lone work specifically?	Completion records by person and version, distinct from task training	Minutes
What happened after the last incident?	The investigation and the regulation 38 control review	Same day

The third and fourth rows are where most organisations are weakest, and they are precisely what regulation 48 points a regulator toward.

The same evidence standard applies across every hazard, as covered in audit-ready risk management.

6 Common Mistakes In Managing Lone Work

1. Treating the device as the control: A duress app with nobody monitoring it is equipment. The control is the person who notices and the response that follows.
2. Only covering the worker who can press a button: If a missed check-in does not raise an alarm, your system does not cover the situation lone work exists to guard against.
3. Verifying coverage at the office: Mobile signal at the depot tells you nothing about the site, the plant room or the basement. Verify where the work happens.
4. Leaving home-based workers out of the assessment: The duty applies, the isolation is real, and almost nobody has considered how long it would take to notice.
5. Training on the task but not on working alone: They are different skills. The lone work training covers check-ins, withdrawal, escalation and emergency procedure.
6. Never testing the chain end to end: Most breaks sit between receiving an alert and somebody physically arriving, and that gap is invisible until it is walked through.

Bringing It Together

A working alone risk assessment is not really an assessment of the task.

It is an assessment of the gap between something going wrong and somebody knowing about it.

Australian law is unusually specific here. Regulation 48 requires you to manage the risks of remote or isolated work and to provide a system of work that includes effective communication for accessing assistance.

An employer with a good procedure and an unreliable communication system has not met that duty, however careful the procedure is.

If you do one thing after reading this, take your most isolated worker on their longest shift and walk the chain out loud: alarm raised, alert received, worker located, help dispatched, first aid given.

Most organisations find the break within ten minutes, and it is nearly always between receiving the alert and someone physically arriving.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is a working alone risk assessment?

A structured review of every role or task where a worker may be isolated from assistance, identifying what could go wrong and what is in place so the worker can get help. It covers the nature of the work, the location, first aid and emergencies, how long the person is alone, communication, training, and whether anyone would notice if a check-in were missed. The output belongs in your risk register with an owner and a review date.

2. Is working alone illegal in Australia?

No. Working alone is lawful, and it carries a specific duty. Under regulation 48 of the model work health and safety regulations, a person conducting a business or undertaking must manage the risks associated with remote or isolated work and must provide a system of work that includes effective communication with the worker. Some high-risk tasks should not be performed alone, and that is a control decision rather than a general prohibition.

3. What counts as working alone?

A worker is working alone when they are isolated from the assistance of others because of location, time or the nature of the work. Distance is not the test, assistance is. That includes a retail worker closing a store, a cleaner in an empty office block, a nurse on a home visit, a technician in a plant room while colleagues are elsewhere on site, and a person working from home.

4. Does the duty apply to employees working from home?

Yes. Work health and safety duties extend to the home when work is being done there, and a home-based worker is isolated from assistance in exactly the way the duty contemplates. This is the group most often left out of a working alone risk assessment, usually because the work itself feels low risk, which is not the question the assessment asks.

5. What communication system do we need for lone workers?

One that works where the worker actually is, that they can trigger in the state they may be in, and that reaches someone who is available. In practice: verified coverage at the site rather than the depot, satellite or radio where mobile fails, a single-action duress trigger, a named monitoring role with rostered backup, a defined response time, and missed check-ins treated as an alarm rather than an absence.

6. How often should a working alone risk assessment be reviewed?

On a periodic cycle, and on event triggers. Under regulation 38 of the model work health and safety regulations, control measures must be reviewed when a new hazard is identified, when a control is found not to be effective, after a notifiable incident, before a change at the workplace, and when a health and safety representative requests it. A change of site, roster or vehicle all count.

7. What tasks should never be done alone?

This is a decision for your assessment rather than a fixed national list, and the tasks most commonly prohibited are those where an injury would be immediately disabling or where rescue is difficult. Work at height, confined space entry, live electrical work, work with heavy plant and work involving hazardous chemicals are the usual candidates. Write the list down, because an unwritten rule is not a control.

8. Is lone work a psychosocial hazard as well as a physical one?

It can be. Prolonged isolation, lack of support and exposure to aggression without backup are recognised psychosocial hazards, so a lone worker may face both a physical risk and a psychological one from the same arrangement. Assessments that consider only injury miss the second, and the controls differ: the psychosocial exposure responds to contact, supervision and support rather than to a duress device.

Sources

• Work Health and Safety Regulations 2011 (Cth), regulation 48, Remote or isolated work
• Work Health and Safety Regulations 2011 (Cth), regulation 34, Duty to manage risks
• Work Health and Safety Regulations 2011 (Cth), regulation 36, Hierarchy of control
• Work Health and Safety Regulations 2011 (Cth), regulation 38, Review of control measures
• Safe Work Australia, Remote and isolated work: WHS duties
• Safe Work Australia, Duties of a PCBU
• Safe Work Australia, First aid in the workplace
• Safe Work Australia, Psychosocial hazards
• SafeWork NSW, Remote or isolated work
• WorkSafe Queensland, Remote and isolated work

Disclaimer: This article is general information, not legal advice. Work health and safety duties vary between states and territories, and some industries carry additional obligations for remote or isolated work. Confirm your obligations with your work health and safety regulator or a qualified adviser before acting.

Read More About Working Alone:

• Understanding 5×5 Risk Assessment Matrix: A Complete Guide
• Occupational Violence and Aggression Risk Assessment Checklist
• 3 WHS Risks for Remote or Isolated Work That Every Business Must Address
• Identifying and Controlling Risks When Working Alone
• New Compliance Course Released – Working Alone Training Course