Sonder safety: The tools and services that ensure workforce safety 24/7

Wellbeing and safety challenges appear in virtually every aspect of work, in every industry. Often, they can be difficult to identify, but if left unaddressed, these challenges can evolve into crises, and can have major personal and business consequences.

According to our 2023 survey data*, the three most common blockers for employees seeking support when concerned about their safety were:

• Concerns about the affordability of accessing support
• Unsure of where to get support
• Support not available at the time of day or night that it was needed

Sonder offers a holistic set of safety features that tackle these blockers head on. When a company partners with Sonder to protect workforce safety, access to safety support is free, in the palms of their people, and available 24/7.

In this blog, we’ll deep dive into our safety features and tools that help address the needs of the modern workforce through evidence backed, clinical and non clinical care, delivered at the right time.

Our first line of defence when it comes to keeping members safe is our safety alerts. Our in-house intelligence analysts work around the clock to monitor news, emergency broadcasts, weather stations, and even the dark web to identify, assess, and then verify any potential threats to our members.

They then send push notifications to members who could become impacted to help them become aware, avoid, or deal with whatever that situation might be. Or, depending on the severity, these alerts might be sent as SMS, prompting members to confirm their safety.

These alerts are often sent within minutes of intelligence, being received and verified, meaning that our members are often informed before these incidents hit mainstream news.

Not only do these alerts limit the risk of physical and psychosocial harm being caused, but are often the trigger for members to jump into the app, and access the thousands of articles, wellbeing guides, assessments, podcasts, videos, recipes and links to external services.

Within Sonder’s workplace health and safety software are two safety tools that our members can access 24/7.

‘Check on me’ is a simple safety feature that, when set by a member, prompts them to confirm their safety at a time of their choosing. Sonder will then discreetly check in and ask the member to confirm that they’re safe.

If they fail to do so, or indicate that they are unsafe at any point, a Care Specialist in one of our support centres in Sydney, London, and Auckland will escalate appropriately. Initially a Care Specialist will reach out to try and confirm their safety, before accelerating to the emergency services or our responder network, depending on the situation.

1am us the average start time of a Sonder ‘Check on me’

‘Check on me’ is a favourite feature of customers who have people working in the community, on location, or are regularly out on site or client visits. But thanks to its 24/7 nature, it can also come in handy for your employees when they’re heading out on a Hinge date, or are buying something they’ve spotted on Facebook Marketplace.

‘Track my journey’ can be used for when a member is on the move. So whether they’re walking home alone, driving to visit a client, or travelling through an unfamiliar area, the Sonder support centre can look out for your people.

They start by inputting their address and mode of transport. If they’re seen drifting off course, or don’t reach points in their journey by an expected time, or stop at any particular point, the Sonder support centre will reach out to confirm their safety.

For managers, both ‘Check on me’ and ‘Track my trip’ are tools that help reduce manager pressure (at a current high) by reducing psychosocial hazards. They can have the confidence that Sonder is looking out for them around the clock.

At Sonder, we consider a critical incident as an event that can cause physical or psychological harm. This can be anything from witnessing customer aggression on the way to work, to theft in stores, to serious illness, or the death of a co-worker.

While as an organisation, you’re not able to predict the occurrence of critical events or critical instances, you can put services in place to connect your people with support.

Sonder’s critical incident response uses all of our safety features, along with our responder network, which are based all around the UK, New Zealand and Australia.

A supermarket chain had a store in Bondi Junction, which was impacted by a significant event. While Sonder updated all members across Sydney with information by push notification and SMS, our support centre was able to identify 22 members from that supermarket within the immediately impacted vicinity and requested for them to confirm their safety.

Three responders were deployed immediately. They provided psychological first aid and organised access to food and accommodation, as many of the staff couldn’t access their phones, keys, or wallets, as the whole centre was locked down. In the following days after this event, Sonder conducted additional welfare checks to support the people impacted.

FAQ: How quickly can the in person responders be on site?

In a metropolitan area like a major city, we can generally have responders on the ground in around an average of 30 min. It is slightly longer for regional and remote areas.*

At Sonder, we take a fundamentally different approach to safety, focusing on preventing and solving issues before they escalate, so they don’t cause harm to your people, or your business.

Poor employee wellbeing can result in a higher risk profile for your business, turnover and absenteeism, and put additional strain on managers to deal with issues that they’re not trained to deal with.

By prioritising employee safety and addressing psychosocial risks before they have an impact, we can create work environments where employees feel safe and supported.

Sonder is a technology company that helps organisations improve the wellbeing of their people so they perform at their best. Our mobile app provides immediate, 24/7 support from a team of safety, medical, and mental health professionals – plus onsite help for time-sensitive scenarios. Accredited by the Australian Council on Healthcare Standards (ACHS), our platform gives leaders the insights they need to act on tomorrow’s wellbeing challenges today.