Top 5 Best Panic Button Apps to Safeguard Employees in 2024

worker using panic button app|Blackline Safety Panic Button App|Ok Alone Panic Button App|StaySafe Panic Button App|SafetyLine Panic Button App

Why use SHEQSY?

More than just a panic button app, SHEQSY is a comprehensive employee safety and management solution.

SHEQSY’s app (for iPhone & Android) protects employees in real-time with quick, discreet duress activation, location monitoring, periodic check-ins, overtime alerts, hazard and incident reporting, safety forms and checklists, location notes, emergency roll calls, and more. All of this critical data feeds into one user-friendly dashboard so that supervisors can easily monitor, manage, and report on employee activities and their safety statuses in real-time.

Available worldwide, SHEQSY makes it easy for organizations to move from reactive to proactive employee safety.

Review of SHEQSY:

“The application is used to support and protect our workforce as they are standalone workers working different hours of the night. The quick action response panic alarm is excellent and a safeguard for my team. SHEQSY has been implemented in two of my business operations and is a vital part of the health and safety of our employees.” (Source: Capterra)

Features:

  • “Shake for Panic” duress activation
  • “QuickPanic” panic button activation
  • Real-time GPS location visualization
  • Activity countdown timer
  • Periodic check-in
  • Overtime alerting
  • Hazard and incident reporting
  • Location notes
  • Customizable safety forms and checklists
  • Emergency roll call
  • Customizable emergency escalation chains
  • 24/7 emergency response center (optional)
  • Integrated Bluetooth wearables (for discreet panic activation and man-down functionality)
  • Integrated handheld satellite devices (for working outside of mobile coverage)
  • Calendar, scheduling, navigation, and reporting integrations
  • Public APIs for integration with other platforms
  • Cloud-based management dashboard

SHEQSY Benefits:

  • All-in-one safety and management solution
  • Cost-effective
  • Maintains employees’ personal privacy (employee-enabled)
  • User-friendly and reliable
  • Excellent customer support
  • Fully customizable
  • Works well in low-signal areas
  • Deployed across workforces within minutes

Why use Blackline Safety?

Blackline Safety’s personal emergency app turns mobile phones into personal safety monitoring devices. For employees working alone or in changing work environments, the app enables security monitoring teams to coordinate emergency services to exact locations when employees need help.

Review of Blackline Safety:

“Blackline Safety Solutions are so much easier and effective than manual call-in systems—you’d be foolish to NOT use a Blackline Safety.” (Source: Featured Customers)

Features:

  • Configurable check-in timer
  • Live monitoring
  • SOS alerts
  • Location notes
  • Live Cloud-based monitoring portal
  • Automatic two-way calling
  • Integrates with Blackline’s Loner Duo or SOS Button accessories

Benefits:

  • User-friendly
  • Accurate GPS location
  • Compliant to British Standard 8484

Why use Ok Alone?

Ok Alone’s user-friendly personal safety app enables employees to check-in or request emergency assistance worldwide with the push of a button. Available for iPhone and Android, Ok Alone offers innovative features like hands-free voice updates and man-down protection.

Review of Ok Alone:

“My experience with OK Alone has been great. I can easily make adjustments and update lone workers in the laboratory or in the field. It works well with Android and iOS systems. OK Alone is extremely user friendly and has worked flawlessly.” (Source: Featured Customers)

Features:

  • Automated check-in
  • Man-down
  • GPS location monitoring
  • Panic button
  • High-risk check-in
  • Cloud-based supervisor dashboard
  • Hands-free voice commands

Benefits:

  • Designed for Android or iPhone
  • Easy to use
  • Low-cost

Why use StaySafe?

With StaySafe’s lone worker safety app, organizations can easily and quickly locate employees in emergency situations and send immediate assistance.

Review of StaySafe:

“Managers feel much safer as they patrol the streets, knowing that backup is only a button click away. Any alert that is triggered goes through to an external 24/7 monitoring station so we know their safety is being looked after even when working late at night.” (Source: Featured Customers)

Features:

  • Timed sessions
  • Welfare checks
  • Fall detection
  • Driving mode
  • Low signal mode
  • Discreet panic
  • Reminders

Benefits:

  • Cost-effective
  • In house or external monitoring option
  • BS8484 accredited
  • Easy to use

Why use SafetyLine?

SafetyLine is a comprehensive lone worker safety service that operates through the smartphones employees already own. Via the app, employees can check-in from anywhere and leave text or voice messages, share their GPS location, and request help with the push of a panic button in an emergency. 

Review of SafetyLine:

“This software is user friendly. I like the fact that, while I am out in the community visiting clients, I am being monitored and have a backup system if I get into trouble. I find this software vital for those of us that go into the community by ourselves. I like the Emergency option on the app and also the fact that you can shorten or lengthen the times of monitoring depending on the situation.” (Source: Capterra)

Features:

  • Panic button
  • Fall detection
  • No motion
  • Dial to check-in
  • GPS breadcrumbs
  • Text and voice messages
  • Integration with lone worker devices (such as Globalstar Spot, Garmin, V. ALRT panic button)

Benefits:

  • Cloud-based
  • Friendly web interface for administrators
  • For iPhone & Android
  • Great customer service

On a basic level, a panic button app is a smartphone application that enables employees to quickly send panic alerts to their managers (or security monitoring centers) and receive emergency assistance. Panic button apps provide an extra layer of security for all employees—especially for isolated and lone workers, and other staff working in high-risk or hazardous environments. Duress activation and GPS location monitoring are the core features that panic button apps must provide.

Who Needs a Panic Button App?

All organizations have a moral obligation—and often, a legal duty of care, such as in Australia, New Zealand, the United States, and the United Kingdom—to ensure that their employees are safe.

Employees who work alone or in isolated environments face greater risks of experiencing serious incidents, and therefore, require a lone worker safety solution. A panic button app can ensure that these employees stay safe and connected at all times.

Some examples of lone workers that require a panic button app include home healthcare professionals, utility maintenance staff, social workers, construction workers, delivery drivers, and real estate agents—as well as employees who work from home.

What is the Best Panic Button App?

All organizations should carry out regular risk assessments and develop a safety policy informed by their findings. Determining the best panic button app to safeguard lone, isolated, and other high-risk workers will largely depend on what your policy dictatesas well as what your legal obligations are to workplace health and safety.

Generally speaking, the best panic button app will not only provide emergency notifications and location monitoring, but also, more innovative safety features and management solutions. SHEQSY is the most comprehensive, effective, and affordable safety solution available.

Whether your employees are healthcare professionals providing home visits, surveyors completing inspections, or utility staff operating in hazardous or remote areas, SHEQSY makes it easy to safeguard them in real-time. Start your 30-day free trial today.

Maddy Cornelius
Article by
Maddy Cornelius
Maddy is a content contributor for SafetyCulture. She has worked as a digital marketer and copywriter in the risk management industry for more than a decade. When she’s not writing for SafetyCulture, Maddy runs a popular travel and food blog and enjoys snowboarding, practicing yoga, hiking, and spending time exploring outdoors.