Real acknowledgement
A delivered alert can be missed. Requiring a click or a key-press means a human has genuinely taken ownership before the ladder stops.
- Home
- Escalation & Alerts
Escalation & Alerts
A missed check reaches a real person — and doesn’t stop until one responds.
When a worker goes quiet, the escalation ladder alerts your contacts in the order you set. Each one has to actively acknowledge — not just receive a message — and if they don’t, the alert advances to the next person on its own.
How escalation works
An alert with a person on the end of it
Being sent an alert isn’t enough. The ladder only stops when someone confirms they’ve got it.
1
A check ends unresolved
The ladder starts when a check can’t be closed safely — a distress reply or AI-call verdict, retries exhausted with no response, or a worker’s panic / SOS. Each schedule points at the escalation policy — the ordered list of contacts — you want to run.
2
Contacts are alerted in your order
The first contact is alerted by an email with an accept-link, an AI voice call with “press 1”, or both — your choice per contact. When it’s available, the alert carries the worker’s last-known location as a map link and what3words, so a responder knows where to go.
3
Someone has to acknowledge
A contact takes ownership by clicking the accept-link or pressing 1 on the call. That acknowledgement stops the ladder immediately — everyone else is spared the alert, and you have a clear record of who responded.
Acknowledgement stops the ladder — no double-alerting the whole team
4
No answer? It advances by itself
If no one acknowledges within a short window (five minutes by default), the alert moves on to the next contact automatically. No one has to be watching for it to keep moving.
5
Exhausted? The owner is told
If the whole ladder is walked with no acknowledgement, the account owner is notified by email, SMS and phone call, so it never goes unanswered. The incident stays open on the dashboard until someone closes it and records what happened.
Why it holds up
Designed so nothing falls through
Never a dead end
Timeouts advance the alert, and an exhausted ladder escalates to the account owner. There’s always a next step and a backstop.
Location in the alert
When the worker shared a location at check-in or SOS, responders get a map link and what3words — no guessing where to head.
Works with
Part of the safety net
Further reading
More on keeping workers safe
BS 8484 and lone worker devices: what the standard covers (and what it doesn't)
BS 8484 comes up in almost every lone worker device conversation — often as a badge with little explanation. Here's what the British Standard actually addresses.
What is a lone worker? The UK employer's plain-English guide
Lone working is more common than most employers realise — and it isn't just remote fieldwork. Here's who counts as a lone worker, and what that means for your duty of care.
Lone working and the law: what HSE guidance actually expects
There's no law that bans working alone — but the general duties absolutely apply. Here's what UK health and safety guidance actually expects of employers.