SAFETY

IT PAYS TO BE SAFE

First Contact

Traditional wisdom says that you should give out as little information about yourself as possible when making contact with someone online. Ironically, your first goal when connecting with someone on Work for Lodgings is to find out as much information as possible about that person.

You should, as always, exercise due diligence for the sake of safety. For starters, look for complete and convincing profiles. A convincing and thorough false profile can take a lot of work. Then don’t just let profiles speak for themselves. You can find out a lot about a person yourself just by searching online. In addition, ask for the contact details of references and be sure to contact these references.

Perhaps most importantly, set up a meeting to talk on the phone. Not everyone enjoys phone calls, but you should have at least one or two conversations that aren’t over text-based mediums.

Meeting people online can be risky, but it’s also a more common occurrence than it has been in the past. In this way, it’s not much different from driving a car. We all accept that there’s a risk that something could go wrong, but that doesn’t stop us from trying. If you come across a profile on the Work for Lodgings network where you are in any way in doubt, don’t hesitate to report the profile to Work for Lodgings using our contact form.

Health And Safety At Work For Lodgings

Health & Safety

As well as providing a welcoming environment for guest-workers, hosts have a Duty of Care requirement to protect the health, safety and well-being of guest-workers.

Here we highlight some safety tips for hosts to consider in order to protect the safety of guest-workers:

  • Risk assessments shold be conducted to identify potential risks or hazards so that they can be eliminated.
  • Hosts should provide a safe place to work which is clean and free from risks.
  • If the guest-worker is not exeperienced at a task, the host should ensure effective training is provided so that the guest-worker can carry out the work safely.
  • Proper procedures should be put in place to help avoid injuries caused by handling dangerous substances or heavy objects.

Health and Safety should be considered a priority by all hosts that engage volunteer guest-workers. With effective health and safety in place, guest-workers are able to carry out their activities effectively in a safe environment with minimum risk to themselves. Hosts that demonstrate a commitment to keeping guest-workers safe can help to retain their services as well as attracting more guest-workers.

Guest-workers should take reasonable care of their own safety and take care not to do anything which could harm another person. They should follow all reasonable safety instructions given to them by their host.

Reasonable care can be achieved by a guest-worker by:

  • Only doing tasks that have been assigned.
  • Only doing tasks that the guest-worker has been trained to do or is familiar with.
  • Not doing tasks that are considered to be unsafe.
  • Reporting any hazards and risks to the host.
  • Using any personal protection equipment that is provided, and storing and maintaining it as instructed.
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