10 Reasons to Give Every Worker an Industrial Radio

Industrial radios have, traditionally, not been available to every worker in the facility, and to us, that’s an issue. How are workers expected to work smarter, faster and more agile without having the proper tools needed to get their jobs done? Well, they can’t, and studies show that 35% is the industry standard for workforce efficiency. We can do better, and we can start with digital transformation efforts that improve workforce communication in the field.

There’s no question that the frontline’s tools, like wrenches and screwdrivers, are necessary to get their tasks done on time, but industrial radios are just as important. At weavix™, we provide connectivity and digital communication across your entire facility, for every worker. Some facilities might think giving every worker a radio is overkill and well outside of their budget, but it’s completely necessary to holistically improve efficiency, support enterprise initiatives and keep your workers safe. Our Internet of Workers (IoW) platform gives your workers access to the limitless digital communication they deserve, and here are our top 10 reasons why.

1. Receive Emergency Mass Alerts & Notifications

Safety is a top concern for every industrial facility, and rightfully so. When there’s an emergency anywhere in the facility, that emergency and the safety of your workers needs to take priority. But, when only a few within the workforce have any form of communication, keeping every worker protected and informed during a dire situation becomes much more difficult.

Old emergency mass alert systems rely a lot on hope: hope that your workers hear the sirens in their area, hope your workers remember what sound and rhythm indicated what emergency is going on. While hope is good to have, it’s not a guarantee to keep your workers safe. That’s where walt™ comes in.

walt™ smart industrial radios are your frontline’s guarantee to receiving and then responding to emergency messages. After giving every worker a walt™, not only can they communicate with supervisors and crew members, but a targeted alert is instantly sent to every device within an area. These alerts will continuously go off as an alarm on their smart radio, vibrate and take over the entire screen, indicating an emergency, until each individual worker acknowledges it.

Our emergency mass alert system allows management to now oversee evacuation activity and ensure their crews reach muster. weavix™ alleviates any worry regarding everyone receiving the alert, the directions to muster or other vital information they need. Our alerts override all weavix™ devices within the targeted device, even if they’re silenced or asleep, guaranteeing everyone is informed. We connect every worker, and in an emergency, having a reliable walt™ smart industrial radio keeps them safe.

2. Stay in Touch with Their Coworkers

One of the most obvious reasons that every worker needs a walt™ on their person is the ability to communicate with the rest of their crews. Whether it’s a small request from one crew member to another or a large change in direction for an entire project, being able to convey that message quickly allows your crews to adjust and act fast. With weavix™ smart radios, every worker now has push-to-talk, text and video capabilities to share information quickly and efficiently.

Aside from communicating back and forth to respond fast to changes for certain tasks, communicating with coworkers also develops your workforce within their jobs. For some, it’s easier to ask a fellow peer for clarification or understanding on an unfamiliar task than it is to ask a manager. Some might think they should already know it, even if they haven’t run across a certain task before. Instead of delaying the responsibility due to not wanting to embarrass themselves or feel as though they’re wasting their manager’s time, they can just as quickly ask their more seasoned coworkers.

3. Contact Their Direct Supervisors When the Time Calls

There are many instances in that field crews need to reach their supervisor, but only a few can. Supervisors and managers are just as busy as their field workers, but they have the added challenge of balancing their time completing their tasks and being accessible to their crews. With every worker having a walt™ smart radio, there’s always the perceived issue that workers will talk to their supervisor too often, keeping them from completing their tasks.

Establishing permission-based channels and two-way invitations, weavix™ accounts for this, allowing your field crews and supervisors to be both connected and productive. Supervisors can choose who is able to reach out to them, reinforcing the chain of command throughout the frontline. These invitations keep supervisors from being bombarded with messages and keep workers from reaching out to the wrong supervisor.

On the frontline, there are things that workers do that aren’t so vital that their supervisor needs to know about. But what about the things workers experience? Concerning the facility as a whole, there are certain instances that management should know about. weavix™ includes a feature within all our smart devices allowing field workers to instantly report time delays, safety concerns and anything else happening on the frontline. Not only does this practice help drive efficiency, but it keeps management more aware of what’s going on throughout the entire facility so they can act fast for their workers.

4. Immediate Access to Subject Matter Experts

Similar to having instant access to coworkers and managers, giving every worker a walt™ smart industrial radio also connects them to the subject matter experts as needed. They might be somewhere else within the facility or a state or two away, but weavix™ makes it as if they were right there with them to assist. With this connection between your frontline workers and your subject matter experts, all through our IoW platform, any specialized issues your crews run into can be accounted for and be resolved faster.

5. Stay Focused on Tasks, without Unnecessary Chatter

For the workers that are supplied with a radio currently, they’ll be the first to tell you that there can be many conversations going on that they have no involvement with. It’s distracting, especially for tasks that require more focus. When every worker has a walt™, you might think that the problem would just grow since more people having radios would just lead to more radio chatter and more distractions, but that’s not the case.

With weavix™, our walt™ smart industrial radios come with unlimited channels and radio silencing options. In the event of an emergency, however, any silencing features are overridden to effectively deliver emergency alerts. For your workers, this can lead to their communications being more targeted and purposeful since they can talk directly to who they need to. As a receiver, they would know the message was intended for them to hear, letting them concentrate on their task at hand and only get information that’s pertinent to them. For less urgent messages, workers can instead text each other from their walt™, allowing them to focus on their task and respond when it’s convenient.

6. Productivity is Proven to Skyrocket

Many studies have been conducted by workplace productivity software platforms, namely SalesForce™ and CMSWire, showing how digital transformation drives productivity levels up, especially in the frontline. walt™ radios are designed to enhance your frontline workforce, expand their communication capabilities and extend it to everyone. A study conducted by Expert Market reveals there’s a link between communication and productivity in the workplace, where people are better able to hold themselves and their crews more accountable.

7. Get Notified of Specific PPE Requirements Based on Location

Certain areas within a facility require workers to wear specific personal protection equipment (PPE), but it can change from unit to unit. The PPE can range from enforcing that all workers wear fire-retardant (FR) clothing in designated areas, to having double hearing protection on. While signage throughout the area definitely helps keep your workers informed of the PPE requirements in these areas, automatically alerting them with geofenced-based messaging would guarantee they knew what was needed before entering the area.

To keep crews safe and ensure your facilities are enforcing safety practices, every walt™ smart radio can send an automatic notification to the workers when they enter these areas. Within our platform, you can digitally map out and mark the areas with additional precautions. Then, once their walt™ crosses the threshold, an alert will go off letting your worker know to wear the proper PPE. Then, after exiting the geofenced area, they’ll be alerted again that specific PPE is no longer required. Without giving everyone a walt™, your workers would rely on the accuracy and visibility of the signage.

8. Receive Critical Facility Information Daily, or Anytime it’s Needed

When a crane moves, a unit shuts down temporarily or an area gets closed off due to safety concerns, your frontline workers need to know. Not having this information can drastically slow down operations or even pose a safety risk to the workers out in the field. However, without every worker having a radio, ensuring everyone who needs this information receives it is a challenge many facilities face.

To overcome this challenge, weavix™ connects every worker in our IoW platform. Every worker, from the frontline to contractors to office employees and everyone in between, can communicate digitally. From one platform, you can guarantee everyone receives the same message, information and instructions regarding these places. walt™ allows you to reach the deskless workforce at any time and as often as necessary.

9. Promote Teamwork and Trust Throughout your Workforce

We’ve discussed the operational benefits that expanding communications to everyone in your facility has, but now many facilities are wanting to keep productivity up while also promoting their workplace culture. Without ways to communicate and connect with their crew, many workers can feel secluded or not fully invested in their work. But with walt™, your crews know they can rely on and trust each other more.

If a worker is having an issue and needs an extra pair of hands, they can find who they need to communicate with using their walt™ and know that people on the other end are able to help. Yes, you’re keeping your operations running, but from the worker’s perspective, they know their crew has their back whenever they need it. With more communication and opportunities to bring your workforce together, weavix™ builds teamwork and trust among your frontline, and it all started with giving everyone a walt™ smart radio.

10. Build a Connected Workforce

A connected workforce is a productive workforce, and weavix™ is dedicated to driving productivity. Physically, each of your fieldworkers can see, feel, hold their walt™ smart industrial radio and then actually use them on a daily basis. So many connected worker platforms go largely unused by the frontline because they weren’t designed to cater to their work environment or their needs. weavix™ is the opposite.

With more innovative tools your crews are already used to working with, plus guaranteed connectivity across the entire facility and multimedia communication capabilities available for every worker, weavix™ builds a truly connected worker experience. By giving every worker a walt™, we’re giving them a voice and empowering them to use it with their coworkers and management.

Having industrial radios available for every worker benefits everyone within your facility. Managers get more transparency into the frontline, field crews can freely communicate with their coworkers and stay safe while in the facility, contractors are included and informed as needed. While some industrial radios are deemed as “too expensive” to give to every worker, they are just as necessary as other tools in your field crews’ toolbelt.

weavix™ offers industry’s most advanced smart radio at an affordable rate, with a managed service to cover any ongoing repairs, maintenance and upgrades at no additional cost. We can fit almost any budget to give every worker the ability to communicate, enhance efficiency and increase safety throughout your entire facility. With an average worker efficiency rate of only 35%, we know weavix™ is the solution to optimize your workforce and drive those numbers up. To see how giving everyone on your frontline a walt™ smart radio can positively impact your crews, contact a weavix™ specialist today.