How can employers help keep employees safe, especially in the hotel business?

Something is wrong, very wrong. Don’t panic. Hit the panic button.

In 2018, to prevent violent assaults and sexual harassment of hotel workers, the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA) created the 5-Star Promise aimed at strengthening safety and security for hotel employees and guests. Also, in and since 2018, ordinances have been enacted in several U.S cities, including Chicago, Long Beach, Sacramento and Miami Beach.  In California, AB 1761 was introduced in the California Assembly and passed but has not become law – yet. All of these actions center around employee safety devices (ESDs) or more commonly, panic buttons. Unlike their forerunners, these panic buttons use wireless technology. For example, React Mobile, a 5-Star Promise sponsor and resource, provides ESDs that use Bluetooth technology to relay the GPS coordinates of the employee who pressed the panic button. The cloud-based safety platform integrates with a hotel’s existing property management software to deliver location-based alerts when an emergency occurs.

COVID-19 may have significantly disrupted the 2020 plans for implementing ESDs but the need for them is still there once the states have opened up their restrictions. If the AHLA and cities remain committed to their original plans of full implementation, time is running out. In the U.S., over 24 hotel brands took the promise, which means that over 18,000 hotel properties, each typically with hundreds of rooms, needs to complete their implementation. Benefiting from a recently completed strategic partnership with Brady Corporation, an international manufacturer that offers a combination of software, services, and integrated solutions to identify and protect people, products and places, React Mobile is positioned even better to get panic buttons installed in those hotels.