A sign-on board for farm workers: know everyone made it back

Most farm work is done alone, a long way from anyone, and often out of sight until dark. The oldest safety system on any farm is someone noticing that a ute is not back. It works until the day nobody is looking.

A farm's staff asked us for a simple version of that: a way to clock on and off, not to track time, just to show when someone has left the farm. This is how it works in Phase.

Signing on

There is an On farm button at the top of Phase, beside the notification bell, for every owner, manager and employee. Tap it, pick the time you expect to finish, and tap Sign on. You can also say which property you are on and where you are working.

It is opt-in, person by person. Nobody is signed on unless they sign themselves on. The first time, Phase shows exactly what other people will be able to see, and you agree to it once.

What happens at finish time

At the time you said you would finish, Phase asks Time to sign off? You can sign off, add an hour, or change your finish time.

If you still have not signed off after the farm's grace time, which is 30 minutes unless the farm sets it differently, the owners and managers are told. The farm can choose different people to be told instead. The message says who it is, when they expected to finish, where they said they would be, when they signed on, and their phone number.

That alert comes through at any hour. It is not held back by the overnight quiet time, because that is exactly when it matters.

Who sees what

• People who look after safety see who is on the farm, when they signed on, when they expect to finish and where they said they are working.
• The rest of the team see who else is on the farm and where. They do not see anyone's times or phone numbers.
• Managers also see who has not signed on at all today.

What it does not do

It never tracks anyone while they work. There is no live location and nothing running in the background.

A worker can choose to share where they are as they sign on. That is one location, taken once, at the moment they tap. It is deleted after 7 days, and each sign-on is deleted after 90.

Before you switch your team onto it

Tell the team how it works before anyone relies on it. Some states require notice before a workplace monitors staff in any way, so check what applies to you.

It is also not a substitute for anything else you do for safety. A phone's own emergency SOS works without Phase, and in an emergency the call is always 000. Phase puts the farm's emergency plan on every phone for that moment.

If you also want hours for pay

Signing on is a safety record, not a timesheet. If you want hours for paying people, Phase has a separate hours calendar that a manager switches on. A sign-off can then fill in the day's hours.

Part of the app the team already uses

There is no separate safety app to install or log in to. Signing on is in the same Phase the team already opens for jobs, spray records and the map. Phone numbers come from Safety & People, the emergency plan is one tap away, and where the farm wants it, a sign-off fills in the day's hours.