21 May 2019 Spotlight on SafetyLine Lone Worker
Describe your company and its product.
SafetyLine Lone Worker is an automated cloud-based work alone Safety Monitoring service that helps provide companies with offsite workplaces to be compliant with the Canadian Center for Occupational Health and Safety lone worker regulations. We provide safety solutions through Interactive Voice Response service, Smartphone application, an administration web application service, multiple satellite device integrations, and Bluetooth hardware integrations.
What year did your company start?
1999
Which city (or cities) are you located?
We are based in East Vancouver and Ladysmith on Vancouver Island
Describe your company culture in three words.
- Empathy
- Excellence
- Empowerment
How do you celebrate company or employee wins?
We have a strong company culture, and our employees are recognized for their commitment to our corporate values through an annual peer-nominated award. We also have a profit-sharing program recognizing contributions to the bottom line. Also, our employees meet twice a year for a paid company retreat to celebrate our success over the past six months.
What is the problem that you are trying to solve?
At SafetyLine, we believe safety is an absolute necessity for every worker, doing any job, regardless of the time of day, physical location or equipment available. Federal, provincial, and municipal health and safety regulations mandate a safe working environment for workers who work alone, in isolation, or hazardous environments. SafetyLine was the first automated solution that used cloud-based technology, and mobile data to protect and save the lives of Canadian workers.
What is your biggest milestone to date?
Signing some large contracts with Fortune 500 companies. We obsess over all our customers but knowing that SafetyLine had reached the level of security and reliability that these companies require felt amazing.
What is your biggest challenge?
As part of our goals in the upcoming year is to expand safety solutions to the United States with our sister product Scatterling. Unlike Canada, the United States does not have a strict Federal and State health and safety regulations for lone workers. As a result, we will remain relevant and effective in developing adaptable innovation to provide worker monitoring and safety to the US market.
What is your motto?
Work Alone Safety Made Easy
How are you making an impact?
SafetyLine’s brand strategy is rooted in the fact that we offer one solution to fit the majority for the market’s highest-level needs for lone worker monitoring. These included a worker’s need to receive help in an emergency, an organization’s need to comply with legislative safety mandates, as well as the need from a mechanism for these safety mandates to function.
What is your hope for the future of tech in BC?
We will continue to provide a safety solution that can encompass all types of workers from oil rig workers to home care nurses. SafetyLine brings technology to protect human lives in Canada and worldwide.
Lightning Round with Thomas Touhey, CEO SafetyLine Lone Workers Spotlight
What excites you about your job?
Interacting with my employees. Every employee is encouraged to come up with new ideas on how to improve our service offerings, future features, or new products. Interacting with these people keeps me current with technology and inspires me to keep learning something new every day.
What was the biggest obstacle you had to overcome?
Coming up with new innovative products and services is the easy part of our jobs. The two biggest obstacles are 1) Letting prospective customers know that we have products that will improve their productivity and their safety. And 2) Going against the “Status Quo.” They say it’s hard to teach an old dog new tricks and even though new services can improve a Worker’s job, people are resistant to adopting new systems.
If you can give advice to your 20-year-old self, what would you say?
The advice I have for all people is “Find your Passion and do it.” Always do what makes you happy.
What are your pet peeves?
People that say things are impossible! The tech mind knows that everything is possible!
Words of wisdom to other tech CEOs or founders?
None. Each of them has found their passion and are living it.
Favourite city you visited?
My work life has allowed me to travel around the world and visit so many cities that I have lost count. Through my travels, I have learned that most cities are large and impersonal. I find joy in visiting small villages where you meet and interact with the people, and I am amazed by the similarities and difference in all people around the world. The most effective way to meet and learn about different cultures and people is to visit small towns, not cities.
What is your formula for success?
Success is measured in several ways. I choose to use HAPPINESS as the metric for success in both my personal and business lives. A balance of social (family and friends), physical (sports and recreation), and mental (work and school) activities have resulted in a very high HAPPINESS score for me personally. At work, we strive to provide a work environment that is fun and challenging by offering social and educational activities. This ensures a high level of HAPPINESS in employees with the side-effect of having a very profitable, growing business.
Name one book that everyone should read.
“Factfulness – 10 Reasons We’re Wrong About The World” by Hans Rosling – In this age of negativity and bad news, Hans points out how the world is getting better all the time. Facts don’t lie but how they are interpreted may. Hans teaches us to question how others use facts to justify their own truths and how we should question these interpretations and come to our own conclusions.
How do you decompress?
I have a very full and balanced life which means I very seldom need to decompress. Life is beautiful, live it to the fullest.
Favourite movie?
There are at least three movies that I love:
- Airplane – I love slapstick humour, and this really does it for me
- Lawrence of Arabia – A man with a passion that lets nothing get in the way of him reaching his goals.
- The original Star Trek TV series – Everything that will ever be invented already exists in Star Trek, including a society based upon knowledge, not money.