Safety Buddies: When an Employee Raises an SOS, the Nearest Colleagues Know

Safety buddies is a feature of ORBII Teams that turns every colleague into someone who can help. When an employee raises an SOS, the 10 nearest colleagues within 5 km get an alert on their phone with the person’s name and how far away they are. A colleague who taps “I’m going” gets the live location and phone number, until the SOS ends.

It is built for the moments a company safety plan usually misses: the walk from the gate, the bus stop after a late shift, a field visit in a town with no office.

Why colleagues, and not just a helpline?

Help that is 300 metres away beats help that is 30 minutes away.

A Safety Desk can call the police and family, but it cannot be there. Volunteer helper networks are growing, but they are not in every town yet. Colleagues are. They work the same shifts, use the same routes and often live in the same areas. In most emergencies, the most useful person is the one who already knows you and is already close.

A traditional workplace buddy system pairs two people for a shift. Safety buddies does not need anyone to remember who their buddy is. The phone works it out at the moment it matters.

How safety buddies works

1. An employee raises an SOS. A tap, a spoken word like “help” or “bachao” with the phone locked, or a silent shake.
2. ORBII finds colleagues near them. Up to 10 people from the same company within 5 km, nearest first.
3. Each one gets an alert: “Priya needs help, 800 m from you.” Nothing more until they choose to act.
4. A colleague taps “I’m going”. Only then do they see the live location and the phone number, and the person in danger sees that help is on the way.
5. The SOS ends, and the location stops being shared.

Everyone else alerted at the same time still is: the person’s family circle, approved company responders, the company’s Safety Desk, and ORBII helpers nearby.

Every buddy alert says the same thing: call first, and never put yourself at risk. A buddy is never asked to confront anyone. Reaching a colleague, staying with them and calling 112 or 108 is the job.

What colleagues can and cannot see

	Buddy who got the alert	Buddy who tapped “I’m going”
Your name	Yes	Yes
How far away you are	Yes	Yes
Your live location	No	Yes, until the SOS ends
Your phone number	No	Yes, until the SOS ends
Your health information, if you added it	No	Yes, during the SOS, so they know what to expect
Who you blocked	No	No

Your employer never sees your health information, your buddy settings or your blocks.

Blocking: the safety valve

A safety feature that can send a colleague to your location has to answer one question honestly: what if that colleague is the problem?

So every employee can see their list of buddies and block anyone. A block:

• is permanent. There is no unblock, so nobody can pressure you into reversing it.
• works both ways. They never get your alerts, and you never get theirs.
• is private. They are not told, and HR and the console cannot see it.
• takes effect at once, even during a live SOS. If they had already tapped “I’m going”, they are removed.

Blocking a colleague never blocks your company’s Safety Desk. The desk is always alerted.

Privacy, in plain words

• One company only. Colleagues from another company are never your buddies, even in the same building.
• No tracking. To find who is near, ORBII uses a location you already share with a circle, or a rough location (about 300 metres) saved when you open the app. Nobody can see it, it is ignored after 12 hours and deleted within 24.
• You can turn it off. In Profile, Company, Safety buddies, switch off buddy alerts. You stop being alerted, your rough location is deleted, and your own SOS still reaches your buddies.
• Not for universities. On a campus plan, only campus security is alerted. Students are not alerted about each other.

The full details are in our privacy policy and the Trust Center.

Who it is for

• Companies with field staff: sales, service, logistics and site teams spread across a city.
• Offices with late shifts: especially women employees commuting at night. See our night shift safety checklist for employers.
• Teams in towns where nobody else is close: a buddy 2 km away is often the fastest help there is.

Safety buddies is part of ORBII Teams and comes with every seat, at no extra cost. It reaches employees’ phones with the next ORBII app update. If you run HR or safety for an Indian company, read what an employee safety app should do or write to us.