Visitor Management: A Frontline Defense in Worker Safety
Visitor management systems offer a modern solution that can replace outdated methods, while improving workplace security, compliance and efficiency.
- By Jeff Gladwish
- Sep 06, 2024
Visitor management is gaining significant attention in safety councils and boardrooms for good reason.
While it might not solve every safety and audit challenge, it is essential for modernizing and streamlining crucial facility processes.
By enhancing security, compliance and the visitor experience, visitor management systems (VMS) are proving to be a vital component in today’s safety protocols.
These systems simplify tasks like visitor sign-ins and badge creation, ensure regulatory compliance through visitor training, and keep detailed records. They’re becoming more essential for businesses of all sizes.
The Risks of Paper Visitor Logbooks
While retro hairstyles like the mullet might be making a comeback, using old-school tools like paper logbooks hardly signals that an organization is up to date with current safety and security standards.
Paper logbooks, alongside other manual visitor management practices, are now considered obsolete by leading experts in security and safety. Logbooks are no longer suitable for many reasons.
For starters, paper logbooks must be stored and maintained by a receptionist and are often converted to digital records later. Poor handwriting can make entries hard to read, leading to delays in busy settings, and making the registration process both slow and prone to errors.
Even worse, paper logbooks are generally left out in public, making it easier for intruders to steal information or for the logbook itself to get damaged or tampered with. This alone makes compliance with data protection laws like GDPR or HIPAA nearly impossible.
In emergency situations, when fast access to the day’s visitor log is crucial, these books can get lost in the shuffle or forgotten about entirely, putting fire wardens and safety officers in a precarious position when it’s time to take roll call.
Overall, logbooks introduce unnecessary risk to both visitor privacy and the facility, while making audit preparation less reliable and compliance more challenging.
Going Digital with a Visitor Management System
VMSs are sophisticated tools designed to streamline and enhance visitor experience, security and compliance. Typically including a digital kiosk placed at a front desk or entrance alongside a badge printer, these systems offer features such as pre-registration, ID verification and real-time notifications, ensuring a seamless and secure check-in process.