With so many people accessing the workplace daily, how do you keep track of everyone that comes and goes? How can you effortlessly monitor who is present at any given moment? How can you quickly access accurate time and attendance data for specific individuals or be promptly notified when a VIP arrives? These are just some of the questions that visitor management can answer. If you’re just starting your research about visitor management and want to learn more, this guide walks you through everything you need to know.
Visitor management is a process that enables workplaces to know who is entering their premises. This includes both new visitors and regular occupants like employees. The process can be very manual or completely automated with technology. The information gathered allows for referencing and reporting and serves multiple purposes, such as tracking time and attendance, ensuring site-wide compliance, bolstering site security, and enhancing safety.
There are several different types of visitor management systems available today, each offering unique features and benefits. Here are some common types:
Manual log books
This is the most basic method of visitor management. It involves using paper-based sign-in sheets where visitors manually write their details such as name, date, time of arrival, and purpose of visit. This method is simple but lacks automation and security.
Mobile apps
In some cases, people can check-in using a dedicated app. This method is more suited to employees for tracking time and attendance but not everyone wants another app on their phone and carrying a phone is always a requirement.
Fingerprint scanners
This is more common for tracking employee attendance but there are hygiene concerns and the devices can be clunky and require ongoing maintenance.
Self-service kiosks
Self-service kiosks are interactive touchscreen devices placed in lobbies or entrances. Visitors can register themselves, provide necessary information, take photos, and print badges.
AI powered cameras and kiosks
Advanced visitor management systems leverage artificial intelligence (AI) to automate the sign-in process, check compliance, offer dynamic surveys, perform facial recognition, print badges and capture useful insights.
It’s important that businesses choose the system that best suits their needs, considering factors such as security requirements, budget, scalability, and user experience.
There are several essential components that work together to facilitate an efficient and secure visitor management process.
New visitor registration
This allows new visitors to provide their information, such as name, contact details, purpose of visit, and any additional contact details. This can be done in advance through online forms or onsite using a self-service kiosk.
Secure check in / out
The actual process for signing in or out matters a lot. Ideally the process is secure, accurate and fast, especially for employees that come onsite everyday. This is where face authentication can help streamline the process.
Flexible surveys
In addition to asking for contact details, you might want to ask visitors or contractors specific questions. These can be health related or involve safety procedures to be reviewed.
Documents
In some cases a business may need to request, reject and approve documents required for entry. This can include being notified when a document is expiring. This can be part of the onboarding process for new visitors.
Host notifications
This helps keep staff informed of guest arrivals. This can involve letting a visitor choose their host on arrival or setting up a custom alert when particular people turn up onsite.
Other alarms
Whether it’s being notified when someone checks in, or has not checked in by a certain time, flexible alarm functionality is a key component of any good visitor management system.
Reporting and analytics
The purpose of any visitor management system is to record visitor attendance so the information collected must be easy to access and analyse from anywhere. This can include today dashboards that show how many people are onsite at anytime down to detailed time sheets for individuals.
Data security
Given the sensitive information collected, a visitor management system must include security protocols to protect data. This can include leveraging world-class technology partners that meet the strictest compliance standards, allowing for strong password protection and encrypting data.
Integrations
Visitor management systems can integrate with other systems such as workforce management, access control, payroll, alcohol breathalyses, thermometers or surveillance cameras. Integrations can help streamline processes, and enhance overall security and efficiency.
Evacuation management
With an accurate record of everyone onsite, the best visitor management systems make evacuation management easy. Fire wardens can access a digital record from the cloud and easily mark people safe as they are accounted for.
In a busy workplace environment, ensuring safety and security is paramount. A comprehensive understanding of individuals accessing your premises plays a critical role in achieving this goal. This is where visitor management plays a key role. The benefits include:
Enhanced security
By identifying everyone who enters the premises, visitor management improves overall security measures. Going a step further, visitor management can be integrated with access control to secure doors and turnstiles to ensure unauthorised personnel cannot access.
Accurate time and attendance
Visitor management technology can enable precise tracking of employees' time and attendance, reducing discrepancies and time spent managing payroll.
Site-wide compliance
Visitor management systems can enforce specific entry requirements for different types of people to ensure individuals are authorised to come onsite. This includes verification of attendance, ensuring accountability and proper documentation.
Secure access control
In addition to checking compliance, some visitor management systems can integrate with access control to automatically open boom gates, doors or turnstiles for authorised personnel.
Cost reduction through automation
Automating the check-in process with a visitor management system can help reduce the burden on front office staff, streamlining operations and potentially lower costs to manage site access.
Onsite visibility
Visitor management can provide real-time visibility into who is currently present onsite, allowing for better coordination, emergency preparedness, and resource allocation.
Effective contact tracing
A visitor management system can aid in contact tracing by identifying individuals who may have come into contact with an infected person, facilitating prompt action and reducing the risk of further transmission.
Data-driven decision making
By capturing and analysing data on visitor volume and attendance patterns, organisations can make data-driven decisions to optimise operations, improve efficiency, and enhance the overall visitor experience.
Privacy and protection of visitor data should be a top priority for any visitor management system. Some things to consider include:
Data encryption
Strong security measures for storing data can involve encryption techniques to safeguard sign in and attendance records. Encryption adds an additional layer of protection, making it harder for unauthorised individuals to access and misuse the data.
Data retention
How long you store data for will be subject to your region’s legal requirements, industry standards, and operational needs. Visitor management systems should offer flexibility when it comes to deleting data or expiring sensitive documents after a set period of time.
Security controls
Visitor management systems should utilise multiple layers of security controls (software, physical and process based) to protect client data.
Access permissions
Visitor management systems should offer different access levels and roles as not all users need access to all data. This includes access to settings.
Secure password management
In addition to a company’s strong internal protocols for managing passwords, a visitor management can aid in secure password management by leveraging authentication and authorisation platforms that handle user management, including user registration, login, and password reset.
Before implementing a visitor management system, preparation is important. Here are some things to think about:
Types of visitors
Map out all the different types of people that visit your business and decide how you want to group people whether it’s by department or job role eg. eg. Employee, Contractor, Visitor, Cleaner, Delivery.
Contact details
Next consider the contact details that you need to collect from each type of visitor the first time they enrol. Eg. Name, email, phone.
Surveys (if needed)
Consider what additional information you would like to collect at the point of sign in and if surveys should only appear upon enrolment or on subsequent visits. Keep in mind that different surveys can be set up for different types of visitors.
Hosts
Consider if you want to give visitors the option to choose and alert a host when they sign in. If so, list the employees that visitors can choose from.
Documents
Consider what documents, if any, that visitors or contractors need to present when they sign in for the first time. This can include driver licenses, vaccination docs, or particular skill certifications. If requesting docs, consider when they should expire and who is responsible for reviewing them.
Alarms
Consider what alarms you might want to set up. Some considerations include being notified anytime someone sign ins, or when a particular person signs in or when someone is stopped for any reason.
User access
Decide on user roles and permissions and who the main owner of the account will be. This includes who can edit access rules, create or change surveys, set up alarm notifications and access other settings.
Integrations
Visitor management systems can integrate with a range of services. Whether it’s workforce management for compliance checks, payroll for time and attendance, Slack for internal comms, or blood alcohol content devices, it’s worth considering possible integrations ahead of time.
Moving away from paper records
Ensuring safety and security within aged care homes has always been paramount, which is why visitor sign-in procedures are in place. However, existing processes are often paper based which can be cumbersome, especially for frequent visitors.
To reduce administration for front desk staff, and make signing in easier for recurring visitors, more and more aged care homes are turning to digital solutions and biometrics to automate their sign in process. Learn how one aged care home modernised their sign in procedures with a digital kiosk.
Capturing accurate attendance data
Capturing precise attendance data is crucial for certain businesses, as it can significantly impact their financial stability by preventing losses from fraudulent or inaccurate sign-in activities. This need is particularly prominent in cleaning companies, where managers cannot always be present onsite to guarantee that cleaners arrive punctually and fulfil the contracted hours.
Explore the success story of a cleaning company that set up facial authentication technology at their remote sites to sign in contractors. By adopting a biometric visitor management system, the company achieved accurate attendance tracking while simultaneously receiving instant notifications in the event of no-shows or delayed arrivals.
Meeting border force requirements
For sites that are subject to stringent Border Force regulations, it is imperative to log the presence of each visitor. This entails maintaining precise records of all individuals entering the premises. Apart from the mandatory sign-in procedures for workers and visitors, compliance with policies and conditions such as 77G and HACCP is essential, which requires acknowledgment upon entry.
Visitor management is a process that enables workplaces to know who is entering their premises. The information gathered allows for referencing and reporting and serves multiple purposes, such as tracking time and attendance, ensuring site-wide compliance, bolstering site security, and enhancing safety.
There are several different types of visitor management procedures from log books, to mobile apps, to fingerprint scanners to AI powered cameras and kiosks. It’s important that businesses choose the system that best suits their needs, considering factors such as security requirements, budget, scalability, and user experience.
There are essential components that work together to facilitate an efficient and secure visitor management process. Being able to pre-register people, offer flexible surveys, request documents, enable host notifications, and set up custom alarms are just some examples.
There are many benefits to having a visitor management system. Enhancing safety and security, streamlining payroll, enforcing site-wide compliance, and automating site access are just some of the key benefits.
Privacy and protection of visitor data should be a top priority for any visitor management system and there are few things to consider before implementing a system. This includes thinking about the types of people that visit and the sign-in flow for each type of visitor and what information needs to be collected.
Real-life examples and success stories of organisations that have implemented visitor management solutions can help reveal the benefits for your business. Read about successful case studies here.
Or book a demo to see how our visitor management system works.