Corporate facilities are more vulnerable than ever today, with an increasing need to safeguard people, data, intellectual and physical property, coupled with tougher regulatory mandates. And now, with the arrival of the coronavirus, the health of one’s workforce has become a still greater concern.
Virtually every company takes steps to protect its electronic data from remote hackers, but what about bad actors who simply walk in the front door and seek to cause a company harm, or visitors, vendors, or contractors who may walk in and unknowingly expose employees and other visitors to the coronavirus?
Most corporations use some sort of formal visitor check-in and identification procedure, even if it’s just a handwritten visitor log. But paper logbooks are inherently problematic, with illegible entries making the accuracy and usefulness of records questionable. Unless reception desk staff are confirming a person’s identity at the time of arrival, a visitor might claim to be anyone and make a false entry in the log.
Handwritten logs don’t make it easy to access, report on, or review entrance records after the fact, and it’s virtually impossible to check entries in handwritten logs against U.S. consolidated lists and other red-flag or banned visitor lists with a high degree of accuracy in real time.
Handwritten visitor logbooks lying open on the reception desk in a lobby pose a threat to company security in terms of market intelligence: visitor details—which vendors are calling on your company, which persons from other companies have been present for sensitive business negotiations, which potential hires have come to you for interviews—could be literally visible for anyone to see.
And with the advent of the coronavirus, handwritten visitor logs are ineffective for recording, verifying, and tracking visitor responses to COVID-19 screening questions, especially when such data requires rapid, accurate access.
Automated Systems Ensure No One Squeezes By
An automated visitor management system such as the LobbyGuard Visitor Management system makes insecure, cumbersome, data-static visitor logbooks obsolete. Every potential entrant coming into your workplace is securely screened and signed in, with all key data uploading instantly to the system for comprehensive, secure Microsoft cloud-based recordkeeping and reporting. And by instituting simple screening steps, such as including questions around possible COVID-19 exposure, the protection afforded by automated visitor management can be extended even further. Should an entrant to your facility subsequently test positive for the coronavirus, LobbyGuard data capture and reporting functions can facilitate any necessary contact tracing efforts by public health officials.
LobbyGuard can support every lobby type—including both receptionist-assisted and self-service kiosk procedures. The system scans driver’s licenses and other visitor ID formats to screen potential entrants against criminal databases as well as proscribed visitor lists. The system prints highly visible, customizable visitor badges showing key data including the person’s name, company, visitor’s host name, destination, entry date and time, and even COVID-19 screening clearance status. LobbyGuard syncs with your IT network to notify the visitor’s internal host via email or text message of the visitor’s arrival.
Out with Logbooks. In with the Bottom Line.
With LobbyGuard, you can…
- Better document and more comprehensively protect intellectual and physical property, products, and employee safety and health
- Securely maintain complete visitor records to facilitate contact tracing efforts
- Ensure regulatory and certification compliance requirements
- Ultimately save money
For more information about how you can improve the safety, health, and security of all your facilities with LobbyGuard, read our eBook or get in touch with us here.