Optimizing Safety, Security & Workplace Compliance with Visitor Management Technology

As touched on in a previous blog, having the right visitor management solution in place makes life easier for receptionists, hosts, visitors, contractors, security professionals and everyone in between. While all parties benefit from having right solution, different types of stakeholders may have specific areas of concern and benefit to different degrees.

For example, if the front desk staff previously battled long lines of impatient visitors, the direct benefit they reap is the ease of checking in guests in. Or perhaps a salesperson has been losing deals lately and suspects the frustrating arrival process is a factor in that. Continuing to practice poor management of visitors hinders these stakeholders. On the other hand, for personnel responsible for keeping security and compliance in check, a robust visitor management solution is critical.

Fine-tuning your visitor management workflow goes beyond your company putting its best foot forward, it also enables other key opportunity: elevating security compliance for better safety and data protection, and less breaches.

Optimizing Safety, Security & Workplace Compliance

A reliable and comprehensive visitor management system is integral to ensuring compliance and security within facilities, especially considering how much sensitive information we hold electronically. This, combined with safety related topics dominating news headlines, makes for a security conscious environment — one in which businesses must address the increasing need for improved security. Additionally, these entities need to be able to pull relevant reports, assess who is on-site at any given time, and demonstrate compliance through on-demand analytics to effectively navigate safety risks with agility and accuracy.

Regulations such as ITAR (International Traffic in Arms Regulations) and C-TPAT (Customs Trade Partnership Against Terrorism) require companies to keep records of everyone who enters a facility that may be exposed to sensitive information, verify who the visitors are, and in some cases, sign NDAs (non-disclosure agreements). Recommended ways to do this include taking visitors' photos, issuing badges, and maintaining a database of records. To achieve this more effectively, organizations are adopting comprehensive visitor management systems, allowing them to quickly pull relevant reports, assess who is on-site at any given time and demonstrate compliance through on-demand analytics.

How HID Visitor Management Can Help

As noted above, a centralized workspace and the management of visitors are critical aspects of compliance in modern facilities. This is especially true for non-acute organizations, such as healthcare and other spaces where sensitive data resides.

Maintaining security and compliance in the workplace is not something that happens overnight. But by implementing robust visitor management solutions like those offered by HID, teams can attain the ideal balance between regulatory compliance and visitor care.

HID understands the intricacies and vitality of workplace compliance, which is why our visitor management solutions possess the necessary features to address the demands specific to your business. With our guidance and support for administrators to take full advantage of features offered, businesses can perform audits on demand with confidence and maintain a strong stance alongside strict compliance requirements. Some of those features and considerations include:

• Approval Workflows — HID offers a robust approval workflow system that ensures only authorized personnel can access a site. With this system, tailored workflows can be set up for various types of visitors and visits, making it easy to manage permissions and approvals so that premises are secure and only authorized personnel are allowed entry.
• Cross-Check Watchlists — Check and review visitors against your organization’s NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement) or BOLO (Be on the look-out) lists. It is also important to ensure that these lists are up-to-date with accurate information to avoid any false alarms or misunderstandings.
• Review Visitor Access Before Approving – To comply with the stringent regulations and guidelines that govern access rules, HID offers a comprehensive solution that simplifies the visitor access process while ensuring maximum safety and security. Our solution allows authorized personnel to request, review and approve visitor access requests in advance, thereby preventing unauthorized entry and minimizing the risk of compliance breaches.
• Integrate with PACS — By allowing a visitor’s card to be broadcasted upon check-in and deactivated upon check-out, facilities can easily pull reports to answer key questions regarding visitor access, including which facility was accessed, at what time and using which card number. This rich data set allows organizations to fine-tune access control policies and ensure compliance with internal standards. Review a list of supported PACS.
• Set Up Mandatory Badge Printing — The printing of badges can be set up as a requirement before visitors are checked in. This is especially useful in high-security facilities. By requiring a printed badge, visitors can be easily identified and tracked within a facility, enhancing safety protocols and ensuring accountability.
• Put In Place Additional Checks — As part of your efforts to ensure the safety and security of your premises, it is recommended that you put in place additional checks to verify the identity of visitors before allowing them to check-in. This can further strengthen your security measures and reduce the risk of unauthorized individuals gaining access. Such measures can also be audited to ensure compliance and effectiveness.
• Customize The Badge Designs — Customizing badge designs is a common way to enhance security measures. Badges can be tailored to highlight specific designs or colors that indicate the level of access granted to visitors. By providing visitors with configured badges, it becomes easier to monitor and identify authorized personnel, visitors and other individuals accessing different areas of a building or facility.
• Audit Regularly — Regular auditing is crucial to ensuring security and safeguarding against potential threats. Critical areas that require constant monitoring are user log-ins, check-ins, PACS, broadcasts and other related activities. By conducting frequent audits, organizations can optimize workflow and system performance as well as detect anomalies and suspicious behavior — thus preventing unauthorized access to sensitive data.

Enhance Your Security Compliance With HID Visitor Management

In summary, investing in an effective visitor management solution is crucial for meeting growing security demands, ensuring regulatory compliance and mitigating safety risks. By implementing the right tools and processes, businesses can create a secure and safe environment while providing their visitors with the positive experiences they deserve. HID visitor management software was designed to bridge workplace compliance requirements, employee safety and positive visitor.

Read more about how HID can help your organization/facility attain new levels of compliance, protection, and a positive visitor reputation. >>

Nitin Parihar brings over 12 years of experience in the identity and access management spaces. For the last 6 years, Nitin has provided product management and product marketing leadership for HID Visitor Manager and PIAM products. Prior to joining HID, he led a team managing IAM products at Thomson Reuters. He is based in Fremont, CA.