From department stores and movie theatres to small businesses, schools, and Fortune 500 corporations, the COVID-19 pandemic has spared no one its devastation. Even as the economy slowly reopens, studies show that the threat of possible work-related transmission still accounts for nearly half of initial outbreaks.
Thus, organizations of every size face a daunting task: How to mitigate coronavirus exposure and keep personnel and visitors safe from COVID-19 in the workplace.
In this article, we'll explore how a visitor management system can help.
Visitor Management for Reducing COVID-19 Exposure
While many businesses remain closed, many are reopening with the health and safety of their staff and customers as their highest priority. In fact, most states now legally require an organization to implement a coronavirus workplace policy to limit transmission, or face heavy fines and a subsequent forced closure.
Businesses now play an outsize role in the response to the COVID-19 crisis, or, as consulting firm McKinsey & Company put it, “To renew and refresh their connections to the people they serve, companies need to recognize what’s happening now, and respond in three ways: digital excellence, safe and contactless engagement, and dynamic customer insights.”
Of the numerous steps companies have implemented to achieve these goals, one of the most effective is visitor management and the integration of a visitor management system.
How Visitor Management Reduces the Spread of Coronavirus
Visitor management systems like SwipedOn reduce the spread of the coronavirus because your team can keep a record of everyone who comes into your workplace. This is highly useful during a pandemic because you can:
- Protect your building from unauthorized visitors who may transmit the coronavirus
- Better manage foot traffic in your lobby/reception area
- Help guests navigate your building quickly, therefore limiting time spent in your workplace
Most importantly a visitor management system gives you the power to assess the risk of infection from everyone entering your workplace and alert your personnel to important coronavirus updates, such as a possible outbreak from a high risk visitor or employee.
Let’s take a deeper look into the functionality that makes visitor management systems so effective at limiting visitor exposure to COVID-19.
1. Reduce visitor exposure to COVID-19 with visitor screening
The lobby is the first line of defense against a coronavirus outbreak in the workplace. Before staff, customers, and visitors enter your building, it’s critical that your front desk workers screen them to prevent potentially infectious individuals from entering.
Thus, many organizations that have returned to work are now using a visitor management system to administer temperature checks and daily health surveys to screen employees, contractors, and customers before they enter the facility.
2. Reduce visitor exposure to COVID-19 with contactless sign in
In the pre-coronavirus workplace, digital solutions and platforms contributed to eliminating traditional paper sign-in processes, as well as streamlining administration processes such as appointments and scheduling.
In the post-COVID world, it’s more important than ever to go digital for the health and safety of your employees and visitors. Visitor screening and verification using contactless sign-in technology are on the fast track to becoming commonplace in office lobbies, replacing the paper visitor book. SwipedOn’s touch-free method of registering visitors, for one, allows customers and personnel to sign-in using their mobile device.
In the video below, see how your visitors can sign in using their smartphone, using a dynamic QR code displayed on the iPad hosted at your welcome desk.
This hygienic approach not only makes the visitor sign-in process more efficient, but it also minimizes the need for staff to continually disinfect surfaces if they are not high-risk areas.
3. Reduce visitor exposure to COVID-19 with contact tracing
Visitor management systems also enable all-important contact tracing strategies, which can help slow the spread of the disease.
“...not all health departments have enough staff to do contact tracing,” says Dr. William F. Marshall, III of the Mayo Clinic. “Some areas are researching and experimenting with contact tracing apps that can be used… The hope is these apps can make it faster and easier to find and notify people who've been exposed to the COVID-19 virus.”
By using a function such as SwipedOn’s innovative time-stamping feature, you’ll have full oversight of which individuals enter your building and when, thus enabling you to easily conduct contact tracing should the need arise.
4. Reduce visitor exposure to COVID-19 with coronavirus updates and alerts
Though contact tracing is an incredibly valuable tool in slowing the spread of COVID-19, it’s only useful when paired with the ability to notify and alert personnel in the event of a COVID-19 outbreak in the workplace.
According to the CDC, “Developing trust and a warm, empathetic rapport, while maintaining a professional relationship, is key to providing effective support and collecting accurate information to inform the next steps in the contact tracing investigation.”
This is a must-have function of a visitor management system. Should an individual become exposed after visiting your workplace, and/or if a coronavirus outbreak happens, SwipedOn’s time stamp feature means that you go through the admin portal in the web dashboard, to quickly become aware of who was in the building at the time and notify personnel efficiently and empathetically.
5. Digital Coronavirus Workplace Policy
It’s now necessary for organizations to maintain a COVID-19 workplace policy to screen visitors as well as to notify them of new procedures in place in your building.
With a contactless visitor management system in your office, you can assess the exposure of visitors to your office, alert them of additional safety procedures, present legal documents during sign-in, and ensure their compliance with health and safety rules.
A visitor management system can help your organization reduce your visitors’ exposure to COVID-19 with visitor screening, contactless sign-in, contact tracing, and by alerting personnel to possible exposure in the workplace.
If you want to mitigate the risk of a coronavirus outbreak in your office, sign up for SwipedOn's 14-day free trial to see how a visitor management system can help reduce your visitors’ exposure to COVID-19 through the above powerful features.
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