Paper visitor books, magnetic employee in out boards, filing physical documents; these tools and processes are integral to the daily operations of many organizations across the world.
Those tasks can feel tedious and create friction among the team at times. But they just work. And we hear you, why change something if it isn't broken?
But what if we told you there was a better way? Enter: the visitor management system (or VMS for short)
A visitor management system is a digital way to handle keeping track of visitors and employees at your workplace. These systems streamline the aforementioned manual tasks and free up your team to focus on what really matters.
Here at SwipedOn, we believe in a world where life at work is easy, safe and compliant. In this blog post we dive into all things visitor management to help you build a strong visitor management strategy at your organization.
What is a visitor management system?
- What is visitor management?
- What is a visitor management system?
- How does a visitor management system work?
- What is the purpose of a visitor management system?
- How can a visitor management system make a good first impression?
- How does a visitor management system contribute to visitor safety and security?
- How can a visitor management system help manage employee movements?
- What are the benefits of a visitor management system?
- How do I know if I need a visitor management system?
- What to consider when choosing a visitor management system?
What is visitor management?
Visitor management is the process of welcoming visitors on to your premises; this includes signing in, tracking and managing these individuals.
There are other things to consider such as recording visitor information, monitoring their movements within the premises, and ensuring that they adhere to security protocols. Effective visitor management enhances security, improves the visitor experience, and ensures compliance with regulatory requirements.
Key components of visitor management include:
- Pre-Registration: Registering visitors in advance for quicker check-in upon arrival.
- Visitor Onboarding: Ensuring visitors have relevant details ahead of their visit.
- Visitor Registration: Capturing visitor details such as name, contact information, purpose of visit, and the person they are visiting.
- Visitor Identification: Issuing badges or passes that identify visitors and their access permissions.
- Check-In/Check-Out Process: Logging the time of entry and exit to track the duration of the visit.
- Security Screening: Verifying visitor credentials and conducting security checks if necessary.
- Visitor Notifications: Informing hosts when their visitors arrive.
- Compliance and Reporting: Maintaining records for audit and compliance purposes.
- Emergency Management: Ensuring visitor safety during emergencies by having a record of all individuals on-site.
- Integration with Other Systems: Integrating with access control systems, security cameras, and other enterprise systems for seamless operations.
- Visitor Experience: Providing a welcoming and efficient check-in process to leave a positive impression on visitors.
Modern visitor management systems use digital tools and software to automate these processes, improving efficiency, security, and the overall visitor experience.
Historically, visitor management has been handled with manual processes like a paper visitor book for visitors signing in and reception staff informing the employee a guest has arrived in person or via email.
What is a visitor management system?
It’s now easy to manage all of these moving parts of visitor management in one place. And it’s called a visitor management system.
While a visitor management system addresses all areas of welcoming visitors into your workplace, many visitor management systems also facilitate contactless sign in, employee sign in and space management.
These features offer a progressive way to approach people management in the workplace, particularly with the adoption of a hybrid workplace model where you'll need to know who is working on site, who is working remotely and have easy access to all records for audit or emergency purposes.
Also referred to as a visitor management solution or visitor management software, all you’re required to do is download an app and install it into an iPad or Android tablet to keep at your front desk.
Smart, simple, professional. 👌 
How does a visitor management system work?
Depending on your business, your sign-in process may be as simple as having visitors sign their names and show their ID.
For other industries, it can be quite complex, dictated by numerous rules and regulations.
For example, food and beverage manufacturing require detailed visitor records. These may include visitor health questionnaires and acknowledging visitors' understanding of good manufacturing practices.
A visitor management system ensures all your I's are dotted and your T's are crossed. In other words, no one gets lost in the shuffle of a busy day when multiple visitors arrive at once, or the receptionist walks away for a moment. Not only is this critical to the safety and security of your company, but it also ensures a seamless audit.
First, visitors sign in using their smartphones or a tablet. They'll answer the required questions and sign the needed documents, such as NDAs. Once completed, the system captures their photo and prints their visitor ID badge. Then, it notifies the person they're visiting that they've arrived. Lastly, the visitor quickly checks out.
What is the purpose of a visitor management system?
There are a lots of benefits your organization can gain by replacing the paper guest book with a digital visitor management system. Here are just a few:
- Improve your front desk with a modern and professional look 💅
- Speed up comms with instant notifications for your team when a visitor arrives 💬
- Adhere to data privacy regulations in your country 🔐
- Carry out regulatory compliance checks with custom NDAs ✍️
- Carry out emergency evacuation roll calls offline using the iPad or tablet 🚨
- Showcase your branding at every touchpoint by customizing screen settings with your logo and colours 🎨
The best part? All these features are hosted in one app on an iPad or Android tablet with an easy-to-navigate web dashboard for admins.
How can a visitor management system make a good first impression?
STERIS is a leading provider of infection prevention and other procedural products and services. Making a good first impression that upholds the meticulous high standards associated with the healthcare industry was crucial. They needed to be able to know exactly who was on site and when, while having an easy (and quick) process to sign them in. The paper visitor book and hand-written paper name badge wasn't hitting the mark.
Since introducing a visitor management system, STERIS have seen a significant uplift in visitor satisfaction. This organization recognized the important of modernizing old manual tasks with digital counterparts and are now reaping the benefits with a positive first impression for visitors as well as a safer work site for employees with a snazzy printed visitor badge. 
The visitor experience is important; it’s crucial to make a good first impression for clients, potential customers and any other kind of visitors.
Your reception area is the first port of entry, so it makes sense to ensure you use all the tools at your disposal to create a warm and welcoming space in your reception area.
Digital sign-in using a visitor management system can help with this.
While you communicate your branding and design, you can also show your visitors that you truly care about their safety and security using a data privacy compliant system.
Leave guests feeling impressed right from the beginning as they journey into your world.
How does a visitor management system help with visitor safety and security?
Let's take a look at safety & security.
According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) “of the 5,147 fatal workplace injuries that occurred in the United States in 2017, 458 were cases of intentional injury by another person.”
The lobby or reception serves as the first line of defence for site security and the features of visitor management software can help to mitigate undesirable situations: the ability to monitor multiple entry and exit points, digital agreement compliance, evacuation management and ID badge printing.
Then there's the subject of data privacy, CT-PAT and GDPR. Whichever country your business operates in, it's highly likely that you need to abide by some serious data privacy laws. A visitor management system will help you comply with these data privacy laws, meaning that your business is at no risk of accusations or lawsuits regarding misuse of visitor data.
It is important to understand what compliance requirements your business has to determine if a VMS can support them. 
How can a visitor management system help manage employee sign in and out?
95% of organizations agree that a digital workplace is important and, the good news is, that the transformation starts here with a staff in-out board. A visitor management system will not only help propel your business into a smarter, streamlined future by reinventing your business' welcome but it has invaluable benefits around employee management too.
Encourage employees to clock in and out, enjoy full transparency and visibility and empower a more positive employee experience using the employee in out board. Or even better, by issuing staff with an employee sign in app. 
What are the benefits of a visitor management system?
Sunbeam Foods have been supplying the world with superior quality dried fruits for over 80 years, making this brand a well-known household name. Before switching to a digital visitor management system, Sunbeam Foods were using a paper visitor book to manage visitors and failing audits due to a non-compliant visitor book which breached data privacy legislation.
Since implementing a digital sign in solution, hosted on an iPad in their reception area, the business has saved thousands of dollars which would otherwise have been spent replacing visitor books with new hard copies, paying out non-compliance fines, and administration time (time is money baby!)
From creating that all-important positive first impression to securing the required documents and signatures in a digital format and effortlessly printing out visitor badges, the benefits of a visitor management system are plentiful.
When it's time for an audit? Quickly pull up the information for any visitor the auditor requests at the touch of a button. 🪄
A visitor management system offers the following:
- Secure Data: Visitor management software provides encryption and securely stores your visitors' personal information in the cloud.
- Data-Driven Insights: Detailed reports offer valuable insight regarding visitor trends, helping enhance operations.
Compliance: Ensures compliance with industry regulations and your company's security policies. - Manages Multiple Locations: A visitor management system provides a view across all locations, allowing you to know who has visited your sites at any time.
How do I know if I need a visitor management system?
If you don't have a visitor management system, you probably need one. Why? Any solution that streamlines operations, enhances security and ensures industry regulatory compliance is essential in today's world. The following represent a few clues that suggest it's time for a visitor management system:
- Paper Sign-In Sheets: If you still use paper sign-in sheets or books to track your visitors, now's the time to enter the digital age. This system is much more secure, protecting visitors' data and ensuring everyone entering your facility is vetted and tracked while on-premises.
- Numerous Visitors: Visitors include people meeting with vendors, auditors, and contractors. If you have several people visiting each day or that number is increasing, integrating a visitor management system ensures up-to-date records and a procedure in place that optimizes operations as your company grows.
- Multiple Locations: It's time for a visitor management system if you have multiple sites with no standard visitor registration process.
- Improving Visitors' First Impressions: Improving your visitors' experience starts when they walk in the door.
What to consider when choosing a visitor management system?
Choosing the right visitor management system for your organization can be daunting. But here are the essentials:
- Choose features that help streamline the guest management process.
- Choose features that guarantee better security, safety & privacy for your organization.
- Ensure the visitor management software has features that comply with government regulations & requirements.
- Look for features that gather data and generate useful reports.
- Be sure to choose a VMS with features that are easily scalable to support growing business needs.
Will you take action to improve your visitor management operations? Check out our guided tour.
We hope you found this blog post helpful. If you’d like to learn more on the subject of visitor management, download our free, handy guide: Tap In, Tap Out: SwipedOn’s In Depth Guide To Visitor Management
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