In 2011, Australia introduced specific workplace health and safety laws that included a requirement for organisations to keep track of all people on their premises, including the purpose of the visit and their contact details. This means every business must have a mechanism for signing in and tracking visitors. Using a paper-and-pen approach is no longer good enough in this age of heightened security requirements.
In 2016–17, there were more than 230,000 workplace interventions. This included 85,000 proactive and about 70,000 reactive workplace visits (visits related to an incident or complaint). Non-compliance with regulations can result in serious fines for corporations. This can range from $6,000 for “failing to keep records of high-risk work licences”, up to $3 million for a category one offense: “the most serious breaches, where a duty holder recklessly exposes a person to the risk of death or serious injury”.
Workplace health and safety for visitors and contractors continues to be a major concern for Australian organisations and finding non-disruptive solutions that enhance operations can be difficult.
Beyond checking visitors and contractors in at reception, the latest digital visitor management solutions have become more like risk management systems, letting businesses run their sites more effectively and securely.
Modern systems let organisations share a short orientation, alerting visitors to emergency procedures and exits. Information can be customised based on individual site requirements while creating a central process that can easily be rolled out across one or multiple sites to keep up with the changing number of staff, contractors and visitors.
An effective digital visitor management system can deliver significant benefits in five key areas:
- Increase efficiency.
- Enable cost-savings.
- Streamline communications.
- Improve safety and security.
- Provide
Organisations should look for a visitor and contractor registration system that includes key features such as:
- The ability to incorporate unique brand graphics and messaging to the system’s workflow screens and printed visitor badges.
- The ability to customise these badges with specific information or identifiers to improve site security.
- A notification system that alerts employees via SMS or email when their visitor arrives, minimising the time the visitor spends unattended.
- A non-disruptive workflow that streamlines the process of managing visitors and contractors on site, rather than complicating it.
- The ability to generate real-time reports in case of emergency, including contact and emergency details for all visitors.
- The ability to generate proactive reports to easily update visitor and contractor information, review hours worked on site and check compliance with workplace safety rules.
- The ability to restrict access to visitor information, storing it locally in the kiosk or securely in a cloud-based database.
By taking advantage of the latest visitor registration system technology, businesses can improve their site security, safety and efficiency, while saving money and presenting a professional, forward-thinking public face.
The winning combination for any visitor management system should feature critical components that create the best solution to maximise safety and security, and the latest technology to protect the office, staff, contractors and visitors.
LobbyTrac by Pitney Bowes can help you simplify this process and securely manage visitors and contractors on your premises. To learn how LobbyTrac can fit in to your lobby or reception area, call 132263 or visit https://www.pitneybowes.com/au/shipping-and-mailing/lobbytrac.html