What's Most Important on a Visitor ID?

Is safety of employees and company assets a primary concern for your company or organization? How do you make sure you restrict access to your facilities only to allowed individuals? A good visitor management system helps you manage the visitor process. Here are a few tips to help you set up a suitable visitor ID program and to figure out what you should display on your visitor IDs.

What you need to set up a visitor ID program

If you often have visitors to your building or facilities, you need to track them, make sure they're who they say they are and are hosted by someone in your organization. Just like you wouldn't let any stranger off the street into your home, you shouldn't allow anyone into your facilities without a secure program in place.

Here are a few questions you need to answer to help you figure out what you need your visitor IDs to do.

• How long and who will people be visiting? Some organizations require visitors to be on-site for a specified period. Other visitors might need a single visit to accomplish their purpose. And some organizations need to keep unwanted visitors from getting inside.
• What do visitors need access to? If you have restricted access to parts of your facilities, never allow visitors to wander unescorted anywhere without an employee. You need to track who in your organization is hosting each visitor and what access privileges they need.
• What visitor information do you need to track? At a minimum, you need to know a visitor's name and who they're visiting. Other information could include the purpose for their visit, how long they'll be on-site, their company's name, a picture, date of visit, a visitor type label, health or security icons, or an authorization code.

Let's look at an example. Say you have Michael Brown visiting your VP of Finance. Michael is a contractor, a consultant who is meeting with the VP of Finance for two days to help him with a particular project. He needs access to the Finance Department, but nowhere else. You could issue a visitor ID card with his name, his picture, the dates of his visit, and a QR code that provides him access to the Finance Department for a specified period. Once that time is over, the card should no longer work.

The days of the "Hello, my name is" adhesive stickers are gone. Today's visitor management programs help you track every person in your facility so you know instantly who is on-site every single day. This information is important in case of emergencies for first responders, and it's important for verification. If a contractor bills your company for a certain number of hours worked, by issuing visitor ID badges and tracking information, you can verify it. Simply look up if he or she was on-site for the days and times specified in the invoice.

What information should you include on your visitor ID badges?

Keep in mind the more information you print on your cards, the more cluttered they'll become and the harder they'll be to visually identify. Carefully consider exactly what you need to keep your facility, employees, and assets secure and safe. Here is a list of potential information you might include on visitor badges:

• First and last name of visitor
• Visitor's company name and title
• Visitor label: "Contractor," "Volunteer," "Interviewee," "Visitor," etc.
• The host's name
• Date and duration of visit
• Visitor photo
• Security restrictions
• Your company's logo
• A QR code for access privileges or to help check in or out faster
• Your company's guest wifi code
• Number/person to call in case of emergency

Final thoughts

Only you can determine how detailed your visitor records need to be. One consideration is that capturing more information than you feel you'll need might come in handy someday. But not all that information needs printed on your visitor ID badges. Only add the amount of data that helps you and your security detail know at a glance who your visitor is and their security restrictions, if any.

The more professional and attractive your visitor ID badges, the more unique an experience you create for guests. If company image and branding are important, elevate your check in and out program with a formal visitor management system. Printing out visitor ID cards makes them feel accepted and lets your employees know these visitors belong. Not only does it improve safety for everyone, but it deters nefarious individuals from trying to get in your building.

If you have questions about a visitor management system or how to issue visitor ID badges, contact an ID Expert at Idesco at (212) 889-2530. We'll help you figure out exactly what you need and make sure you get everything you need to issue visitor badges safely and easily.