Executive Summary
- Contactless technologies help keep visitors and employees safe in many ways, which, in turn, helps offices maximize productivity.
- Touchless visitor management is a system that allows visitors to check in without interacting with, or touching, a communal kiosk.
- Other no-touch technologies that detect motion or are gesture-controlled will help your workplace stay open and operating at full capacity.
Before COVID-19, most workplaces put safety in second place and prioritized convenience first. The modern office workplace though needs to prioritize health and safety in order to safeguard visitors and employees. Organizations are quickly implementing touchless technologies, like a no-touch visitor management system, to minimize keep the workplaces healthy and operating with maximum productivity.
Why Your Workplace Should Go Touchless
In order to ensure the continuity of your business operations your organization needs to implement processes to help employees avoid getting sick. This also makes your organization attractive to visitors, job candidates, and more. This is where contactless technology comes into play. Even though touchless technology is currently a hot topic, businesses using no-touch infrastructure go back decades.
No-touch technology such as voice recognition and gesture sensors has been widely used as far back as the 1980s. One early use case was public restrooms with automatic faucets and soap dispensers. Today you are no longer surprised when you walk into a room and the lights turn on automatically or that you can use Alexa to control your environment or when a door opens as you approach it. These tools have proven to help workplaces work cost-efficiently while helping people avoid unnecessary germs.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, the COVID-19 virus can be active on surfaces for hours and even days. It means as you are planning to open your facility as an employer, maintaining social distance and enforcing proper hygiene is a necessity. This makes touchless visitor management more essential than ever before.
Take note that non-touch technology is not only about safety and hygiene. It is an excellent way to show that your business is responsible, modern, and forward-thinking. Of course, no one likes being slowed down, reading a lengthy legal document on your clipboard, or signing in on paper before they are allowed into your office. Also, what your employees and guests are likely to see first when they enter your facility is your visitor management system. So, the first impression matters a lot.
How Touchless Technology Keeps Your Workplace Safe
Ensuring the safety of your employees and visitor as they come back to work should be your top priority. Contactless signing in and out is a requirement for health standards and should no longer be an option. The non-touch visitor management technology will reduce the risk of face-to-face interactions. Also, it will make sure everyone in your space is taken care of, and the spread of germs is reduced.
Some Ways Touchless Technology Keeps Your Workspace Safe:
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No receptionist or other admin is exposed to every visitor – contactless technology allows you to do away with the traditional receptionist, paper visitor logbooks, and regular sign-in sheets that can expose your employees to every visitor. Utilizing a visitor sign in app that allows a QR code scan is a perfect way to achieve this. It means you will be preventing your staff from touching a pen, paper, and probably an iPad receptionist, laptop, or tablet, which are often touched by many people in a day.
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No exposing visitors to shared devices like kiosks – even though visitor check-in kiosk is a great way to streamline the check-in process for your visitors, exposing guests to the shared device may not be a good thing to do at this time. With the non-touch visitor management system, you will be able to reduce or even put an end to visitors’ exposure to shared devices like check-in kiosks.
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Ask COVID-19 questions before visitors are allowed to enter your workplace – with touchless technology, you can pre-screen your visitors with a COVID-19 questionnaire at the comfort of their home. Their answer will determine whether they will be pre-approved or not. It means there is no line-up at your office’s entry point and only preregistered visitors will be allowed to complete the sign-in process. This way, you will be keeping everyone in your workplace safe and from getting exposed to the virus.
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Contact tracing – the ability to implement touchless contact tracing is essential for a safe return to work during and after the pandemic. It will track every visitor and staff member in your facility. If someone contracts COVID-19, a visitor logbook will allow you to know who was exactly on the premises. Also, it will tell you when that person was at your workplace and the people that were with him/her. This will halt the chain of transmission. It will also slow the spread of the virus in your workplace and community. No doubt, it is an easy and quick way for you to communicate and make sure everyone in the company is safe.
How Touchless Keeps Your Workplace Productive
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Fewer sick days means more productivity – the hands of employees and visitors can become a significant carrier of bacteria in the workplace. When germs and dirt contaminate surfaces, they can be spread easily by employees that touch the surfaces. According to a recent survey, when you focus on healthy employees, the rate of absenteeism will be 20% lower, contributing to higher job performance. So, if you implement contactless technology, you will be able to reduce the risk of germs being spread. In return, you will minimize costs associated with sick days, reduce the number of days lost to illness, and increase productivity. It also improves the morale of your employees because you are promoting their welfare and health.
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When a visitor arrives, it helps employees know automatically – running from desk to desk, picking up the phone, and the likes can be tiring and time-consuming. It affects the productivity of employees in some ways. However, if you opt for a non-contact technology that automatically alerts employees when visitors arrive, they can use their time for something more productive than running around or picking calls all day.
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Cuts down sign-in time – even though printing out badges will help you create a great impression on your visitors at the reception, the printing of visitor badges can sometimes increase the sign-in time. However, you can cut down the sign-in time by enabling your visitors to print the badge using contactless technology rather than asking your receptionist to hand them out or handwrite the badge.
What Is Touchless Visitor Management?
Contactless visitor management is a system or technology that allows you to manage the visitors coming into your office without them interacting with the third-party kiosks, security guard, or receptionist. This does not mean they won’t touch anything before they check in to your workplace. It means your visitors won’t have to touch any device other than their own. One of the best non-touch visitor management systems is Greetly that does not require any app to download.
The system moves the whole process of entering details and badge printing to the devices of your employees and visitors. They will be able to preregister from their smartphone or any web browser before coming to your premises and scan a QR to complete the check-in process. This ensures a safer and smoother check-in process for everyone coming to your workplace, from contractors and visitors to staff.
Summary – Healthy Employees and a Safe Workplace Increases Productivity
Helping your employees return to work, confidently and safely, may seem like an uneasy task, but following the key steps like using touchless technology can help you achieve reopening your business. Although most people, including your employees, want to go back to their job and normal life, the fear the pandemic has created makes them doubt how they will live their life going forward. We all want to be healthy, and that includes you, your employees, and visitors.
Now, imagine what will happen if your workplace is not safe enough for your employees to return. Do you think they will feel safe, come to work, and be productive? Of course not! So, investing in a contactless visitor management system and meeting other requirements for health standards is what can keep your workplace safe. It will also make your employees confident of a healthier environment and more productive during the pandemic and the post-pandemic world.