Maximize office security for receiving visitors

Visual Identification

For many organisations, employee badges already form a vital element of their access control or time management systems, but did you know employee ID badges can boost your visitor security? Imagine the setting: you are working at your desk when you notice someone new roaming around the office, is this person authorised to be on your floor? Are they a new member of the team or should you alert security?

By introducing a badge based security protocol visitors, contractors and employees can be identified at a glance. If all staff, visitors and contractors are wearing badges it becomes much easier to spot an intruder. The success of this step requires a culture shift, all employees must buy into the ID badge mentality and commit to wearing ID badges at all times while on-site.

Single Entry/Exit Points

Access to the building needs to be controlled. Having one clearly defined point of entry for visitors and contractors along with a loading bay for deliveries allows you to funnel all visitors through a singular location.

Provide Reception with Transparency

As the first point of contact for all visitors entering the building, the reception team should be aware of any visitor that is expected including information on the visitor host, contact details for the visitor and the reason for their visit. Arming the reception team with this information, greatly mitigates the risk of an unauthorised person showing up and talking their way into the building.

Identify Visitors

It does not matter how good the visitor sign-in process is if the identity of the visitor is unconfirmed. It is highly recommended that all visitors provide proof of identification upon arrival. As an added layer of protection, it may be worth implementing a visitor management system that incorporates ID scanning by default. ID scanning provides traceability in the event of a security breach.

Educate Employees

A robust security system requires an educated workforce, employees must view security as part of their responsibility and fully understand policies and procedures for the processing of visitors. Hosts must provide the reception team with all necessary visitor information, and must understand implications of taking responsibility for visitors once they have arrived on-site.

Further to the processing of visitors, employees should be aware of the actions that should be taken should an intruder be identified. While staff should be aware it is not impolite to challenge anyone who does not display a valid badge, not everyone will be comfortable with this task. To combat this it is a good idea to use a "Floor Marshall", a designated employee that others can inform in the event they suspect a visitor is not authorised. The floor Marshall can then investigate and challenge the potential intruder.

Reproduction of: https://www.timedatasecurity.com/blogs/5-steps-maximising-office-security