Risk mitigation is more important today than ever before. That applies to corporate headquarters, but also to our schools, hospitals, and even senior living facilities. From workplace threats to legal compliance and emergency preparedness, it’s critical to have access to real-time visitor intelligence to build an accurate picture of your organization, the people who enter and exit, and more.
Of course, it’s also harder today to implement adequate security strategies. Complicating factors include the increasingly distributed workforce, the growing number of people who need access to hospital campuses, the increased flow of visitors and students into and out of school throughout the day, and more. Compliance standards also play a role here. For instance, evacuation planning is a critical consideration for complying with the requirements of the CDC. Without visitor intelligence from a visitor management system, it’s more than a little challenging to create and implement such a plan. What risks do you face not having real-time visitor intelligence? Let’s take a look at some of the most important to understand.
Risks of Failing to Have a Visitor Management Policy Informed by Real-Time Visitor Intelligence
Regardless of the organization or business you represent, not having access to real-time visitor intelligence from a modern visitor management system is incredibly risky. But before we dive into those risks, we need to define a few commonly used terms:
- Visitor Management Policy – A visitor management policy is a document that spells out who is allowed on the property and what areas of the property they can access. This document will be customized to each organization or business in question and should include specific descriptions of different types of visitors.
- Visitor Management – Visitor management is the process of managing visitors to the property and can include a wide range of practices and technologies. At its most basic, it involves having visitors show their ID and sign in at a welcome desk or security desk.
- Real-Time Visitor Intelligence – Visitor intelligence is the next evolution of visitor management and taps advanced technology like biometrics and building control systems to help provide a more robust and customizable solution to fit an organization’s unique needs. It plays a role in everything from risk management to fire safety.
With a better understanding of those terms, let’s continue our discussion of the risks inherent in not having real-time visitor intelligence
1. Increased Security Breaches and Theft
From hospitals to Fortune 500 companies, security breaches, and data thefts have increased dramatically in recent years. According to The Wall Street Journal, the number of data breaches reported in the US in 2023 was 78% higher than in 2022 and 72% higher than in 2021, which previously held the record for the most such incidents. Failure to have real-time visitor intelligence can allow bad actors into your facility. This can lead to theft of data, exposure of sensitive data, and even acts of vandalism or violence. It’s also important to understand that the ramifications of these events go far beyond the immediate repercussions. They can include financial loss, certainly, but also damage to your brand, loss of market share, and legal issues.
2. Poor Efficiency and Holdups
The number and type of visitors to any location will fluctuate daily. Some days, you may have an increased number of deliveries and couriers. On other days, you might have guests who will speak at important meetings. However, if your visitor management system is outdated and inflexible, mistakes are going to happen. These can range from delays in receiving important deliveries to guests being denied entrance to the building and missing the meeting entirely. Even if you have a visitor management system, it may not be enough. For instance, some systems require phone logins, which drive up wait times and increase errors. In other instances, you might be required to use multiple products to accomplish multiple tasks – background screening and capturing contact information, for instance. Real-time visitor intelligence systems are highly flexible and adaptable. You can easily adjust guest lists or make security aware of an increased number of people visiting the property so that appropriate steps can be taken to avoid delays and other efficiency-related problems.
3. Limited Background Checks
Once upon a time, visitors had to show identification to be granted access to a building. That led to a range of problems, largely because it’s relatively easy to create authentic-looking identification with the right equipment. Advanced systems get around this through in-depth background checks to determine if the visitor should be allowed in. If you don’t have real-time visitor intelligence, it becomes much harder to vet visitors and verify information. This can lead to allowing unwanted, even dangerous individuals into the building or onto the campus. This includes people listed on local and national watchlists, those who are on sex offender registries, people who have been blacklisted or granted very limited access to the property by the organization, and more.
4. Poor Emergency Responses
Emergencies can happen to any organization at any time. These include natural disasters, like tornadoes, floods, fires, and earthquakes, but also other situations. Not having real-time visitor intelligence puts your entire organization at a disadvantage when it comes to your response. This also includes those who you may not think of as “visitors” in the conventional sense, including HVAC service personnel, contractors, electricians, plumbers, and other professionals. With a modern visitor management system, you can collect important information during the visitor screening process, including names and contact information. That data can then be used to alert visitors on the property during an emergency, helping them follow your evacuation protocols, telling them to shelter in place, or providing other critical information. Without real-time visitor intelligence, first responders may not know to look for specific individuals and critical first aid might be delayed.
5. Errors from Manual Processes
Manual processes are low-tech and often seen as more affordable or simpler to implement than more advanced visitor management systems. However, these certainly cannot provide you with real-time visitor intelligence, and they open you up to a much broader range of risks due to human error or negligence. For instance, it’s all too easy for someone to slip past a busy security desk if you only rely on manual processes, like signing in on a physical clipboard. This could allow virtually anyone to have free rein within your facility. Manual processes can also introduce errors in names and contact information, compromising your ability to respond appropriately in an emergency. There’s also the fact that manual processes deliver a subpar visitor experience. Long waits, cumbersome sign-in processes, and lengthy identity verifications do nothing to make the situation more bearable. Of course, manual processes also put more work on your people. The front desk and security staff will be tasked with verifying identities, conducting whatever background vetting they can, collecting contact information, and checking visitors in.
6. Fallout from Non-Compliance
Finally, you cannot forget about the risks of noncompliance with government rules and industry regulations. Many organizations are required to maintain visitor logs so that information can be used in emergencies or for security reasons. Failing to have real-time visitor intelligence may mean not complying with those rules and regulations, such as GDPR for organizations in Europe and those that serve European customers or clients. Failure to comply can lead to millions of euros in fines. There are similar regulations here in the US, such as SB 553 in California, which requires businesses operating within California to establish workplace violence prevention plans. Those plans must almost always include visitor information. Failure to comply with these regulations can lead to tens of thousands of dollars in fines.
Building a Better Business with Real-Time Visitor Intelligence
Investing in a visitor management system capable of delivering real-time visitor intelligence is a critical decision and can help you build a better, more successful business. What could you achieve if you knew exactly who was coming and going within your facility? What would happen if you took that knowledge and used it to upgrade your customer service, marketing, guest experience, and building security? The answer: a stronger brand with more loyal customers and happier employees. When faced with increasing security risks, rising threats, and a greater need than ever before to deliver a positive check-in experience coupled with better processes for your employees, it’s crucial to make informed decisions. The solution is clear –– investing in advanced, on-premises visitor intelligence software is a critical decision that can help you avoid dangerous, costly risks while building a stronger business capable of charting a path confidently into tomorrow.
FAQs
Q: What are some examples of site-specific security requirements?
Real-time visitor intelligence can help you create a safer environment and offer important insights, such as tracking where a visitor goes within your facility or prevent unauthorized individuals from entering restricted areas. However, it’s also important that you customize your site’s security measures. There’s no one-size-fits-all solution here. Instead, plan a solution that fits your site’s layout, number of entrances and exits, risk profile, and usage needs.
Q: What is the difference between visitor intelligence and visitor management? What components should I look for in a visitor management system capable of delivering real-time visitor intelligence?
Visitor management is the process of managing visitors to your property and can include things like requiring visitors to show ID, sign in on a log, and more. Visitor intelligence is the ability to leverage critical insights, such as the location of visitors within your facility, as well as the technology required to capture visitor-related data and access it quickly when necessary.
Q: We have many different types of visitors. How do we account for that in security planning?
You’ll want to capture real-time visitor intelligence about all your visitors, no matter who they might be. However, you will need to take a customized approach based on the types of visitors you have. So, your first step should be to identify the types of visitors your facility sees, and then determine what information you need to capture for each. This allows you to create a customized strategy and deliver a positive check-in experience.
Q: What type of data should our facility collect for compliance purposes?
First, make sure you know the rules and regulations that apply to you. Different regulations require different types of information to be collected. In most cases, you will need to collect information like the visitor’s name, contact information, reason for visit, length of stay, areas visited during their stay, and departure time. This information will be helpful during emergency responses but can also be invaluable in the case of a security threat.
Q: What’s your best advice for creating a check-in process?
The most important factor is to have a fast, easy-to-follow process in place that captures critical information and makes it possible to access, analyze, and use that information at a later time.
