Safe and full evacuation

In many company's count that there is a 'clean sweep' principle when evacuation of your company is needed. Emergency employees within the company are responsible to make sure all people on their floor or department are evacuated. All spaces and meetingrooms are inspected and people ordered to go outside. In office-spaces this is in general an excellent solution, but in industrial environments this method is not ideal. This has everything to do with the various spaces like warehouse, production area, technical spaces and the sound level caused by machinery. Specifically in these situations a closing visitor registration is the only way to fullfill the obligation to guarantee a full evacuation.

Registration in paper logbook is not permitted

Registration of visitors in a paper logbook that is presented on your reception desk is not permitted according to GDPR regulations. The explanation is that visitors in this case can see which other visitors have signed in earlier that day or week. In logbooks identifiable personal data is noted like firstname, lastname and company name. According to GDPR regulation this is a collection of personal data which is displayed on the reception desk. So in fact a data leak.

Aside from the fact it is not allowed following privacy laws, it is our opinion that as a company you should not want a paper logbook. There are many different reasons for this:

  • Sales representatives can see with which competitors you also invited to quote, they can adjust their offer and salespitch based on this knowledge
  • For job applicants it can embarassing when it comes out that they apply for another job while they still are working somewhere else
  • Visitors can see who your suppliers and customers are and can advantage of this
  • Visitors can see who your accountant is, if a lawyer visited the HR Manager and if the CEO had an appointment with a bank or architect. This is nobody's business and specifically not visitors.

Of course you can tackle above by working with seperate registrationforms per visitor. Your receptionist will get a significant administrative burden extra and whether you comply to health & safety laws and are able to guarantee a full evacuation is the question. 

Visitor registration improves security, health & safety

Beside good evacuation the health & safety regulations also state that your employees and visitors must be able to safely do their job. More and more companies apply strict safety instructions & regulations. But can you also proof that external mechanics and contractors are familiar with these rules? In the day to day practise we see that handing over paper safety instructions are often forgotton. When you take safety seriously, you should make sure that there is an adequate instruction.

Companies that have gone thru a risk assessment often take extra steps when it concerns safety. They work with working permits that mostly apply certain specific activities like working:

  • on altitude
  • in confined spaces 
  • in areas with an explosion hazard
  • with fire

With a working permit you first define which precautionary measures you need to take to be able to do the job in a safely manner. When the job is finished it will be checked and en the working place is inspected to see for example that no smoldering remains are left. This way you prevent calamities afterwards.

Advantages of digital registration

Looking at the above the advantages of digital registration i hope is clear. But to be complete, with digital registration:

  1. you comply to health & safety regulations
  2. decrease the administrative burden for your reception
  3. increase the safety of your visitors
  4. lower the liability in case of accidents
  5. you show your visitors that you take safety serious
  6. professionalize and automate your visitor registration and visitor management
  7. you always have a actual attendance list for emergency on your phone 

Hopefully this blog has convinced you to take the step to automate your visitor registration. Click here to schedule a free demo or contact us my email of phone to request more information.