In today’s security-conscious world, managing visitor access is more important than ever. One of the simplest, yet most effective ways to enhance facility security is through identification security badges for visitors. These badges help facilities prevent unauthorized access to areas visitors shouldn’t be allowed in. A company can use security badges to enhance facility security, control access of visitors, and ensure compliance with company protocols when they sign in.
In this blog post, we’ll explore the importance of security badges, key customization features, and how visitors improve visitor management.
Why Are Security Badges Essential for Visitor Management?
Security badges serve as a first line of defense in any organization. Using security badges allows any type of facility to know who is in their building. If an unknown person is walking down a hallway and they are wearing a badge, employees know that person has been registered and is allowed to be there. The badge is a great visual alert.
To improve that visual alert, many facilities of all kinds are using expiring badges that change color overnight to prevent badge reuse. The expiring security badge looks like a regular badge while the visitor is in the facility. However, by the next day, a bright pink “VOID” shows (see below), meaning the visitor should be questioned about their presence in the building.
Security badges can also clearly distinguish between types of visitors. The security badge can be printed with whatever title you’d like on them. With a little planning, a facility can utilize their security badges to identify the specific type of visitor any given person is. Hospitals, schools, and businesses of all kinds can consider these types of commonly used titles for badges:
- Visitor
- Vendor
- Contractor
- Volunteer
- Parent
Security personnel (or any vigilant employee) can know at a glance and question if a volunteer is found in the boiler room or a vendor is found in the emergency room.
The improved identification helps staff recognize authorized visitors quickly. In the event of an emergency evacuation, a list of the non-employees visiting the facility can be given to emergency responders by printing off a list of current visitors from a visitor management system (if that is in use) or reviewing the sign-in book (if that is in use).
Custom vs. Standard Security Badges: What’s the Difference?
The difference between custom and standard security badges lies in their design and what is printed on them. If you are using security badges on rolls, the customization of the badge is done with visitor management software at the organization itself. If you are using a handwritten sign-in book, Threshold can custom print the exact badge you need for your facility.
Custom security badges are tailored to a facility’s specific needs, including personalized branding of a facility name and/or logo. The fields of information for each visitor are custom to the security protocol of the facility. These types of badges offer higher security due to providing an easy visual alert and a professional look, but can be a little more expensive. If generic badges are in-use, they could be obtained from another source to have a tool that gets people unauthorized access to a facility. If the security badges are custom-printed, forging a fake badge is much harder.
Standard security badges are pre-designed, generic badges that typically include basic identification details such as a name, destination, and date. They are cost-effective and easy to implement but may lack advanced visual alert and increased security that comes with customization.
Key Features of Custom Security Badges
As Security Directors consider what types of information their organization needs to know, there may be additional information they want to know. But those wants should be weighed against how sensitive the visitor data is and the time it takes to process visitors.
Here is a list of information many facilities capture with their visitor management system, followed by how it might appear in a visitor badge:
- First and last name.
- The time the visitor arrived.
- Who the visitor is there to see.
- If the visitor is a vendor, his or her company affiliation.
- The visitor’s destination. This could be a floor number, room number, department, and/or building.
- The type of visitor. The guest could be designated as Family, Vendor, Contractor, Volunteer, or just a general Visitor.
- Their expected duration of visit.
- A photo of the visitor.
Reasons for Using a Visitor Management System for Security Badges
The easiest way to create exactly the right security badge for your organization is to produce it yourself using a visitor management system. While sign-in books can be used to document visitors, visitor management software allows the organization to customize their security badge for visitors. Here are 7 reasons for using a visitor management system:
- Know who is in your building.
Visitor management software tracks all visitors to the facility while they are on your grounds. This reduces risk, liability, and provides enhanced security. - Get the live status of all visitors.
To enhance facility security, a visitor dashboard shows the status of all your visitors, including those who are inside the premises, status of registered visitor passes, pre-registered visitors, new visitors, surrendered passes, expired passes, and more. - Print professional-looking visitor badges for your guests to wear. A crisp, clean visitor pass shows that your facility cares about security. A visitor badge imprinted with your facility’s name and logo deters forgery and promotes your organization’s identity.
- Standardize the way you register your visitors.
A visitor management system allows your organization to log the driver’s license information of every visitor, with a reader that captures the name and driver’s license number in seconds. This allows you to uniformly capture critical information of every visitor in a mistake-proof manner. - Maintain a database of all past visitor traffic.
Visitor information is stored in a computer database, which allows you to search, sort, analyze, and retrieve visitor data for any given time frame and generate visitor activity reports. - Control emergency response.
In case of an evacuation or other emergency, you can print reports with the touch of a button. A list of all non-employees on the premises can be passed to Fire/Police personnel so they know who is still in the building. - Improve your company’s bottom line.
A visitor management system lowers operating costs by eliminating unnecessary staff. Second, electronic documentation of contractors cuts down on dishonest billing. Without an electronic visitor management system, you have to trust your contractors to bill you correctly for time spent. Finally, a visitor management system allows your company to “Go Green” and cut down on the use of paper. Visitor management systems eliminate the need for visitor sign-in sheets and log books.
Why Invest in Custom Security Badges?
Custom security badges provide a cost-effective and efficient way to enhance visitor management. They help organizations improve access control and help maintain a professional image. Investing in a tailored security badge system ensures a safer and more secure environment for employees, visitors, and contractors.
At Threshold, we offer a variety of custom security badge solutions tailored to your organization’s needs. Some badge options have optional expiring technology, which allows the badge to change color overnight.
Contact us today to explore options and get a free consultation or sample badge!
It’s easy and free to activate this feature. Simply call us and ask for “Red Flag, No Badge” to be turned on. Once it’s on, the above pop-up will come up when a red flagged visitor comes back. No badge will print and the attendant will need to follow the facility’s policy for handling red flagged visitors.