4 Key Benefits of Visitor Screening in Complex Facilities

If you're not leveraging technology and automation to screen visitors, your business could be vulnerable. Crime, terrorism, and health concerns are ever-present, as are the risks of natural disasters and other emergency scenarios. Not knowing who's in your office space and being able to verify their identity puts your business and employees at risk.  

If you're not screening visitors, you're not only vulnerable to security and safety risks, but also to fines and penalties from strict compliance regulations. Help your business adapt to improve workplace safety, enhance security and ensure compliance by harnessing this data with automated visitor screening.  

Visitor Screening: Do You Know Who's in Your Building?

Visitor screening improves facility security and efficiency. You can see who is in your building in real-time and automate notifications when important visitors arrive. Visitor screening software automatically collects identifying data during sign-ins to run a watchlist screening process. Screening against government lists and configurable watchlists during sign-in identifies threats, validates access requests, and notifies their host or security teams if necessary.  

All this information is securely stored within the cloud-based visitor management software. As such, administrators can recall data and generate reports instantaneously for emergencies, investigations, or to fulfill compliance requirements.       

4 Reasons Facilities Need Visitor Screening Is a Must for Your Business

Visitor screening enhances your building's security, boosts compliance with your visitor policy, keeps automated records of who's where and why, improves emergency preparedness, and reduces safety risk. Here's a breakdown of these four critical reasons that complex facilities need a visitor screening solution. 

1. Ensures Employees & Contractors Follow Visitor Policies

A visitor screening process is an excellent strategy to improve and enforce workplace visitor policy compliance. Integrated directly into the digital visitor kiosk, screening is part of a fast, user-friendly sign-in flow.  

Digital kiosks go well beyond improving the user experience. The self-guided, step-by-step check-in process makes policies clear while also making it harder to bypass visitor screening than manual pen and paper sign-in sheets.  

Take advantage of visitor badges by automating pass printing as part of the sign-in flow. Passes provide visual proof that a guest has completed their check-in and has had adequate screening to meet safety and visitor policy requirements. 

2. Real-Time Recording & Monitoring of Everyone in Your Building

Know who is in your building at all times and keep a record of all entries and attempts. A visitor screening solution works with your visitor induction software to create smart records. 

The entry is automatically flagged when the screening software matches an attempted visitor against a watchlist. In addition to proactive actions like notifying security and denying access, the visitor management system also creates a time-stamped record of the attempt. In review, security teams can see who attempted the sign-in, what watchlist they were on, as well as the date and time.  

All visitor data is secured with encryption through iLobby's SOC 2-compliant software. SOC 2 is one of the highest industry standards for information security. As such, you can better meet security compliance regulations and privacy compliance standards like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). 

Using data analytics, you can spot trends and adapt as needed to inform business decisions or address operational inefficiencies. This data can also help with records retention requirements and be used to produce compliance and audit reports.   

3. Enhances Building Security and Access Controls

Connecting visitor screening and facility access controls improves security and visitor flow. Implementing a screening process verifies everyone who signs into your building before allowing access. 

When a guest signs in through the digital visitor kiosk, the system automatically screens them against pre-selected watchlists using the data they provide. This streamlines the check-in process, making it part of the natural sign-in flow. You decrease visitor wait times while optimizing security. 

A connected visitor management system can automatically deny access if the guest is identified on one of the selected watchlists. Visitor badges will not print, and access controls can deny entry through gates, doors, and turnstiles. 

Alternatively, a security officer can receive an alert when a visitor is flagged. They can then use the online dashboard to grant or deny access manually. 

Using physical security tools like access control in your visitor management solution creates a more secure environment. Visitor screening is important in meeting ITAR compliance checklist requirements in high-security facilities. 

4. Reduce Safety Risks

Screening visitors prevents banned visitors, disgruntled employees, criminals, and terrorists from accessing your facilities. After collecting a visitor's name and information, you can instantly compare it to your internal records, national criminal databases, and watchlists. You can also keep your business out of trouble by ensuring visitors are not from a sanctioned or embargoed country.  

Visitor screening can also help manage workplace safety from a health perspective. For example, it makes it easy to implement any health-based screening or contact tracing requirements like those that emerged with the COVID-19 pandemic.   

Simplify Security Processes in Complex Facilities

Visitor screening is a simple solution to protect complex facilities from potential threats and avoid fines or complications from stringent compliance regulations. 

As the worldwide leader in enterprise visitor management, iLobby excels at helping companies improve security and efficiency. iLobby's advanced visitor management solutions will improve your business' workplace safety, enhance security, and ensure compliance with internal and regulatory standards. Schedule a demo with iLobby to improve visitor screening for your business.