Every organization has many visitors. They are Vendors, Contractors, temporary employees etc. a visitor management system helps in capturing some information about the visitors. This would help in keeping a security vigil.

Some of the best practices in visitor management.

Appointment based visits -

An appointment based system helps in increasing the security tremendously. The main advantage is the person at the security gate is aware that a visitor is expected. In an appointment based system - Normally a security person from the reception would give a call to the concerned person and confirm whether he/she is expecting a guest. This procedure has many disadvantages. First of all it wastes a lot of time. If the concerned person is not available at his/her seat the visitor has to wait at the reception. And the procedure of appointment does not get documented and hence one has to reply only on individual’s efficiency in the process.

So in an appointment based system the best practice would be to request the host to send a note/email to the reception and visitor badge should be made only for those for whom there is a note.

Photograph of a Visitor on the badge -

A picture is equivalent to thousand words. Putting a photograph of a person on the badge is good practice. The host himself can confirm that the same person for whom the it was made has visited him.

Putting a Color band on the badge indicating the type of visitor -

The security persons can categorize visitors as Vendors, Trainees, and Temp Employee etc. and assign a color to each type. Putting a color band of the type of visitor makes it relatively easy for security guards to identify the visitors.

NDA or limited liability statement -

The responsibility for any injury to the visitor lies on the organization unless the organization does not declares the limited liability clause to the visitor before entering the premise. It is a good practice to write a line or paragraph about to what extent the organization would be liable for the damages on the badge itself. One can even write “Subject to Limited Liability clause ### of security policy” if the information is big.

Contacts in case of emergencies and other safety instructions -

The visitor badge should have important phone nos in of emergency. This is the most handy place to inform the contact details. Similarly the safety instructions like “Ignore the siren at 11 am which is for a drill”

Collecting details about some Government issued ID -

It is a good practice to collect some details about a government ID like the Drivers License, Passport No, Social Security No or something similar. Normally this is more suitable for government buildings since in corporate buildings people may to refuse to disclose this information.

Collect back the used Visitor Badge -

The visitor badges should be collected back when the visitor leaves the organization. This can avoid the miss use of the badges..