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How to choose the right visitor badge for a manual sign-in system

by Paul Kazlauskas

Selecting the right visitor management system is an important security decision for any facility. Knowing who comes to visit your facility, how long they stayed, and who they visited are important components to know in order to keep a building secure. Regardless of the type of facility, identifying and keeping track of visitors is central to keeping employees, staff, students, and healthcare patients safe. Let’s assume you’ve decided to purchase a manual visitor sign-in system that contains visitor badges and a visitor log. There are many benefits to this type of system such as…

• Low cost
• Minimum training for staff and visitors
• Little or no overhead (badges, pen, writing surface is all you need)
• Evacuation register for emergencies

A manual visitor sign-in system is a great tool for creating a visitor badge for your guests to wear while at your facility. However, how do you know which badge to purchase? There are a lot of choices, but the options can be paired down by asking yourself a few questions…

#1: Do I need my visitor badges to have “time-expiring” technology? (a.k.a. self-expiring visitor badges). Self-expiring visitor badges change color overnight, so they can’t be reused the next day. The badges don’t need to be collected from the visitor once they leave. The visitor badges turn color so it’s easy to tell, at a glance, whether a visitor is allowed to still be in the facility. “Time-expiring” visitor badges cost a little more than non-expiring visitor passes, but the extra expense is worth it for increased security. If “time-expiring” visitor badges aren’t right for your facility, non-expiring visitor badges still provide a visitor pass that identifies visitors while in your building and cost less than their time-expiring counterparts.

#2: What type of badge style do I need? There are a few different options to choose from with this question. Do you need to capture a visitor’s sign-out time? If so, a sign-out option badge leaves a portion of the badge behind for easy and confidential sign-out. Visitors write their initials and their “time in” on the sign-out stub, which stays in the visitor pass book. Upon leaving, the visitor finds their stub (based on their initials when signing in) and adds their “time out”. If capturing a visitor’s sign-out time isn’t critical, there are other badge styles that don’t contain the extra stub.

Do you need your visitors to sign a waiver of liability or confidentiality agreement before entering your facility? If so, there are a few “Visitor Agreement” badges that that can help. This badge option requires the visitor to understand the rules of visiting your facility and actually sign an agreement right on the visitor badge itself. These badges can be made to include your facility’s exact waiver or liability and/or confidentiality agreement.

#3: Do I need my facility name imprinted on the visitor passes? You can have your visitor passes made to order by imprinting them with your facility name and/or logo/mascot. In addition, customizing a visitor badge allows you to change the title of the badge (Ex. Vendor, Contractor, Volunteer, etc) or any wording on the badge (including printing in another language, if needed). Adding a custom imprint also promotes your facility’s identity and makes it easier to spot someone trying to gain access to your building with a generic badge. If your budget doesn’t allow you to customize your visitor passes, it is possible to get a more economical “stock” badge design. The “stock” versions are not imprinted with any custom facility name/logos, but they are more affordable and generally ship faster than customized visitor badges.

Thinking about the above questions will help you make the correct manual visitor sign-in badge choice. It is also important to weight such factors as the security budget, past security incidents, and any existing visitor protocols that you’d like to still have in effect. Regardless of which actual visitor badge style you choose, your facility’s security will be better off for knowing who is, and was, in your building.

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Posted on 3/24/2015