How pre-registering visitors in Envoy promotes workplace compliance

Every week, all kinds of visitors walk through your doors. Maybe they’re contractors, partners, consultants, or candidates. Not to mention all those unannounced walk-ins, from vendors to maintenance folks. You should welcome each one graciously. But more important for your business, you should do so while staying compliant and upholding security standards.‍

Maintaining compliance often involves capturing signatures on detailed agreements. Back in the day, it took many hours and file cabinets to manage all that signed paperwork. Technology has come a long way since then. With a visitor management system (VMS) like Envoy Visitors, workplace guests can read and sign agreements digitally. This makes storing signed documents–and finding them when needed–much easier.In this post, we’ll cover best practices for collecting and storing visitor information. Discover common compliance hazards and how to avoid them. And learn how Envoy Visitors can help you every step of the way.

Check all boxes for workplace compliance, safety, and security

Let’s start with the most obvious lobby check-in hazard: arrival backup. Not only is an overcrowded lobby a bad look – it’s also a potential safety hazard. Be it a contagious illness or emergency evacuation, cramming too many people into close quarters puts everyone at risk. It’s also just plain stressful having a line of impatient people behind you. If your visitors have to read or submit important information, they shouldn’t feel rushed.Ideally, you get visitors’ signatures and information before their visit. Envoy lets you include a pre-registration step so visitors can submit information in the comfort of their home. This gives them plenty of time to digest the information. It also gives you time to adjust plans if a visitor doesn't meet your criteria.

Have visitors sign legal agreements before coming on-site

Compliance is most crucial when discussing private corporate matters with visitors or collecting visitor data. At the very least, you need to confirm each visitor is who they say they are. And of course, to verify a visitor’s identity, you’ll have to collect some degree of personal information. Maybe that’s an ID scan, background check, or photo capture. Whatever data you collect, be transparent about it. Provide visitors with legal context upfront so they trust you enough to share their information.

Okay, so how does this relate to pre-registration? During the pre-registration step, you can clarify to visitors 1) why you need certain information,  2) how you will store it, and 3) have visitors grant consent with their signature. Envoy Visitors provides a standard legal document template. You can use that template as-is, edit per business needs, or replace altogether. Drop in content for release forms, waivers, or other legal agreements such as non-disclosure agreements. Non-disclosure agreements, or NDAs, help prevent private business information from leaving the walls (physical and virtual) of your workplace.By default, Visitors only prompts new visitors for their signature. But you can set requirements for returning visitors according to company policies. Maybe they need to re-sign every month, quarter, or year. Envoy Visitors makes it easy to sign and re-sign by auto-populating known information. And every time a visitor signs a document, your visitor log updates to reflect this. And whenever you update a legal document, Envoy prompts every visitor to sign the latest version.

Protect employees by verifying visitors’ health status

After more than two years, COVID-19 still looms. Many companies have extra health protocols in place. Envoy Visitors empowers you to prompt visitors to upload their Covid health documents for admin approval. Ask for proof of vaccination, negative test results, or both. As an admin, you can configure how often visitors need to submit health information, the same way you can for legal document signatures. By allowing guests to submit their latest documents before visiting, both of you benefit. For one, you have more time to read through the document. If approved, that’s one less step for you and the visitor upon check-in. And if you deny the document for any reason, there’s still time to resolve the situation. They can resubmit their document or request a virtual meeting. Or you can reschedule the visit altogether.Maybe your health and safety protocols involve more than health screening. Make it easy for visitors to understand your specific policies by including videos in their visitor registration flow. Have visitors sign to confirm they’ve viewed the required health and safety video, and automatically record their confirmation in Envoy.

Sync with file sharing tools for secure storage

Most of the top compliance regulations call for secure storage and transmission of personal data. That could mean health, trade, financial, or geolocational information–or basically any data the owner has legal privacy rights over. To ensure compliance, many companies rely on systems specifically designed for secure file management. And to streamline sign-in, they often integrate their file storage software with their VMS. That’s why Envoy Visitors integrates with the most trusted storage solutions like DocuSign, DropBox, OneDrive, and more.

While upholding workplace compliance standards may sound tedious, it’s worth the effort. Take the necessary steps to protect your intellectual property, minimize liability, and create a safer experience for everyone.

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