How to Reduce Coronavirus Exposure in the Workplace using Visitor Screening Software

How to Reduce Coronavirus (COVID-19) Exposure in the Workplace using Visitor Screening Software

With the current worldwide coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, businesses are implementing policies and procedures to ensure employee safety and reduce the risk of an in-office infection that could affect both employees’ health and business continuity.  In addition to policies in place for employees, companies are putting into place policies that dictate how visitors to an office building are processed in an effort to reduce the risk of infection from non-employee individuals.

Due to the nature of the coronavirus being transferred by personal contact, reducing unnecessary personal contact with others has become one of the key measures governments and health agencies around the world are recommending to reduce the spread of the virus.

Global spread of COVID-19

For businesses that have customers, vendors and guests visit their buildings, personal contact with visitors is increasingly becoming a serious concern they are starting to address.

How can a virtual receptionist or visitor management solution help address these concerns?

Visitor management and virtual receptionist solutions came onto the market less than a decade ago, but are increasingly being deployed by businesses around the globe to manage visitors to their buildings. These automated solutions add many benefits for businesses including; greeting guests, displaying building maps and other information, connecting guest in the lobby to employees at their desk with audio and video calls, as well as checking-in and screening visitors. So how can a system like this help a business establish policies for visitors that will help address coronavirus related issues? Below are two important steps businesses can take.

Screening Questions

Customers, vendors, and visitors who arrive at a building can be asked a set of screening questions to help identify individuals who employees should avoid personal contact with. Some of the screening questions we are seeing business ask include:

• Do you currently have any of the following cold or flu symptoms: fever, cough shortness of breath, breathing difficulties or other respiratory symptoms?
• In the last 30 days, have you traveled to or from (including stopovers, connecting flights) to any known high-risk areas (e.g. China, Hong Kong, Iran, Japan, Northern Italy, Singapore, South Korea)?
• In the last 30 days, have you been in contact with someone that has traveled to a country or jurisdiction where there is a high risk of infection of a virus (e.g. Covid-19, other flu strain)?
• In the last 30 days, have you been in contact with someone that has exhibited symptoms or disclosed they are ill with a virus (e.g. Covid-19, other flu strain)?

These are only a few examples; it will be important for businesses to update their list of questions as more information and the risk related to the coronavirus change over time.

If a visitor answers “yes” to any of the screening questions they should be informed that they will need to reschedule a visit for a future date. This will help reduce the risk of a non-employee introducing the staff of an office building to the virus.

Avoidance of unnecessary personal contact

Not all, but some virtual receptionist or visitor management solutions are able to fully manage visitors to a building without needed to have an employee stationed at a receptionist or front desk in the lobby. By eliminating the need to have a staff member exposed to visitors as they enter the lobby of a building, companies are already better positioned to protect their employees. A virtual receptionist solution can present guests with a list of company employees whom they can call from the lobby. This gives the employee the ability to speak and with some solutions, see the visitor in the lobby without needing to go out personally and speak with them.

Remote employee communicating with visitor without direct contact

ALICE Receptionist

Here at ALICE Receptionist, we spend a lot of time thinking about how to improve the workplace environment for employees, help businesses implement visitor standards and policies, as well as provide an elevated experience for visitors to our clients’ buildings.

ALICE Hardware Options

Individuals who are interested in learning more about ALICE Receptionist and the benefits it offers businesses can visit us at our website to request more information.