When security is your number one priority, you may need ID cards for more than just employees. If you have visitors, temporary workers, contractors, vendors, and others requesting access to your facilities daily, you need to classify and track them accordingly. Here's how to determine the different categories of ID cards you may need and the best way to print and issue those cards.
Who do you expect on-site frequently?
The answer to this question differs based on your industry and your needs. For example, school systems have staff, management, students, and sometimes volunteers. A hospital has staff, management, visitors, volunteers, and patients who need identification.
And government facilities can have a mixture of employees, contractors, vendors, etc., to identify based on their security levels.
So each needs something different to maintain safety and security for everyone on-site.
One way to distinguish between classifications of cardholders is to use pre-printed ID badges with "Employee," "Visitor," "Patient," "Contractor," and more. Another way is to use color-coded badges based on classification or security level. Finally, technology cards let you allow or deny access to various floors and restricted areas, which is great for hospitals and government facilities. In essence, you have plenty of options to keep people in their approved areas and to help your security personnel easily identify each classification at a glance.
Delineating access levels by cardholder type
The safest way to keep unsupervised individuals in your facilities from accessing locations they shouldn't is through technology cards. This is especially effective for businesses with visitors, contractors, and vendors who frequent their sites. For example, hospitals must restrict who has access to their critical ICU wings. You don't want a random visitor, vendor, or volunteer wandering into a highly contained ICU room. Likewise, a government facility might need to restrict access to high security level installations. Your ID badges can keep unwanted individuals out of highly sensitive areas in your facility.
A single ID card solution can help you delineate between cardholder classifications based on security level, restricted areas, and function in your organization. It's easy to program smart cards to restrict and allow access, give cardholders additional functionality like paying for food and drinks in the company cafeteria, or checking out resources from a school or university library. Whether you need to track where cardholders go, offer additional functionality, or monitor hours and attendance, you can create an ID card solution that supports your needs.
Avoid these common mistakes
It's better to have more cardholder categories than you need rather than less. When you limit your cardholder categories, security levels, and more, you're limiting your ability to properly track and restrict access to your facilities.
At a minimum, businesses requiring a low level of security should have two or three categories: employees, vendors/contractors, and visitors. You might find it better to categorize your cardholders based on security levels instead of individual classification. Only you can decide how best to segregate cardholders that make the most sense.
Deciding visitors and volunteers don't need ID cards leaves your facility and offices open to security breaches. For example, some school systems only offer paper adhesive labels for visitors that say, "Hello, my name is…" This is the least secure method of identifying visitors. Today's visitor management systems let you identify immediately who shouldn't have access, especially those on "Watch Lists" from government authorities. You can also choose self-expiring ID badges that let employees and security personnel know at a glance whose visit is at an end.
Final thoughts
Today's ID card solutions let you print badges and cards to cover a variety of security and business needs. From companies that need only employee badges and customer loyalty cards to highly secure organizations with several levels of restricted areas for employees, vendors, contractors, and more, you can find a solution to fit your needs.
Struggling to find the right solution for your business, security, and budget needs? Idesco's ID Experts have years of experience helping organizations just like yours create a secure and cost-effective solution. Rely on the security experts with over 75 years in the security and ID business. Call us today at 212-889-2530.