Digital Check In: The Post Pandemic Protocol We’ll All Rely On

Whether your company allows employees to work from home indefinitely, offers a hybrid option, or plans to bring back the entire team, every business needs a post-pandemic office strategy. One that ensures the health and safety of employees, visitors and patrons. At this point, it’s easy to categorize the strategy as “post-pandemic.” It’s only a matter of time before we drop the post-pandemic language and acclimate to a new way of working. In many ways, it will be better. One new protocol that already has people wondering why they didn’t have it sooner is digital check-ins for offices, job sites, and public venues.Specifically, expect to see more QR codes before you enter or exit a space. By now, most people know the drill from their experiences with QR-coded restaurant menus. Applying this to the office, digital check-in apps sync with QR-coded posters to enable everybody entering a workspace or public venue to verify their presence through their smartphone. It’s as simple as pointing the phone at the QR code, signing in, and these days, answering health-related questions.Long Term Benefits of Digital Sign In Right now, the primary use for a digital check-in app is to help ensure everybody in the area is symptom-free of COVID-19 and, if necessary, conduct private contact tracing. Yet there are many additional long-term benefits. One upside is the safety and security of having a digital record of who is on-site and when. This data comes in handy for reconciling hours worked against invoices, or in the event of an emergency. It also creates a way for employers to conduct private contact tracing without getting other tech vendors involved. Specifically, when the app is managed by an employer or facilities manager, it can only see the smartphone information as it relates to the person’s presence on site. It doesn’t have a purview into individual health records or any other data.Private, business contact tracing is a direct response to the public’s concern about large tech companies having too much insight into our every move. And private, employer-driven digital sign-in apps are the way to do it. As digital sign in apps become ubiquitous, they’ll continue to offer tremendous value to employers, facilities managers, and marketers. For example, they can include customized questions and messages based on health guidelines, facilities protocols, and daily assignments. Also, they can act as an automated receptionist, or alert hosts when vendors or visitors have arrived while creating a digital record of the visit.For marketers, digital sign in apps create new ways to engage audiences. Of course, marketers have been using event-specific apps to engage conference attendees for a while now. Yet not everybody participated. Once the event was over, post-event engagement marketing results were inconsistent due to attendees deleting the app. Digital check-in apps offer marketers new ways to authentically connect with audiences.Businesses Need to Ensure Safety, SecurityIn our new way of working and entering public spaces, when digital check-ins will be the norm, or at a minimum considered to be a best practice, businesses will be able to eliminate time-consuming and error-prone paper-based sign-in forms. Paper is still widely used in construction, warehouses, healthcare, and commercial real estate.While digital sign-ins will streamline processes, deliver better record keeping, and create new ways to reach customers, they also require assurance that data won’t be compromised. This will be especially important once the COVID-19 vaccines are widely available and people are more relaxed in public. Currently, there are thousands of employees throughout North America using digital check-ins to start their workday. The next time you meet for a face-to-face sales call, enter a multi-tenant building, visit a relative in a healthcare facility, or sign-in to an open house, you’ll question why the paper-based process was in place for so long. And you’ll be asking for the location of the QR-coded poster.Special Offer for TAO MembersOne of TAO’s newest members, Safe Site Check In, offers a digital sign-in app for businesses. Significant discounts are available to businesses, nonprofits and governmental agencies that are members of TAO. The app is free to nonprofits that have no other way to cover COVID-19 costs.— written by David Brian Ward, Founder & CEO of Safe Site Check InDavid Brian Ward is the founder and & CEO of Safe Site Check In, a new worksite awareness SaaS used in multiple industries to safely reopen the economy with improved productivity. David’s nearly four decades of experience has centered around the business of technology management for organizations ranging in size from Fortune 500 companies to startups in their infancy stages. David oversees a diverse group of consultants who each have decades of hands-on management experience leading development, engineering, product management and marketing teams.