Digital visitor systems: a key for food and beverage sector

Like many industries, organisations within the food and beverage (F&B) manufacturing space have experienced significant disruption throughout the pandemic, particularly as social distancing measures, government restrictions and case numbers continue to fluctuate. And, as illness and isolation requirements can lead to a high volume of employees unable to work, F&B manufacturers may face major challenges when trying to manage staffing across their sites.

To help mitigate resourcing challenges, many F&B businesses are turning to third-party support staff. While this can help to fill staffing gaps, it can also create headaches for administrative staff trying to manage workers onsite. Manufacturers must have a clear understanding of who, when and why people are onsite to ensure the safety and security of workers and of the products being manufactured. A constantly evolving workforce adds pressure, as it means administrative staff also need to know if all workers and visitors onsite are authorised to be there and if they have also been through relevant safety and security inductions.

To address these challenges, F&B organisations are increasingly adopting new technologies and processes to adapt to the changing business environment. One of the most effective tools at their disposal is a digital visitor and contractor management system, which helps F&B manufacturers streamline people traffic at their sites without incurring significant additional costs.

How digital visitor and contractor management systems solve the problem

Cloud-based digital visitor and contractor management systems have become essential tools for businesses that manage a high volume of foot traffic with an evolving workforce, like those in the F&B manufacturing space. The latest digital solutions can be set up close to administrative or reception staff and can automatically collect and store visitor data in a secure database. This eliminates the need for staff to dedicate additional time to manually signing in visitors, contractors or third-party support staff, which helps F&B manufacturers reduce overhead and administrative costs without sacrificing secure processes.

Digital systems can also be configured to incorporate in-built safety and security inductions for visitors and contractors to complete as part of the sign-in process. This guarantees that each person is given this information on arrival and eliminates the need for staff to provide inductions for each visitor.

In addition, the latest smart systems can help further reduce the burden on administrative staff by integrating features including integration with internal contractor induction workflows to track contractor hours; reporting on contractor induction expiry dates to manage authorised access; and instant notification of non-compliance.

This is a critical tool for F&B businesses to ensure the safety and security of all people onsite, particularly in the case of an emergency or security breach. In addition, investing in cloud-based solutions provides businesses with the peace of mind they need by facilitating rapid access to an overview of all visitors onsite when the need arises to assess potential risks posed by unauthorised visitors.

Why now?

F&B organisations must increasingly take steps to adapt to the changing business environment as the virus becomes endemic; investing in digital visitor management solutions is one way they can better prepare for the future. The volume of cases and growing number of COVID-19 strains present an ongoing current challenge, exacerbating staff shortages and placing even more pressure on an already-strained supply chain. However, this is only one immediate challenge the industry faces that can be alleviated with the support of smart systems. The latest technologies can help F&B manufacturers better manage and protect their support staff and teams by tracking onsite visitors and contractors with customised sign-in processes and integrated health and safety inductions. Failing to act will result in greater challenges for businesses in the future, making it essential that businesses invest in solutions sooner rather than later to better manage ongoing restrictions and challenges, and to maintain accurate data.

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