Get Back to Work With These 5 Technology Solutions
As mandatory lockdowns end and the American people prepare to slowly return to their normal routines, businesses across the country have become concerned about precautions they need to take to create a safe workplace. No business can survive without its workers, but an outbreak at the office, warehouse, or hospital ward can mean even more downtime and a potential shutdown. After months of slow or no business, it could be an existential threat.
In this blog, we’ve identified the top 5 technology solutions you can put in place to get back to work.
1. People-Counting Solutions
Several months after the lockdowns began, most U.S. states were allowing businesses to open again as long as the number of people together in the same area was below a certain limit. Organizations can use people-counting software to ensure these guidelines are followed and provide a record of the number of people in the building in the event of a compliance audit. People-counting software can work in tandem with existing security cameras, analyzing footage to keep an accurate count of people going in and out of a doorway, so you always know how many people are inside at any given time.
2. Visitor Management and Proximity Reporting
A private record of the comings and goings inside your building can be invaluable if a visitor or employee tests positive for COVID-19. As an extension of card-access security systems, visitor management software can record every location a person visited within your building, in addition to making sure the only people in your building are the ones who are supposed to be there. This technology lets you know everyone a person interacted with and where.
3. Thermal Cameras
One of the most reliable, telltale signs of COVID-19 is a high fever, but it’s not easy to tell someone’s body temperature at a glance. With the right equipment and software, you can quickly scan the general body temperature of anyone entering your building and identify those who might be infected, so you can conduct a more detailed second screening.
Thermal cameras will show a heatmap of everything they’re looking at, and that data can be analyzed by accompanying software to instantly detect anyone who’s running suspiciously warm. But be careful: it’s important to know your data is accurate if you’re going to pull someone aside and ask them to leave the premises. If you have questions on purchasing thermal cameras we recommend this read as a starting point, 5 things to know before buying a thermal camera system.
4. Keeping Visitors Informed
Putting guidelines in place is an important first step toward pandemic safety, but you need to be sure visitors and employees are aware of and understand the rules you’ve decided on. Many people simply need the occasional reminder, and PVMs (Public View Monitors) can be an effective way of keeping those rules top of their mind. These can also be accompanied by audio reminders, and both can be updated on the fly to reflect changes in the situation if necessary.
5. Loitering Analytics
Video analytics software has become more advanced over the years, and these days it’s fairly easy for technology to separate the image of a person from the background. Using this technology, you can continually analyze security footage and keep track of how many people are gathered in an area — and how close together they are. If the capacity for an area has been exceeded or if social distancing guidelines aren’t being followed, an automated alarm will go off, notifying security personnel to address the situation.
Feel Confident Going Back to Work!
Everyone is worried about how they can get their operations back to normal. Technologies like these can be a tremendous step toward that goal, ensuring that an outbreak doesn’t bring your business to a screeching halt.
Being vigilant about the safety of your workplace is the surest way to get you up and running again, and technology has never been in a better position to help.
For an extended read on this topic visit, Safety in the Wake of COVID-19: How Technology Can Get You Back to Work.
