Five things to look at before deciding your employees can enter the office

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a rush by businesses and companies to adapt to government conditions and policies. One of these is by implementing a Work From Home (WFH) policy for employees for non-essential sectors.

As we kick off 2022, some companies have returned to a Work From Office (WFO) policy, and some activities are no longer being done virtually. Company owners need to pay attention to several things so that the decision to return to work directly in the office can be carried out safely and comfortably.

Workplace Readiness to Work from The Office (WFO)

The pandemic has not only given rise to a new trend of working remotely or flexibly, but also created opportunities for companies to provide a healthier, more productive, and more appealing work environment. Naturally, these changes depend on the policies and needs of each company. Generally, however, companies should pay attention to the following in order to restart WFO during the pandemic in order to keep their employees safe and comfortable.

1. Adequate Room

Various health protocols have become mandatory for companies to implement during the pandemic. One of these is social distancing, or maintaining a certain distance between employees. The workplace should allow for social distancing to be maintained, employee mobility to be smooth and not cause crowding, and have good air circulation.

2. Mitigation of Transmission Potential

Companies should assess anything that has the potential to increase the transmission of Covid such as when, where, and how employees might be exposed during work. It should also consider whether there is potential exposure from guest visits, interactions with coworkers at work, and the number of cases in the office area. This will enable the company to prepare a transmission mitigation plan in the office environment.

3. Health Surveillance

Companies should identify and monitor employee health through independent evaluation of employees’

physical condition and any symptoms felt before they start work. Make regulations to cover employees falling sick both while at the office and at home. Monitor the health of employees who have been exposed to Covid-19 and carry out regular COVID-19 tests for employees.

4. Situational Policy

Companies should evaluate existing policies and, if necessary, consider new policies that facilitate remote working, sick leave, and other options that help minimize the risk of contracting Covid-19 in the work environment on a regular basis according to the latest conditions and circumstances.

5. Access Management

Access management can be a solution for managing employee activities, preventing unauthorized people from accessing certain rooms or areas, and managing employee attendance systems so that employees maintain their distance while in the office. An access management system enables all activities from employee digital identity to be recorded, monitored, and managed.

To ensure that every aspect of the digital access management system is functioning properly, you need to carry out regular checks. You should update or test the system up to three times a year. Regular testing will also keep the company’s access system continually up to date, so that if errors or disturbances are found, they can take immediate action.

Why Implement Access Management?

One of the objectives of implementing an access management system is to prevent unauthorized persons from accessing certain spaces or areas. Therefore, when implementing access management, you need to set access rights. You should determine who has the right to enter the office building and certain rooms in it. If it is the policy at the office to allow non-employee visitors to enter, determine what access procedures they must follow; whether it is necessary to log in, scan barcodes, or use digital identities such as biometric scanners.

Use Trusted Access Management

Use a trusted access system that minimizes physical contact and ensures that access is only granted to certain people by implementing an access system that requires digital identity authentication such as VIDA Pass. VIDA's access management solutions have the flexibility to be implemented either with data that is integrated with a verified identity or based on data held by clients.

Reasons to Use VIDA Pass

VIDA Pass enables employees and visitors to be easily monitored.
VIDA Pass offers the most advanced and flexible secure user authentication process for any platform, with universal compatibility across Android and iOS devices.
The VIDA Pass authentication process is very fast, taking less than 0.5 seconds to verify registered visitors.
VIDA Pass is worth implementing because it uses best-in-class biometric verification that has been approved by NIST for authentication and authorization across all your infrastructure services.
VIDA Pass can be applied to both digital and physical access to achieve various goals such as cost efficiency, supporting health protocols, and increasing security in one solution.
VIDA Pass offers a variety of security solutions including Single Sign-On (SSO), profile management, and Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA).
VIDA Pass protects access to your company account by using additional validation sources and provides higher security with a better user experience that can be applied to many use cases.