With the US and other countries relaxing their COVID-19 restrictions, businesses brace for the challenge of ensuring a safe return to the workplace. With the brunt of the burden falling upon management teams, human resource managers and directors must contend with the uncharted reality of a pandemic-inflicted workplace. Unprecedented times call for unprecedented technology. Now, more than ever, prioritizing health and safety within the workplace is essential. Luckily, Genea is here to help.
Safe Workplace, the latest features within Genea’s transformative cloud-based suite of access control technology, ensures employees can safely return to the workplace in a safe and healthy way. The new automated software features empower Human Resource Managers and Directors with the tools to set capacity limits, conduct pre-entrance health surveys, record temperature checks, and quickly implement contact tracing all from the convenience of a smartphone.
You Asked, We Delivered.
“The idea came from a couple larger customers asking Genea how we could help implement some of their safety protocols,” said Genea Product Manager, Matija Abicicc.
“The companies made two requests. First, they needed a method of verifying the capacity within their facilities. Second, they required an efficient and accurate way to check the daily health of employees.”
Spurred by the requests, Genea considered how to accomplish these tasks effectively and ease anxiety many employees felt by working during the pandemic. What resulted was Safe Workplace, a fully integrated access control feature balancing an effortless user experience with the customizability needed by HR Managers and Directors.
COVID-19 has changed – and will continue to impact – the way organizations do business and the ability to return to the office safely. Social distancing protocols, evolving guidelines on the number of people who can gather indoors, and remote working have rewritten the script on safeguarding the workplace and the people who work there. But just as Genea’s Access Control solution revolutionized employee credentialing and visitor management, we have reimagined what returning to work can look like.
New Features, Same Seamless Platform: Safe Workplace is proprietary software, integrated seamlessly into Genea’s Access Control platform. The integration sets Safe Workplace apart from the competition by offering similar services through third-party add-ons (which also costs more). These add-ons pose significant challenges for both managers and employees, consequently siphoning attention and time away from other work. Managers using an access control platform with a third-party add-on might be stuck managing two accounts – one with the employee providing access control and the other with the safety software company. Employees may have to also learn more than one software tool. Simply put, it results in twice the headache and twice the effort. Unlike the competitors, Safe Workplace allows managers to search facility-access data and isolate employee check-in and check-out times directly from one platform.
Ease and Flexibility for Managers: Custom questionnaires, capacity limits, and temperature checks – accessing and navigating Safe Workplace is simple. Located inside the familiar Access Control Dashboard, the Safe Workplace tab features a drop-down menu with various options. From these features, managers can create custom health questionnaires or base their questions on up-to-date Data or CDC “Return to Work” guidelines. Additionally, the timeframe in which employees must complete the survey is customizable.
When a company implements Safe Workplace, employee access credentials get temporarily disabled.
“When the employees plan to go into the office, they take a health questionnaire in their mobile app, and answer a set of questions customized by position – for instance, an Office Manager or HR Manager.” Abicic said.
Safe Workplace automatically delivers the questionnaire to the employees mobile device, where it must be completed within a timeframe specified by the administrator. Successful completion of the survey reactivates the access credentials. (However, if the employee selects that he or she has a fever, for instance, and people with a fever are prohibited from entering the facility, the questionnaire will trigger an alert and deny access.) Once inside, employees may enter any location their access credentials typically permit.
Administrators may also customize capacity limits within facilities. For example, if a manager restricts the capacity for “Laboratory A” to eight people per day, but nine people attempt to access the facility, the ninth person will be prohibited (unless an admin overrules).
But what happens if an employee accidentally mistypes an answer on the questionnaire or an emergency happens in Laboratory A? Will these people be shut out of the office for all eternity? Not quite.
A manager can instantly override the “lockout” with a single click. Should the matter of access be urgent, Safe Workplace will send an automatic, real-time request, prompting the manager to take action.
After a year of absence from the workplace, many employees are wary of returning to the office. In a study conducted by Genea’s partner Honeywell, a staggering 71% of the U.S. workforce claimed they had concerns about returning to work. Roughly, one-fifth of the workforce stated that they hoped for improved contact tracing. Luckily for them, Safe Workplace employs streamlined contact tracing. Should a COVID-19 case occur within the office environment, administrators can act quickly by referencing all the team members in the office at the same time of the infected employee or visitor.
Take the hypothetical example of employee, Anna. If Anna visits the workplace Tuesday and on Wednesday, tests positive for COVID-19, administrators must quickly identify the time in which Anna entered the office, the facilities she accessed, and with whom Anna may have come into contact. Safe Workplace comes with a “Contact Tracing” tab, allowing an instant view of every employee and visitor in the office with Anna. Searches may be conducted by entering the approximate range of date and time.
Designed for COVID-19 and beyond: In just a matter of weeks since its launch, Safe Workplace has already helped twelve of our most-trusted clients prioritize their employees’ health and wellbeing as they re-enter the workplace. As the backbone of the United States, manufacturers have had to work through the COVID-19 pandemic. Genea’s Safe Workplace has allowed customers like an Air Force parts manufacturer to remain in operation while ensuring their employees have the safest possible working environment. Sure, capacity limits, health and wellness surveys, and temperature checks sound like a hassle, especially considering all the adjustments businesses have had to make over the last year. But with Safe Workplace, protecting company health has never been easier, and without the need to learn clunky third-party software, managers can maximize their time spent on the work that’s most important.
To see how Safe Workplace can benefit you, watch our Webinar: Get people back to the Office with Safe Workplace.
If you’d like to learn how Genea’s cloud-based solutions can help you prepare your building for the new normal, schedule a demo below.
