Visitor access control in a company

The most common weakness isn’t a missing guard but a missing decision: the guard doesn’t know whether "the supplier who always comes" needs a badge, and every shift does something different. The fix is a short visitor policy signed by management that answers four questions:

• Who comes in, and by which procedure, for each visitor category.
• What a visitor must accept to enter (registration, badge, escort, zones).
• Who decides exceptions — by name, not "someone in management".
• What is recorded, who sees it and when it is deleted.

The policy goes word for word into the reception’s post orders. That is also where the limit shows: post orders describe what the guard observes, records and who they contact — they don’t give the guard powers they don’t have.

• Meeting visitors (clients, partners): pre-registered by the host, a day badge, collected by the host.
• Interview candidates: the same procedure, with a waiting room away from work areas and documents.
• Couriers and deliveries: stop at reception — handling deliveries is covered in the office and reception security guide.
• Contractors and technicians: a named list, access only to the work area, for as long as the job lasts (see below).
• Former employees: treated as visitors; their old badge should already be deactivated.
• High-profile visitors: limited knowledge of the visit, collected without waiting in the lobby.

If there is a category that comes in "without a procedure because we know them", that is your gap.

1. Invitation and pre-registration: the host records name, company, day, time and place. With the invitation the visitor receives the entry conditions and a short notice about their data (see below).
2. Arrival: reception confirms the person is the one registered, in the way the policy sets, and calls the host.
3. Badge: visible, expiring the same day, opening only the zones of the visit.
4. During the visit: the host is responsible for their visitor until they return them to reception.
5. Departure: exit time logged and badge returned; a badge not returned is deactivated.

The step most often skipped is the end-of-day reconciliation: how many came in, how many left, which badge is missing. Without it the visitor log is a list of arrivals, not a picture of who is in the building. How temporary badges work technically is explained in the access control guide.

• Zones: divide the premises into open zones (reception, meeting rooms near the entrance) and escorted ones.
• Handover: the host hands the visitor to another colleague, never to nobody.
• Toilets and breaks: set which ones visitors use, so a "quick absence" doesn’t become a tour.
• A visitor alone in an escorted zone: the guard or any employee who sees them approaches politely, asks who they are visiting and takes them back to their host or to reception.

When the guard leaves the post to escort someone, the entrance is uncovered. If the company receives many visitors, escorting is the hosts’ job — and the policy says so.

• A list before work starts: the names of everyone coming; changes are notified by the contractor before the new person arrives, not at the door.
• Two people in charge: one from your company, who approves, and one from the crew, who answers for their people.
• Badge or pass: only for the zone and hours of the job, expiring when the job ends.
• Keys: every key handed out is logged with handover and return times.
• Tools and materials: anything going in or out in quantity is logged on a slip the company issues, so letting materials out isn’t left to the guard’s judgement.
• Out-of-hours work: only with approval written in advance and the shift informed.

Entry conditions — pre-registration, badge, escort — are the owner’s conditions for who enters their premises. The guard doesn’t enforce them with authority; they simply don’t issue a badge to someone who doesn’t accept them, and leave the decision to whoever the policy names.

1. Explain the rule and its reason once, calmly: "It’s the company’s procedure for all visitors."
2. Call the host. If they wish, they come down and meet the visitor at reception.
3. If the visitor won’t give a piece of information, the host or the person in charge of exceptions decides whether there is another way — not the guard.
4. If the visitor tries to walk through, the guard does not restrain them; they inform the person in charge and follow the written escalation procedure.
5. Record it: time, name as given, who they were visiting, what they refused, who decided.

A company that lets the guard "judge case by case" loads them with a decision that isn’t theirs. Name who approves exceptions.

A visitor log is processing of personal data, and the company is responsible for being able to show it complies with the principles of GDPR Article 5 ("accountability", §2). In practice:

• A specified purpose (§1(b)): write down why you keep the log — for example, building security and the head count in an evacuation — and don’t later use it for something incompatible, such as marketing lists.
• Data minimisation (§1(c)): data must be adequate, relevant and limited to what is necessary. Name, company, host, entry and exit times usually suffice; every extra field needs its own reason.
• Storage limitation (§1(e)): data are not kept in a form that identifies people for longer than the purpose requires. Set a deletion period in writing, and who carries it out.
• Confidentiality (§1(f)): today’s list is not left open on the desk, and access to an electronic log is by named user.

At collection, the visitor must be told who the controller is and how to contact them, the purpose and legal basis, and how long the data will be kept or the criteria used to decide that (GDPR art. 13(1)(a), (1)(c), (2)(a)). A short notice with the invitation and a sign at reception cover it. The rules for reception cameras are covered in the office security guide.

At OVIT, unscheduled arrivals and reception incidents are logged on the Guardly platform, so management sees the same picture as the shift. Request a proposal for your visitor policy and reception.