When the fire alarm sounds, the question isn’t who arrived – it’s who’s still inside. In Australia, the WHS Act 2011 places a clear duty on PCBUs to ensure the health and safety of everyone on site, including visitors. In the United States, OSHA regulations require employers to account for all personnel during an emergency. A visitor management system that fails during an outage fails to meet this obligation, leaving your organisation exposed to significant risk and potential liability.
The Law Demands You Know Who Is On Site – Even When the Lights Go Out
Across our work with Australian and US organisations, we consistently see that duty of care extends to having a reliable system for identifying and accounting for all individuals present during an emergency. Australian WHS legislation requires a PCBU to eliminate or minimise risks so far as is reasonably practicable, and that includes knowing who is on site. Similarly, OSHA mandates employers provide a safe working environment, which includes emergency preparedness and accounting for all personnel.
Paper Logs and Disconnected Systems Leave Lives at Risk
Most organisations rely on systems that become useless the moment they’re needed most. A paper visitor log cannot tell you who left the building. Disconnected systems, or those reliant on constant internet connectivity, offer a false sense of security. Visitor data that isn’t real-time isn’t protection – it’s paperwork.
- A paper sign-in book provides no visibility of who is *currently* on site during an emergency.
- Server-based systems, located within the building, become inaccessible during a power outage or physical disaster.
- Manual muster roll calls are slow, inaccurate, and prone to human error, especially in a chaotic evacuation.
- Lack of real-time check-out tracking means the emergency report includes people who have already left the building.
- Reliance on mobile phone connectivity for emergency communication fails when networks are overloaded or down.
Real-Time Visibility, Even Offline, Is the Only Acceptable Standard
Genuine protection requires a visitor management system that operates reliably, even when connectivity is lost. A cloud-based visitor management system, combined with offline capability, provides real-time occupancy data and ensures your evacuation team has the information they need to account for everyone. This isn’t just about compliance; it’s about protecting lives.
- Implement a cloud-based visitor management system with offline / disconnected mode to maintain site occupancy records locally when internet connectivity is unavailable.
- Ensure your system automatically syncs data when a connection is restored, providing a complete and accurate record.
- Conduct regular contractor induction and check-in procedures, verifying licenses and safety training before granting access.
- Utilise real-time evacuation reports generated from the visitor management system to quickly identify who is on site during an incident.
- Train your emergency response team on how to access and interpret the evacuation report, even from a mobile device outside the building.
Time and People: Visitor Management That Works When It Has To
For over 12 years, Time and People has been designing, implementing, and managing visitor management and emergency evacuation systems across Australia and the United States. As we experienced during the Christchurch earthquake in 2011, the ability to access critical data outside the building is paramount. We deliver cloud-connected visitor management with offline capability, ensuring your organisation can account for everyone, even when the network is down – because people’s safety depends on it.
Content prepared by Time and People — visitor and contractor management across Australia and the United States.