A paper log only tells you who arrived, not who is still inside during an emergency. In Australia, the WHS Act 2011 requires PCBUs to ensure site safety, while in the United States, OSHA mandates a safe workplace. Both jurisdictions demand that you maintain an accurate account of everyone on site to ensure life safety during evacuations.
Your duty of care depends on knowing who is on site
Australian PCBUs under the WHS Act 2011 and US employers under OSHA are legally obligated to protect all persons on their premises. In our work with Australian and US organisations, we have found that this obligation requires a verifiable, real-time record of site occupancy rather than a static list of arrivals.
A paper log is a historical record, not a safety tool
Most organisations rely on manual logs that track arrivals but fail to track departures. This creates a dangerous data gap during an evacuation where the list of people who entered is mistaken for the list of people still inside.
- Manual logs cannot be accessed remotely or instantly by emergency services during an incident.
- Unattended reception areas allow visitors to enter without registration, creating critical blind spots in occupancy data.
- Paper records cannot verify if a contractor has completed their mandatory safety induction before entering a high-risk zone.
- Manual check-out processes are frequently skipped, making it impossible to generate an accurate real-time site occupancy report.
Moving from manual records to real-time occupancy tracking
A cloud-based visitor management system replaces guesswork with a digital trail, ensuring every person is accounted for from entry to exit. This technology integrates contractor induction and check-in to ensure safety compliance is met before site access is granted.
- Visitors register via a kiosk, where the system captures required data and photo ID badging to prevent unauthorised intrusion.
- The system triggers an immediate notification to the host via email or SMS to ensure the visitor is supervised.
- Contractors complete a mandatory contractor induction—including safety briefings and acknowledgement of site rules—before they can check in.
- The system maintains a live occupancy record, which serves as a real-time evacuation report accessible from any authorised device during an emergency.
- Safety officers use the system for muster point verification, cross-referencing the live report against those accounted for at the assembly point.
Time and People: Visitor Management That Works When It Has To
Time and People converts complex compliance obligations into working infrastructure across Australia and the United States. With over 12 years of experience, we provide cloud-connected visitor management and real-time evacuation reporting. We’ve found that automating the registration process removes the burden from reception while ensuring that every person on your site is protected.
Content prepared by Time and People — visitor and contractor management across Australia and the United States.