Posted By Charley Farley-Trelawney
Eliot
When you say visitors, I presume you mean all visitors including Contractors. (I can just imagine the smartly dressed visitors strutting around in PPE) Anyway, I would think that you are considering a twin system, one for the C's & one for the V's, the reason I say this is because it is important to get across different sets of information to different categories, an alternative is an electronic system which is not as daft as it sounds, it can be produced in advance so the C or V does not have to hang around.
On the basis that you wish to have a manual system it should be light enough to quickly pick up and remove should the alarms go and the need to evacuate arises, and by having a twin system you can have the time spent stamp for C's they are notorious for not signing in and out.
A lot depends on the movement you have in the course of the day, if it is only a handful then a very simple system will of course suffice, the problems start when you consider your business, are there areas that you don't want people to access? if so this needs to be made clear, and don't forget that when issuing ID cards to wear it is wise to include all the evacuation information such as points to gather at in the event of building evacuation, contractor rules such as for example the need for a PTW for a set of works that you can clearly identify on the inside cover of the actual register.
A small, not necessarily to scale map is a handy one, these can be included with the badge or printed on the reverse, basically you can have as much information as you like, its up to you as long as you remember that the duty of care does extend to V's & C's alike when on your premises.
If you had only considered a book and no badges, which may be fine for you, I suspect only you and the Ivory Tower know if that is acceptable; it may therefore be wise (on the assumption you have just the register) to include important information on the page where people sign, as mentioned earlier, do you want privacy of visitors, i.e. are you having 3 or 4 C's in to quote for a job, are you happy that they can see who has visited you? A privacy panel is fairly easy to do.
For the basics I would say; Name-Company-Date-Who they are visiting-Time in & Time out, vehicle reg-and if you are not issuing a ID badge a small message in the signature section to confirm that they have read, understood and accept your terms and conditions whilst on your premises (which you could have on the inside cover and in addition either include on an induction for C's or more simply just hand out, the wording by the signature could say just that, "I confirm I have received and blah blah blah")
Previous experience tells me that when you do not have an ID badge at least half of the V's & C's never bother to sign out, having so said it depends on the points of entry and exit are there more than one, who will monitor the system etc etc?
If all this sways you off designing your own and indeed it may not, but if it does let me know and I can send you further information; if you do contact me, give some idea of the business, its size, layout, multiple buildings, off limits areas etc and I am sure I can help.
Hope all this helps, am now off for the Friday glass or 3 of Chardonnay!
Have a good weekend
Charley