Touchless Authentication for Businesses Beyond the Pandemic

Before the COVID-19 global pandemic, businesses were already adopting touchless technology throughout their environment. However, when COVID-19 took the globe by storm it left many businesses nearly inoperable. Many were closed due to national regulations, while others may have tried to stay open yet suffered staff shortages or supply chain issues. Now that the world is slowly returning to a new normal, businesses are not willing to put their livelihood in jeopardy again. 

As employees are returning to work, employers are considering what they can do to ensure employee safety and reduce touchpoints in the workplace. One key way to do this is to create a touchless access control environment. This enables touchless entry into building facilities or controlled environments, where previously other means of access control may have been enabled. 

Touchless Access Control Enables Employee Safety

The adoption of hands-free entry and access controls is a vital element in creating a safer work environment for employees. By implementing this proactive approach to safety, the organization will see an array of benefits. We have broken down the top five.

By utilizing touchless access control technology like the Rock from Alcatraz AI, employees are no longer using the same hub for scanning credentials. Be it a fingerprint scanner or passcode pad, employees are no longer forced to partake in these germ-sharing environments, keeping employees healthier and more productive. Alternatively, facial authentication offers hands-free, frictionless technology that is not only a cleaner option but also far more user-friendly. 

#2 Frictionless Access

Your staff is busy. They are hurrying from meeting to meeting with handfuls of documents, maybe their lunches tucked under their arms, and if they’re lucky, a coffee in what free hand they do have. Placing all of this down to scan a fingerprint or swipe a badge is incredibly inconvenient. Alternatively, by using an employee's face as their credentials, they do not have to place all of their items down to enter a space. By simply looking at the scanning device they are granted access, creating a touchless access control entry environment. 

#3 Heightened Security

Speaking of identification badges, many organizations use them. Be it for original access into a building or privileged access to heightened security areas. However, they are far from a secure method to verify one’s identity. Proximity cards, fobs and passcodes can all be lost, stolen, or shared. Due to risk of spoofing these credentials, using them as the primary means of physical access control decreases the overall security of the environment.

#4 The ROI Speaks for Itself

Implementing a new source of security controls into your organization requires an investment. However, when looking at any business decision you must consider the return on the investment. With the utilization of touchless access control technology, you are not only promoting a healthier work environment, but you are also making it easier for the employees to use. These two things alone boost morale. Furthermore, when your staff is happy and healthy, they are more productive, and you reduce the threat of staff shortages due to illness. Additionally, you are increasing the overall security integrity of your infrastructure by using credentials that cannot be compromised. 

#5 Advanced Technology 

How does advanced technology like facial authentication increase the integrity of your business’s security? By using facial authentication as access credentials they cannot be lost, stolen, or shared. Furthermore, with Alcatraz AI’s technology, the Rock, uses artificial intelligence to allocate for the basic appearance changes an employee may experience. For example, progressive aging, weight loss or gain, changes in facial hair, hair style adjustments, wearing or not wearing glasses. 

Additionally, the Rock also uses an anti-tailgating feature, which sends alerts in real-time to the proper staff members if an unauthorized individual is in a controlled space they should not be in. 

Physical access controls have been utilized since the beginning of business operations. Whether it was something as basic as locking the front door when the office was closed, to administrative staff having keys to various spaces they will need access to. These methods eventually evolved into passcode pads and proximity cards. Today, the world of security is advancing with the utilization of individual biometrics as credentials. The adoption of touchless access control began before the COVID-19 pandemic; however, as operations began opening again, organizations soon realized they needed to move to the implementation phase of hands-free operations – including touchless access control. 

The implementation of touchless authentication can be seamless, with unlimited opportunities. You may opt for a turnstile with facial authentication in the front lobby which only allows staff to enter the office space itself. Regardless of your physical security needs, facial authentication can help mitigate the risk of internal threats while reducing common touch points among staff. 

Facial authentication offers a touchless and frictionless approach to physical security, and those that have implemented it have found it helpful in expediting the return to normal operations. Schedule a free 30-demo to see how the Rock can improve security for your workplace.