4 Components of an Excellent ID Card System
Setting up a pragmatic ID card system isn’t difficult; however, it’s crucial to get a few components just right to make sure your system is convenient and practical.
Of course, you can add or subtract elements depending on how detailed you want. Still, the four essential components of an excellent ID card system include the design, intent or use, high-quality, accessible printing, and information and data encoding.
ID Card Design
The colors, fonts, layout, and overall design choices make a difference for your company’s ID cards. A well-put-together card can make your employees feel like they’re a part of the company and give them camaraderie and pride.
You will have a space to place your company’s logo, which also helps make cards more recognizable. You can coordinate the card design and colors with your company’s usual design aesthetic – just remember that your IDs should always have room for a photo, company information, and information about the employee.
How You Use Your Company ID Cards
A big part of the ID system is how you want to use company ID cards, where you place the scanners, and how you plan the system.
This is the first thing you should plan for. Think about your goal for installing an ID system in your building. This may mean you want to weed out any non-employees by requiring individuals to produce an ID to be let into the building. Other spaces may need a different system. For example, certain legal or medical facilities may need security at specific points throughout the building to protect important documents or keep patients safe.
If you work in an office building with other companies, will you place scanners at the entrance, or for each office or floor? Make sure to plan ahead so that you have space and staff to work the equipment, including an ID card printer and usually at least one manned scanning machine.
Accessible Printing
Workspaces with dozens or hundreds of individuals mean that IDs will need to be printed often.
You can rely on services to get your employees’ ID cards printed, but they may not be timely enough to be effective. Or, you can invest in a high-quality printer that will last you years, but you’d likely have to assign a staff member to be able to print and assign cards.
In a large building with a lot of turnarounds, you’ll likely have new employees registering frequently. In contrast, exiting employees will have to be taken out of the system to ensure they can no longer access any offices. You’ll also have to create replacement cards as some building members will likely lose their cards.
Information and Data
You can personalize each ID card with barcodes that allow access to various parts of the building. You should figure out what information is important to include on a workplace ID card. The employee’s name, employee number, and the start and expiry dates on the card should be clearly printed. You may also decide to include birthdays, job titles, insurance numbers, phone or extension numbers, gender or pronouns, building address, and more.
If the information has a purpose, you can include it. Otherwise, stay away from putting too much information on each card in case they get lost and end up in the wrong hands.
If you’re looking to set up an ID card system in your workplace, visit us online at Smith’s Addressing Machine Services or call 855-347-9494 if you need assistance selecting the necessary building blocks for your security ID system.
Depending on your workplace’s needs, an in-house ID card printing system will likely be the best choice.
