Cleaning
HEALTHY BUILDINGS Guarding against COVID-19 starts at the office door with technology
Employees at Fresh Prep Foods Inc. must check in at an AI-powered kiosk for touchless health checks before continuing into the Vancouver facility | SUBMITTED
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mployer mandates that require workers to get vaccinated against COVID-19 are unlikely to come to pass in B.C., say legal experts. Instead, provisions to ensure the workplace is safe — such as requiring masks for unvaccinated workers — will be needed. And new technologies are also emerging to ensure visitors and workers stepping inside a building are COVID-free. Prior to the pandemic, Traction Guest CEO Keith Metcalfe says his firm’s contactless screening technology was often considered a “nice-to-have” addition to the office. “Now what’s happened as a result of the pandemic is we’ve started to really find companies coming to us saying, ‘We need to have this,’” he says. His Burnaby-based startup specializes in visitor management technology for
companies. Guests who have already been invited to an office via Traction’s platform receive an email with all the details of their visit, such as safety requirements. Visitors click on a link that takes them to a registration portal and they can then use their smartphone to scan in on a company iPad without touching any surfaces. The registration portal, accessed through a web application, takes visitors to a company’s customized website that might require visitors to sign documents or watch a safety video before being permitted to enter. Traction Guest conducted a survey in December revealing 38% of employers plan to have 75% in-office capacity by this summer, putting a further burden on health and safety measures in the coming months. “How do you manage the complexity of that?” says Metcalfe. “That’s where PROPERTY MANAGERS’ SOURCE BOOK 2022 | 17
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