By Michael Fisher, Managing Director, Boon Edam Australia
Regardless of when the next major viral pandemic strikes – and let's hope the odds stay low – employers and building specifiers worldwide are nevertheless actively considering future changes to their buildings to increase employee safety.
By now most will have contemplated the first and obvious controls, such as social distancing and staggered operating shifts, then moved on to effective technologies to help them achieve their duty of Care to maintain a health workplace for workers and visitors.
One effective initiative for commercial and public buildings is touchless entrances at every door in the building envelope, which is an effective option for architects, building managers, and facility managers. Not only do these entrances need to be hands-free, but they must also operate safely and without compromising security.
And it makes sense to be prepared in this way for greater volumes of workers and visitors, as more public servants and private employees return to work for at least some of their week in offices – and are exposed again to working in closer proximity to others and potentially exposed to the allergens and viruses out there.
It pays also to consider the problem on a whole-of-year basis, because different virus' and pathogens can occur at different times of the years.
Over the next decade, according to some forecasts, there's a thankfully lower one-in-four chance of another pandemic on the scale of Covid-19.
But we should be aware that number of pathogens that could trigger the next pandemic has grown to more than 30, and now includes influenza A virus, dengue virus, and monkeypox virus, according to an updated list published by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
So protective measure that fulfil the wide Duty of Care to protect building occupants are still very much on the agenda year upon year, because this is a live issue that will gain even further importance as population and worker participation rates rise.
We see this shift to contactless entry as a two-step process. The initial step fulfills the need for touchless entry, while the second addresses a new issue as a result – compromised security.
Step 1: automatic swing doors – solving one problem while introducing another
As organisations scramble to make all entrances across their buildings touchless, a quick solution to this problem comes by way of retrofitting existing swing doors with low-energy, electric operators. Though an easy and timely fix, this new entrance process opens the way for bigger issues.
Traditional use of manual swing doors
Let's first consider how someone uses a manual swing door. An employee either opens or badges at the swing door, the door unlocks, and the user grabs it with one hand. They typically pull the door open roughly 45-60 degrees and "slither" in. As they are entering the building, the door has already begun the closing process and will typically re-latch in a second or two. The door never reaches its full 90-degree potential and, thus, it is harder for someone else to tailgate inside without collusion.
Weakness of Automatic Swing Doors
But as facility managers begin to upgrade their manual doors with automatic, low-energy electric operators, the typical way of entering, as mentioned above, changes. How so?
Well, the employee will still badge or use a hand-wave sensor to enter the building through the swing door. The door will unlock and open slowly using a low-energy drive (originally designed for ADA entry for people with disability).
However, now the door will proceed to open a full 90-degrees and remain open for a few additional seconds before closing.
So, increased automatic swing door use will have a significant impact on security. The door simply won't close two seconds after someone steps in. It could remain open for up to 10 seconds in some cases and be an easy way for someone unauthorised to gain access to any part of the building.
Step 2: automatic security doors and turnstiles – touchless and secure
So, while automating existing swing doors provides a timely fix to one problem, this creates a new, downstream problem: the potential for unauthorised people in your building. The risks and liabilities that are associated with tailgating at swing door entries could be theft, employee safety, regulatory fines, and human resource issues.
How do you solve this downstream problem?
By implementing a tailgating detection or prevention strategy using security speed gates or security revolving doors, organisations can provide a touchless and secure entry experience for all users. And while some organisations might not be able to deploy security entrances across their entire facility, security revolving doors and speed gates work well in a layered security strategy.
Final word – choose security that's fit-for-purpose
For buildings and facilities implementing layered physical entrance security, it's important to evaluate each entrance individually, rather than picking a product that ticks a lot of boxes, or has a lot of features.
Because one size or type of entrance solution does not fit all. Too often, as I have mentioned previously, we see companies come to us with a less-than-ideal solution in place, across all entrances, which they may have paid a fortune for.
They're genuinely surprised when we tell them that a far more cost-effective set of options would have provided better security.
Rather than being committed to just one product or solutions, a truly effective and cost-effective mix of solutions often has to consider different flow rate, different security levels, potential biometric integration, location of each entrance and disability access, for example.
It's far more effective to start with the desired outcome – such as guaranteed prevention of unauthorised access – and work backwards to find the ideal combination of entrance security technologies that will deliver this in the most effective and cost-efficient way.
About the Author
Michael Fisher is Managing Director of Boon Edam Australia, which is part of the privately owned international Royal Boon Edam group, which provides architectural revolving door and layered security solutions to some of the world's largest companies, Fortune 500 companies, and companies in Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea including financial, data and telecommunications, Federal and State Government, hospitality, health and aged care, logistics, retail, and distribution facilities.
About us:
About Royal Boon Edam With work environments becoming increasingly global and dynamic, smart, safe entry has become the centre of activity in and around many buildings. Royal Boon Edam is a global market leader in reliable entry solutions. Headquartered in the Netherlands, with 150 years of experience in engineering quality, we have gained extensive expertise in managing the transit of people through office buildings, airports, healthcare facilities, hotels, and many other types of buildings. We are focussed on providing an optimal, sustainable experience for our clients and their clients. By working together with you, our client, we help determine the exact requirements for the entry point in and around your building. Please take a look at our range of revolving doors, security doors & portals, speed gates, tripod turnstiles, access gates and full height turnstiles to ensure the security of your entry and perimeter. You can find more news about Boon Edam on www.boonedam.com.au/news
