The new HID Location Services for Workplace Safety physical distancing application leverages Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) HID Beeks Aware fobs that alert employees when they are closer than 6 feet (2 metres) for a specified period of time. The new contact tracing application uses the same HID Beeks Aware fob or a Beeks badge/badge holder that is easily added to existing ID cards, providing a full digital trail of an employee’s whereabouts and historical interactions while at work. This makes it possible to rapidly respond to cases and activate isolation procedures as needed.

The physical distancing application is currently being piloted and adopted by major healthcare institutions and enterprise organisations worldwide, including at HID’s North American headquarters and manufacturing facility in Austin, Texas.

“Digitally managing social distancing is critical to encouraging the necessary behavioural shifts that will create a safer and more secure environment to which employees feel comfortable returning to work,” said Mark Robinton, Vice President of IoT Services, Identification Technologies with HID Global. “Our goal with HID Location Services for Workplace Safety is to use our established IoT ecosystem to help organisations restore productivity with confidence by making it easier for everyone to adjust to workplace physical distancing and taking the manual leg-work out of contact tracing.”

In order to put the system in place, employers define distancing policies and alert parameters; zones can be created with geo-fences around high-traffic areas (breakrooms, hallways, lobbies) to minimize large congregations of people. HID Beeks Aware BLE fobs are issued to employees, visitors and contractors to carry while at work. Using peer-to-peer capabilities, the fob will flash and sound a brief audible alert when employees are within 6 feet (2 metres) for more than 2 minutes (or as configured by administrator). With a click of a button, detailed reporting enables contact tracing using historical data on movement and interactions in order to trigger safety protocols. For standalone contact tracing, employers can couple the functionality with existing employee ID badges. The system can be up and running within hours, and no integration is needed.  As such, set up is fast using HID BEEKS devices, secure HID Bluzone Cloud Software, and HID Blufi or other gateways.

As soon as it is up and running, users gain immediate access to real-time analytics that include location data such as interaction type and contact duration (including start and end times).  And the system uses existing enterprise networks or Bluetooth over Wifi network connectivity and cloud services to simplify implementation. No additional infrastructure, hardware or network wiring needed.

According to the company, HID Location Services is already in broad use by Fortune 500 companies for managing building occupancy, optimising office and facility space, asset tracking and monitoring the health of equipment.

The latest workplace safety additions to HID Location Services underscore the IoT ecosystem’s ability to quickly scale and adapt to the dynamic requirements of today’s hospitals, manufacturing facilities, and enterprise organisations. Its real-time time monitoring and analytics capabilities can help ensure compliance to a number of other safety requirements, such as hand hygiene policies and other regulations introduced as part of the “next normal.”

Organisations are able to leverage their investment beyond today’s global health crisis, since HID Location Services lays the foundation to easily add even more IoT applications--all of which can be centrally managed on a single platform.