In the event of an emergency — a fire, an evacuation, an accident in a production area — the first thing you need is an accurate list of who is in the building. Not who came in today. Who’s in now.
For employees, this information is almost always available: badges, shifts, attendance. The problem is the others: the maintenance technician who arrived at 9, the courier who hasn’t finished unloading yet, the external consultant on the second floor, the candidate waiting for the interview. People present, often not traced, who in an emergency become a critical variable for those who have to coordinate the evacuation.
In Italy, Legislative Decree 81/2008 is explicit: the employer is responsible for the safety of anyone who is on company premises, whether employees or not. Yet in most companies, the emergency attendance list includes only internal staff.
The problem no one wants to face until it happens
Do a mental test: right now, do you know how many external people are present in your company? Can you name them? Could you say it within thirty seconds, without going looking for a piece of paper?
If the answer is no — or it’s “probably yes, but I’m not sure” — you have a real security gap, not a theoretical one.
The paper register at reception does not solve this problem. Record who entered, not who is still inside. Those who go out rarely sign the exit. Those who arrive after hours find no one to register them. Anyone who enters from a secondary access may not be registered at all.
The result is that, in the event of an evacuation, the emergency worker finds himself with a partial list, built on outdated entry data, without certainty as to who has already left the building and who has not.
What the law says
Legislative Decree 81/2008, Article 26, paragraph 1, letter b, requires employers to provide detailed information on specific risks to self-employed workers and contractors working on company premises. But the safety obligation goes beyond information: it also involves knowing where these people are and being able to reach them in an emergency.
The company evacuation plan—mandatory for all companies above a certain threshold—must include specific procedures for visitors and external personnel. The question every safety manager should ask is: Do our evacuation procedures also cover visitors? And how do we generate the list of those present?
→ In-depth information: Legal obligations and digital signature at reception
The difference between “who entered” and “who is inside”
This is the point that distinguishes a visitor registration system from an emergency management system.
A register—paper or digital—that records only entry answers the first question.
A system that also tracks exits, and can generate a list of those present at any time, answers the second.
Kiosk Varco tracks both moments: check-in upon arrival and check-out upon exit, with a certified timestamp. At any time, from the admin panel, you can export the list of people currently in the building—name, surname, company of origin, time of entry, and destination area.
In an emergency, that list is available in seconds, on any connected device, without having to open archives or browse records.
→ More information: Digital visitor registration: a complete guide
How it works in practice during an evacuation
The scenario is this: the alarm goes off. The emergency worker must arrive at the assembly point with a complete list of those present.
With a paper system: they must carry the register with them, hope it’s up to date, and manually cross-reference the entry and exit data, under pressure, in a matter of minutes.
With Kiosk Varco: they open the panel on their tablet or smartphone, select “Present Now,” and export or view the list. They have the name, surname, and company of each person who hasn’t yet checked out. They can check them off as they reach the assembly point.
The difference isn’t one of convenience. It’s one of reliability—and legal liability.
The contexts where this matters most
Not all companies have the same risk profile, but there are contexts where the traceability of emergency visitors is particularly critical.
In summary
In an emergency, the attendance list isn’t an operational detail: it’s a security and legal liability tool. Creating it in real time on a paper register isn’t realistic.
A visitor management system that tracks entry and exit solves the problem at its root: every visit is recorded, every exit is documented, and the attendance list is always available and up-to-date.
If you’d like to see how it works in practice, discover Kiosk Varco or read the case study: 750 visits per month, zero paper.
Do you know exactly who is currently present in your company?
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