The Check-In | August 2026 Edition

Can You Account for Everyone After an Evacuation?

Getting everyone out of the building is only part of a successful evacuation. You also need to know who was on site, who has been accounted for, and who may still be missing.

Your next evacuation drill is an opportunity to test both sides of that process. Set aside about ten minutes beforehand to establish your starting roster, decide how you’ll track the results, and identify three simple measurements to capture.

Your 10-Minute Prep

Before the drill begins:

• Establish your starting roster.
  Start with the employees, visitors, contractors, and others your Savance Workplace system shows as on site. Then verify that the roster accurately reflects who is actually there.
• Decide how you’ll account for everyone.
  Assign someone to track the results and make sure your team knows how people will be marked safe during the drill.
• Be ready to capture three measurements.
  Focus on roster accuracy, accountability, and total muster time.

1. An Accurate Roster

How many people are actually on site when the drill begins?

Your accountability process is only as reliable as the roster you’re working from. Compare who your system shows as on site with who is actually there, including employees, visitors, and contractors.

If someone has left without updating their status, a visitor wasn’t properly checked out, or a contractor isn’t reflected accurately, note the discrepancy. These mismatches can reveal gaps in everyday processes that affect emergency accountability.

2. Accurate Accountability

Can you account for everyone on that roster?

Once you know your starting roster is accurate, the next question is whether every person can be accounted for during the muster.

Record how many people are successfully accounted for and investigate anyone whose status remains unknown. In a real emergency, knowing exactly who is safe – and who may still need attention – is the goal.

3. Total Muster Time

How long does it take to account for everyone?

Measure the time from the start of the evacuation until everyone on your accurate roster has been accounted for.

Aim to complete the muster in under 10 minutes. If it takes longer, use the drill to identify where time was lost and what could make the process faster during the next exercise.

What Did Your Drill Tell You?

Together, these three measurements give you a clear picture of your emergency accountability process: Was your starting roster accurate? Did you account for everyone? And how long did it take?

Poor signage, limited training, communication gaps, or an inefficient and inaccurate accountability system can all slow down a muster. Keep your drill results and compare them over time to identify opportunities for improvement. The goal is to maintain an accurate roster, consistently account for everyone, and reduce the time it takes to reach full accountability.

Put Your Next Drill to Work

An evacuation drill shouldn’t only confirm that people can get out of the building. It should also show whether and how quickly you can determine who is safe and who may still need help.

Savance Emergency Mustering uses the employee, visitor, and contractor presence information already in your system to provide a current roster for faster, more accurate accountability during drills and real emergencies.

Not using Emergency Mustering today? Talk with our team about putting it to work in your next drill.

Reach Everyone in Seconds with Mass Notifications & Alerts

Savance Workplace includes more than most teams roll out on day one. Mass Notifications & Alerts is the capability we most often see waiting to be put to work.

It lets you reach your people fast by text, email, and on-screen alert, from the same platform you already use to know who’s in the building. That pairing is the point: a notification system that knows who’s on site sends the right message to the right people, not a blast to a stale contact list.

A few uses worth setting up before you need them:

• Emergency alerts and drill: Notify everyone on site the moment something happens, and follow up with instructions as the situation develops.
• Weather closures and delayed openings: One message, everyone informed, no phone tree.
• Facility notices: Network outages, water shutoffs, parking changes, lobby closures. The small stuff that eats a morning when it’s communicated badly.

Not sure whether your Savance Workplace plan includes Mass Notifications & Alerts — or maybe is it sitting unconfigured? Get in touch and we’ll check with you. It’s a quick conversation, and setup is faster than you’d think.

147,819 Visitors in Three Months. Every One Identified.

VHC Health, a 453-bed hospital in Arlington, Virginia, faced a hard truth about healthcare: it leads every industry in workplace violence, and most facilities can’t say with confidence who is walking their halls. Visitor tracking at VHC was handled unit by unit — manual, inconsistent, and easy to slip past.

Their security team rolled out Savance Visitor Management across the hospital: eighteen custom-branded self-service kiosks with ID scanning, badge printing, and facial recognition for returning visitors. In the first three months, the system positively identified 147,819 visitors. Security incidents involving non-employees dropped significantly, and staff reported feeling safer coming to work. That second part matters just as much.

“Since implementing the Savance Visitor Management solution, we have seen staff perception of safety increase, and security incidents involving non-employees have significantly been reduced,” says Chad Ellis, VHC Health’s Director of Security & Parking.

You don’t need eighteen kiosks or a hospital campus for the lesson to apply. Every facility has the same question at its front door: who’s here, and should they be? Every team feels the difference when the answer is certain instead of assumed.

Read the full story: VHC Health case study. Curious what this looks like at your scale? Contact us — no pitch, just a conversation.

Cut the Cord on Badge Printing

New this month in the hardware lineup: wireless label printers. If your front desk prints visitor badges through a tangle of cables, or your kiosk placement is limited by where the printer can reach, wireless printing gives you more flexibility. The printer works with your existing Savance Workplace visitor check-in process, so you can change the hardware without changing the workflow.

What’s Next for Savance Workplace

Here’s some of what we’re working on for the next Savance Workplace update:

• Savance Workplace for Microsoft Teams and New Outlook. An all-new Savance Workplace app brings the in/out board and other everyday functions directly into Microsoft Teams, New Outlook, and Outlook on the web. A companion Visitor Management add-in lets you pre-register visitors from an Outlook appointment. The Classic Outlook add-in will continue to work.
• A refreshed Mobile App. A redesigned interface brings faster, more reliable status updates, geofenced automatic transitions, and in-app chat. The update also addresses legacy connection issues experienced by some on-premise customers.
• Digital wallet passes for visitors. Visitor invitations will be able to include a wallet pass guests can save to their phone and present at check-in, with customization available through the admin portal.
• AI-powered reporting is on the way. We’re currently exploring new ways to make Savance Workplace data easier to access, including the ability to ask questions about your data in everyday language. We’ll share more as these capabilities get closer to release.

Full release notes and upgrade guidance will follow in a dedicated announcement when the update is available.

Your Support Portal Never Closes

Most customers know they can email or call our support team (and please, keep doing that). Fewer know how much is self-serve at savanceworkplace.com/support. Here are four support portal shortcuts worth bookmarking:

• Submit and manage tickets: Open a new ticket or check the status of existing ones, no email digging required.
• Search the Knowledge Base: How-tos and answers to the questions we hear most. If it’s after hours and you need help, there’s a good chance the answer is in our support portal.
• Check System Status: See current system health and any scheduled maintenance before you troubleshoot.
• Browse Documentation and Getting Started Guides: Useful long after you’ve started, especially when onboarding new staff who’ve never seen the system.

Five minutes bookmarking these now saves a support cycle later. And of course, you can contact us here anytime. We’re always happy to help.

The Check-In is Savance Workplace’s monthly update for customers. Was this useful? Forward it to a teammate!