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Lanyards have a multitude of uses, but most people nowadays associate them with corporations and as a promotional item. However, one of their better uses is for keeping people safe. These are specifically helpful for certain industry sectors.
Security
Lanyards are regularly used by security personnel around the world in both the public and private sectors. They often use printed lanyards as this allows members of security to be quickly identifiable, a necessity when you are dealing with sometimes stressful situations.
Members of security also use lanyards to hold ID badges, vital in their line of work. Double-sided badge holders are particularly useful and provide quick access to the ID badges.
Lanyards can identify members and staff of organisations. If all employees are required to wear a lanyard and ID badge, it is easier to identify those that shouldn’t be there. And because a lanyard is worn around the neck, ID badges are prominently displayed. Making safety and security as straightforward as possible.
In other examples, festivals and concerts are also making heavy use of traditional neck lanyards to identify whether that person has access to the various VIP and backstage areas, and using brightly coloured lanyards are a proven and effective crowd control.
Exemption Passes
As we know this has been a tough year and with the wearing of face masks our new normal, the government, or more specifically, the Department of Health and Social Care, has endorsed an NHS scheme called the Distance Aware initiative. This was established to enable individuals to politely make others aware that they need to maintain social distancing and should be respectful of their own space, by means of self-identifying with a badge. This is especially important for those in society that were shielding or have underlying health problems and for whom social distancing needs to be maintained. The government website had templates of these badges and recommended lanyards as a safe way to carry them and even when not in a global pandemic, lanyards are the perfect tool when considering accessibility. They offer a hands free solution, thereby reducing the risk of catching or passing the virus, whilst being an efficient and quick way of identification. Because they are customizable, the different materials lanyards are available in is also useful for individuals with ASD.
Medical
Lanyards also have a vital role to play in regards to access control, especially in environments where there is a high contamination risk, such as hospitals. ID’s are already an established part of security, but with medical staff and hospital areas being separated into zones, quickly identifiable passes have now become essential. Many NHS hospitals are now using colour coded lanyards to assign different access to various zones.
In much the same way as security personnel, ambulance crews and first responders are wearing printed lanyards. If people have trouble reading an identification badge, the print or logos on the strap of a lanyard is of more visual help when trying to quickly identify any paramedics in high pressure situations.
Education
The above approach is also useful for educational settings. With schools and universities remaining open for the foreseeable future, despite the Covid-19 pandemic, identification has become a top priority for many school governing boards across the country. It is vitally important to maintain the classroom “bubbles” to keep everyone healthy and reduce the risk of transmission. This can be done easily by customised lanyards and as most can be bought in bulk, it is also an affordable solution for many educational boards that are struggling financially from the impact of the virus. Although many schools and nurseries will no longer be allowing visitors access to the site, there may be exceptions to this rule and if so, those persons need to be able to be recognised by faculty and students alike in order to minimise contact. The use of printed lanyards identifying staff, and lanyards with visitor ID badges, can hopefully provide some much needed reassurance to both educators and parents that the health of their staff and their children are a top priority, as well as adhering to any risk assessments implemented due to the pandemic. To help keep educational settings even safer, coloured lanyards provide easy visual identification and they can be branded with specific groupings, such as year, or simply “student” if access control is required.
Breakaway
As you can imagine with anything worn around the neck, lanyards are often seen as a health and safety issue. However, nearly all lanyards are fitted with something called a breakaway. The breakaway keeps lanyards from being a choking hazard. This is a clasp made with plastic and compromises a male and female part to be joined together. This is usually placed on the lanyard that goes around the back of the neck. When the lanyard is pulled on, the plastic clasp will come apart. Rather than breaking, it just pulls apart, enabling you to fit the parts back together and continue using the lanyard. This is a brilliant safety feature, especially if lanyards are being worn in environments where they may get caught or if they are being worn by children or vulnerable adults.
Single use and Covid secure lanyards
Most lanyards are reusable, and although that has traditionally been one of their benefits, in the current climate, this is proving somewhat of a problem. However, some companies have now introduced wipe clean PVC lanyards. These can be sanitised for use again and again making them Covid secure. These are particularly useful in industries where sanitation is paramount, such as the medical industry.
If you are unsure of wipe clean lanyards, then some lanyard companies are offering single use lanyards. However, despite the threat of the coronavirus pandemic, we should still be keeping the environment in mind, so it is always better to try re-use if you can, or choose an eco-friendly option if you do purchase single use lanyards.