How to Help Employees Feel Safe Wearing Name Tags

Achieve your company’s potential with employee safety and quality name tags.

Name tags are essential to your company’s success. Having your employees wear name tags leads to better communication, quality performance and overall growth. However, some employees think wearing a name tag is a risk to their safety. If you want your company to achieve its potential, you must help employees feel safe wearing your company’s name tags. By resolving their concerns, you will have a team of loyal employees to help you grow your business.

Why You Want to Use Name Tags

Employee identification improves multiple aspects of your business simultaneously. Here are just a few examples.

Customer Service

Name tags help employees provide excellent customer service. Acting as icebreakers, they encourage communication between your customers and employees. After all, a name tag is essentially an unspoken introduction. When employees introduce themselves by wearing a name tag, customers feel welcome in your office or store. Name tags also permit customers to approach employees with a question or problem. As customers interact with your employees, your team gains valuable insight into what customers need and how to help them.

Productivity

Employees work best together when they know each other’s names. Instead of trying to remember who so-and-so is, they can focus on company projects and ask each other for help. Being on first-name terms also creates a friendly, supportive work culture that reduces stress levels and increases job satisfaction. If you want your team to work at maximum capacity, give them name tags to help them remember who their colleagues are.

Why Employees May Worry About Name Tags

Some employees do not like to wear name tags because they think it puts them at risk of identity theft. Unfortunately, in this digital age, it is easy to find someone’s social media accounts and other information just by knowing their name and where they work. Scammers can also contact human resources and ask for an employee’s information. No matter how people may try to steal your employee’s identity, the consequences can be devastating. If someone steals your employee’s identity, they can end up in a severe financial crisis. Such damage can take months, if not years, to recover from.

Employees may not want to wear name tags because they are afraid of being harassed. Name tags allow customers, co-workers and vendors to ask for them by name. And some of your employees may have experienced workplace harassment when customers come to the store and ask for them specifically. If this is the case, your employees are more likely to object to wearing a name tag.

Resolve Your Employees’ Safety Concerns

As an employer, it is best to resolve your employees’ safety concerns about wearing name tags. When employees feel safe at work, they are happier, more loyal and more productive. In addition, they experience lower stress levels and take risks to come up with creative solutions. If you want your employees to do their best, you must make them feel safe wearing name tags.

There is a direct correlation between happy employees and happy customers. When employees interact with customers, their attitude sets the tone for the customer’s experience. If employees are happy, customers will enjoy doing business with your company.

You don’t just want to make your employees feel safe; you want to keep them safe too. Unfortunately, if your employees’ fears are realized and they have their identity stolen, you could be held liable. To prevent your company from getting into legal trouble, ensure you communicate with every employee about how to protect themselves from identity theft and other fraudulent activity.

With so much to gain from using name tags, making your employees feel safe wearing them is worth every effort. You will not only have better customer service and higher productivity but happy employees as well.

Increase Security Using Name Tags

Change how your employees view name tags by pointing out how identification keeps them safe. Once they see how name tags increase workplace security, they should feel better about wearing them. Here are a few ways name tags create a safe work environment.

Prevent Trespassing

Name tags help staff members and security personnel identify if someone is allowed in the facility. All they have to do is look and see if the person is wearing a company name tag. Because your employees are used to seeing their co-workers wear name tags, it will only take them a second to notice if one is missing. Their quick response to any unusual activity will keep everyone in your workplace safe.

Know Who Visitors Are

Pro Tip: To make visitor IDs most effective, use the visitor’s first and last name on their badge.

Visitor ID badges protect employees in multiple ways. They let your team know if visitors are in a restricted area and allow your team to identify visitors by name. If an employee is harassed or suspects a visitor of inappropriate activity, they can report it.

Badges help your employees identify vendors and people who visit your facility regularly. They are the visitors who will become the most familiar with your workplace and your employees’ routines. By creating photo IDs for these regular visitors, your team knows who they are and can quickly report safety issues.

Give Your Support

Whether or not your employees feel safe wearing company name tags depends on how you react to their concerns. First, show them you have their backs by providing the emotional support and assurance they need. You can also put training sessions and practices in place to reassure your employees that they are in good hands.

Listen with Empathy

When employees tell you they are worried about wearing name tags, put yourself in their shoes. Let them know you understand their anxiousness and want to make them feel safe. By validating their concerns, you gain your employees’ trust and put their minds at ease. Knowing you have their best interests at heart, they will continue to devote their time and talents to your company.

Set a Good Example

A great way to assure your employees that it is safe to wear a name tag is to wear one yourself. Confidently share your name and title with everyone coming into your facility. Make sure managers and supervisors also wear identification throughout their workday. By having company leaders show they are comfortable telling strangers their names, your employees will become comfortable with it as well.

Empower Your Team

Support your employees by giving them the knowledge they need to combat any identity theft they may experience. Educate them on recognizing identity theft, what to do if it happens and ways to minimize the financial damage. Employees will worry less about identity theft if they know more about handling it. Once they are confident they can handle problems and understand the advantages, they will gladly wear their name tags.

Take Precautions To Help Employees Feel Safe

Wearing name tags is unlikely to put your employees in harm’s way. However, it is wise to take precautions to help your employees feel safe. Do your part to keep employees safe, and they will put their name tags on without complaint.

First Names Only

One easy way to help employees feel comfortable wearing name tags is to use first names only. While you are at it, go one step further and give employees the option to use a nickname for extra protection. Using first names or nicknames helps prevent identity theft and creates a casual, relaxed environment that your employees will appreciate. If you end up with two employees with the same first name, the solution is simple: add an initial for their last name. You will still protect your employees’ identities while eliminating confusion.

Name Tag Accountability

Require each team member to turn in their name tag before their last day of employment, preventing them from posing as a current employee and getting access to unauthorized areas. And by taking such safety measures, you make the rest of your staff feel safe at work.

Increase Security

Another way to help employees feel safe is to ensure your building is secure. Hire security personnel, set up cameras and use alarms to prevent trespassing. Keeping the building under surveillance helps to keep employees from worrying about who is seeing their name tags. If they suspect someone is a threat, they know security guards and other resources are available to protect them.

Prevent and Eliminate Harassment

Talking openly about your company’s anti-harassment policies is a great way to make your employees feel safe. Such transparency shows that you stand by your policies and are not afraid to have your employees hold you accountable.

Review Company Policies: Help your employees feel safe by ensuring they are familiar with your anti-harassment policies. Ask managers to review these policies with their team, so everyone knows what they are. Communicating your company’s stance on harassment will make your employees feel safe and help them recognize harassment when they see it.

Reporting Process: To protect your employees from workplace harassment, you must have a transparent, effective reporting process. Once you have one, train each employee on how to use it. Cover various scenarios in your training, including what to do if a customer or vendor continually asks for a team member by name. Knowing how to respond to such situations will reduce your employees’ concerns about wearing name tags.

Enforce Consequences: When a customer or employee is guilty of harassment, follow through with the consequences you outlined in your company policies. Doing so will make it clear to your team that such behavior will not be tolerated. In addition, as you show that your company has zero tolerance for such behavior, your employees will have no problem sharing their names with strangers.

Supportive Work Culture: Sometimes workplace harassment is not reported because some people don’t like getting others into trouble. You can eliminate this issue by asking your employees to stand up for each other. For example, teach them what to do when they see someone harassing a team member. And teach them how to respond when the same customer frequently comes and asks for a specific employee. By encouraging your team to watch out for each other, you create a positive work culture where employees feel safe.

Secure Your Company’s Future

Give your company the best chance at success by making your employees feel that it is safe to wear name tags. Your employees will work productively, knowing their identity and well-being is in good hands. As they interact with customers, your employees’ positive moods will make customers feel welcomed and appreciated. Improved customer service and better work performance are only a part of what you gain from having employees wear name tags; you will also enjoy greater brand recognition and ensure your company’s longevity. If you face other concerns besides identity theft and workplace harassment, know you have name tag experts who are always here to help.

See our complete line of identification products, including name tags on our website: www.nametag.com. Our customer service representatives process each order quickly and stay in touch during the entire process in case you have questions.