What to get right when you set up an employee ID badge system

Most of the requests we get start with "we would like to print staff cards," and the need that surfaces once we talk is usually broader: the card needs something to hang from, something to protect it, and sometimes a technology that opens a door.

Thinking about those four pieces together from the start costs less and gives a tidier result than buying them one at a time. Below is the order the decisions come in; each step narrows the next.

The first question is this: is the card only going to show identity, or does it have to talk to a system? The answer drives every other choice.

If the card is purely visual identification, a printed PVC card is enough and adds no cost. If it has to work with a cafeteria, turnstile, door or time-attendance system, your reader decides the card — tell us the model you already have and we will pick the card that matches it.

Less information usually works better on a staff card. The name and the photo have to be readable from a distance; job title, department and employee number can sit in the second tier.

If you are using photos, collect everyone's against the same background and in the same crop. Photos shot in different settings make the whole set of cards look untidy.

Emergency information can go on the back: blood type, who to call in an emergency, building rules. That way the information travels with the card without crowding the front.

A lanyard involves three separate decisions, and all three are independent of each other.

Width follows the print: a single-color, simple logo works at 10 mm, while a multi-color logo or any text meant to be read — a web address, say — needs 15 mm or more. The 20 and 25 mm widths tend to be chosen for trade shows and events.

The attachment determines how the card hangs from the lanyard. A metal clip is the most common and the cheapest. A carabiner makes the card easy to take off and put back. A retractable yo-yo lets the card be pulled out and held up to a reader; anyone who goes through a turnstile several times a day feels that difference immediately.

Do not skip the safety breakaway. A buckle that releases under a sudden pull protects the neck if the lanyard catches on machinery or a door. In a factory or a workshop, that is not a preference — it is a requirement.

If the card goes in and out of a pocket several times a day, rubs against a reader, or is used in a dusty environment, a holder extends its life noticeably. For a card that sits on a desk in an office it may not be necessary.

There are two kinds. Rigid plastic holders protect the card against bending and are ordered by model code. Soft PVC pockets are more flexible and cheaper, and are chosen by size; the colored band across the top is a practical way to separate departments — blue for the technical team, red for admin, and so on.

A metal name badge is not an alternative to a plastic card, it is a complement. For staff who work face to face with customers — a hotel front desk, a store, a restaurant — it gives a polished look, and the 3M adhesive on the back attaches it directly to the uniform.

The two are usually used together: a metal badge on the lapel, an access card on the lanyard. One is the face the customer sees, the other is the card the system reads.

Metal badges are produced from 10 pieces upward, so adding a badge for a single new hire later is not a problem.

Most companies setting up a system order exactly as many cards as they have people, and then come back six months later for cards one at a time.

Two things make that easier. First, keep around ten percent of headcount as spare unprinted blanks. Second, build the card design around departments rather than employee numbers; the same design then works for a new hire as well.

Standard-size cards are produced in multiples of 10, so a follow-up order has no high threshold to clear.