Sign In App becomes visitor management and staff sign in solution of choice for the RFL

The Rugby Football League (RFL) is the national governing body for Rugby League in the UK supporting Super League, Championship and League One competitions. Initially based across two sites – one in Media City and the other in Leeds – its aim is to develop and grow the sport at all levels, as well as inspire the next generation of young players and fans. 

With over 200 staff members across the RFL, RLWC2021 (the organising body for three Rugby League World Cups in England later this year) and RLCares (the sport’s charity, including the Rugby League Benevolent Fund), as well as multiple locations, there is a requirement from a health and safety perspective that all employees are logged in and out of the building at every interval. For a period of time, this involved using an outdated pen and paper system upon arrival in the reception area to help track and report individual movements – mostly applicable should an emergency arise. But with the vast number of employees accessing the buildings, this system was not reliable enough – so the RFL implemented a different system to attempt to regain control and confidence. A fingerprint recognition system was deployed in the reception area to swiftly enhance the sign in experience, but this resulted in many technical problems and led to frustrated employees bypassing a fundamental process within the building. 

With the desire to find a better and more streamlined solution to enhance the user experience, Sign In App ticked all the boxes. Its global footprint and easy to use technology that didn’t require vast training were key characteristics that appealed to the RFL technology team. Aaron Durham, Helpdesk Supervisor and Technical Support Engineer, comments: “After discovering Sign In App, I was particularly impressed with its core technology offering and how intuitive and easy to use the solution was. We decided to trial Sign In App across both locations and observe feedback within the signing in process. Initial feedback across departments and amongst employees praised how the service could be adapted to every individual’s need, for example, allowing them the opportunity to sign in via their phones, a QR code, or simply scan their staff badges.”

The opportunities with Sign In App are endless for the RFL as it actively shares feedback and is a valued BETA testing user for future functionality rollouts. Primarily, the RFL wanted to use Sign In App for its core capabilities: signing employees in and out, as well as visitors, so that all individuals could be accounted for in the event of an emergency. Having the flexibility to quickly and efficiently view roll call information from any device, via the Companion App, means that nominated safety marshalls have confirmation that all individuals have evacuated promptly. 

With the onset of Covid-19, Sign In App provided the perfect foundations for the RFL to begin embedding the visitor management system in a smarter, more holistic way. As employees arrive on site they are asked Covid-19 questions via the app, where each individual has to answer a set of questions before entering. If anything untoward is stated by the individual, such as a high temperature, this is immediately flagged to the health and safety manager and the staff member will receive a call to make sure everything is ok. Sign In App is therefore helping to keep Covid-19 at bay, but more importantly, it allows a detailed report to be kept so that the RFL can monitor and use its own track and trace system, should management need to specifically contact anyone who has been on site on a particular day.

Mathew Dews, Head of Technology, RFL comments, “The RFL is invested in all of its individuals –  as a governing body, we want to make sure not only that we are compliant from an operational perspective, but that all decisions are made with safety in mind. With the ability to review data at a click of a button, via the dashboards, decisions can become data-driven and an integral part of business activity.”

When the RFL made the decision to combine its sites into one location, it also used the data collected via Sign In App to help instigate its future roadmap by estimating how big their office relocation needed to be, based on the average number of daily sign ins. Moving forward, the RFL is testing  an extension of the visitor management system – Spaces –  encouraging employees to plan ahead, and to inform their department when they plan to work from the office and to book their desired desk via the Sign In App portal.

“As we look ahead, and observe how Covid-19 has been a catalyst for change, Sign In App has allowed us to bring employee management to the forefront of our decisions and this has been significantly recognised internally,” comments Matthew.

“It is great to see that the experience is now seamless and most importantly hassle-free. As a result, the uplift of employees signing in and out has risen dramatically and this is down to the system being so easy to use and meeting our evolving needs,” echoes Aaron. 

Dan Harding, CEO of Sign In App, concludes, “With a seamless integration and intuitive design this allows Sign In App to be an extension of the RFL and its management. A smart and sophisticated system allows senior management to collect, observe and spot trends in their visitor management solution that they would have missed before. It’s been an exciting partnership so far and we are excited to see what the future holds for the RFL and Sign In App.”