Cotton On has further invested in the health and safety of its head office team, introducing new health screening technology at its Avalon headquarters.
The Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods (ARTG)-listed fever detection kiosk, HealthGate, has been designed and developed in Victoria and has been operating at Cotton On's 35,000sqm distribution centre since the start of 2021.
The technology uses a proprietary multi-spectrum sensor array, which utilises artificial intelligence to detect the appropriate region of interest on a user’s face and accurately measure if they have a fever.
The kiosks also incorporate health declaration technology prior to or on arrival to the distribution centre.
Speaking on the introduction, Cotton On CFO Michael Hardwick said the technology allows the business to screen its large workforce efficiently.
"During the height of the pandemic, we were looking for health screening technology that would allow us to continue to protect our people and operations.
"HealthGate is a great solution for our national distribution centre at Avalon, Victoria where we have 300 to 400 team members coming through each day," he said.
During the Cotton On trial, team members and visitors were required to answer health screening questions either before they arrived on-site or when they underwent the health screening.
If their self-declaration indicated that they were not likely to be ill, the system generated a QR code which was scanned by employees at the HealthGate screen, while checking their temperatures.
If their temperature was within an acceptable limit, the kiosks granted 24-hour access to the site and printed out a pass that could be applied to their uniform.
The kiosk can detect a fever in under two seconds and eliminates the potential for human error in the health screening process.
HealthGate is touchless, meaning that team members and visitors can undergo their health screening in a hygienic way.
"HealthGate has already saved us considerable time, but it has also given us and our team great peace of mind, which is priceless," Cotton On head of central operations Barnaby Gray added.
"We know that anyone within the facility has been checked – and, most importantly, safe – and it’s all been done without being invasive or time consuming," he said.
Cotton On Group is one of Australia’s largest global retailers, trading in 18 countries and employing 22,000+ people across the globe.