No helmet, no clock-in.
The same glance that records a worker’s arrival checks that the hard hat is on. Anyone without one is flagged before they are on site, and the record shows the check was made.
Safety hat detection is on the Premium plan · 30-day free trial
How many arrivals nobody actually checks?
A supervisor at the gate can check a certain number of people an hour, and a shift change delivers more than that in a few minutes. The gap is not a discipline problem; it is arithmetic.
Your gate
An estimate. How this is calculated: (arrivals per shift − checks a supervisor can do per shift) × 22 days. It counts arrivals nobody looked at, not violations — most of those workers will have their helmet on.
The same glance does both checks.
A worker walks up to the station at the gate and looks at it, exactly as they would to clock in. In one pass the system verifies the face against the enrolled employee, confirms with liveness that it is a real person rather than a photograph, and checks whether a hard hat is present. If the helmet is missing the check-in is flagged — the station shows it on screen, an administrator can be notified, and the attendance record carries the result. Nobody is pulled aside by a supervisor who happened to be looking, and nobody is waved through because the queue was long. The check happens because it is part of the clock-in, not in addition to it.
What it does not do: it checks that a hard hat is present at the moment of clock-in. It does not confirm the hat is the right class, correctly fastened, or still on an hour later on the scaffold.
Helmet detection is part of the attendance check-in — not a second system at the gate.
Safety hat detection is included on the Premium plan at €3.00 per employee per month, alongside iris, notifications and licence-plate recognition. There is no separate PPE product to buy, install or wire in. Liveness detection, GPS, geofencing, offline mode and access control are in the plan price too — not add-ons.
How helmet detection at clock-in works.
The station is already looking at the worker to verify who they are. Helmet detection uses that same frame: the model looks for a hard hat in the expected position relative to the detected face, and returns present or absent as part of the same transaction that produces the attendance record. There is no second camera, no separate lane, and no extra second in the queue.
What happens on absent is yours to configure. The station can show the result and let the clock-in proceed with a flag against it — useful where the hat is in the worker’s hand and they simply need prompting. Or, where the station is wired to a turnstile or barrier through access control, the gate can stay shut until the check passes. Most sites start with the first and move to the second once people are used to it.
Either way the result is stored with the check-in, which is the part that matters after an incident. "We have a PPE rule" and "here is every arrival for the last six months with the helmet check attached" are very different things to put in front of an inspector.
What it does not do: this is detection, not certification. It is evidence that a check was made at entry — it does not replace supervision on the site itself.
Can NCheck confirm a worker is wearing a helmet?
Yes, as part of the face check-in. The result is recorded against the attendance entry rather than handled separately.
What happens when someone is flagged?
Your choice: show it on the station and record it, notify an administrator, or hold the gate closed via access control until the check passes.
Does it record the check for audits?
Yes. The helmet result is stored with the check-in, so the entry log doubles as a PPE record.
Subcontractors, daily labour and the site log.
On most sites the people least likely to be checked are the ones who are not on your payroll. Subcontractor crews arrive for a week, daily labour arrives for a day, and neither is in the HR system that drives your attendance product. The usual result is a paper book at the gate that nobody reconciles.
Enrolment here takes one photograph, which a supervisor can do from the same tablet at the gate, so a new crew is enrolled in the time it takes them to walk in. From that point a subcontractor’s arrival produces exactly the same record as an employee’s: identity, time, location and the helmet check. Group check-in from a single photograph helps where a crew of ten arrives together in one vehicle.
The site log that falls out of this is the one you actually want in an emergency: everyone currently on site, staff and contractors alike, with the PPE check attached to each arrival. That is also the basis of a live headcount when a muster is called.
What it does not do: it will not tell you whether a subcontractor’s certifications are valid. It records who entered, when, and whether the hat was on.
How do we handle subcontractors and daily labour?
Enrol them at the gate from one photo, on the same tablet. They produce the same records as employees without entering your HR system.
Is it suitable for hazardous zones?
It is used on construction, mining, oil and gas and refinery sites. For a zone with intrinsic-safety requirements, the device has to meet them — talk to us about the specific zone.
Can a crew check in together?
Yes — group check-in recognises several enrolled people from a single photograph, which suits crews arriving in one vehicle.
Mask, PPE and the site gate: what else the same check can do.
Once a station is verifying faces at an entrance, several checks ride along on the same frame at no extra cost in time. Face mask detection matters in food plants, clean rooms and healthcare for the same reason helmets matter on site — the rule exists and nobody has the hours to police it. Licence-plate recognition covers vehicles at the same barrier, which on a construction site is often the same bottleneck.
Tying the station to the barrier through access control is what turns detection into enforcement. Rules can differ by person, by door and by time of day, so a gate can require the helmet check during working hours and simply log it for a night security round.
None of this needs a separate installation. The station at the gate is doing attendance anyway; these are configurations of the same check-in, on the same device, in the same second.
What it does not do: licence-plate recognition and safety hat detection are both Premium features. On Free or Standard the face check-in works, but these two do not.
Does it work in bright sun, dust and rain?
The face algorithms are tuned for workplaces rather than studios, and handle changing light, dust and weather at a sheltered gate station. A camera pointed straight into low sun is a siting problem on any system — mount it accordingly.
Can the gate stay closed until the helmet is on?
Yes, where the station drives a barrier or turnstile through access control. The check becomes a condition of the gate opening.
Does it work with gloves and safety glasses?
Yes — face check-in needs no contact, so gloves are irrelevant, and glasses, beards and masks are handled.
Three ways to enforce PPE at the gate.
| A supervisor at the gate | A sign and a toolbox talk | NCheck | |
|---|---|---|---|
| How many arrivals are checked | As many as one person can manage | None | Every one |
| Who is checked | Whoever is looked at | Nobody | Staff and subcontractors alike |
| On a failed check | A conversation, usually unrecorded | Nothing | Flagged on the station and stored with the record |
| Evidence afterwards | A memory | A signed attendance sheet | Every arrival, with the check attached |
| Cost per shift | Supervisor hours | None | None — it rides on the clock-in |
| Works at 06:00 shift change | Not at that volume | ✕ | ✓ |
| Can hold the barrier shut | Physically | ✕ | ✓ via access control |
Who this is for — and who it is not.
Best for
- Site and HSE managers who have to evidence PPE compliance, not just assert it
- Construction, mining, oil and gas and refinery sites with a gated entrance
- Principal contractors responsible for subcontractor crews they did not hire
Not for
- Sites with no PPE rule to enforce
| If this is your situation | The setup is |
|---|---|
| One gated site, one entrance | A station at the gate, on the Premium plan |
| Several entrances | One station per entrance, all on one account |
| A barrier or turnstile already installed | The station drives it through a relay — gate opens on a pass |
| Crews arriving together in vehicles | Group check-in from one photo, plus licence-plate recognition at the barrier |
| A site with no power or network at the gate | Offline mode on the station; it records locally and syncs later |
"We are using this software across different locations and it just works. A great fit for small and medium-size organisations."
What is PPE detection at clock-in?
PPE detection at clock-in means checking that required protective equipment is being worn at the moment a worker records their arrival, rather than relying on a supervisor to spot its absence later. In practice the most common check is a hard hat, because it is the item most visible to a camera already pointed at a worker’s face. The check produces a result — present or absent — which is stored alongside the attendance record, so the entry log becomes evidence that a check was performed on every arrival. It is sometimes called a PPE gate check or helmet detection attendance. It complements site supervision; it does not replace it.
What to check before you commit.
- Does the PPE check ride on the clock-in, or does it need a second device and a second queue?
- Is the result stored with the attendance record, or only shown on screen at the time?
- Can subcontractors and daily labour be enrolled at the gate without entering your HR system?
- Can the check hold a barrier closed, or only log a failure?
- Does it still work when the gate has no network connection?
- How does it behave at a 200-person shift change rather than a demo of one person?
- Which plan includes it, and what does that cost per employee?
- Can you export the PPE results for an inspector or an insurer?
Before you ask us.
Which plan includes helmet detection?
Premium, at €3.00 per employee per month. Face check-in, liveness and GPS are available on every plan including Free; safety hat detection is not.
Can it detect other PPE, like vests or glasses?
Hard hat and face mask are the detections available today. We will not claim others that are not shipped — if you need a specific item, ask and we will tell you straight.
What if someone takes the helmet off after the gate?
Then the gate check has done its job and site supervision has to do the rest. This is a check at entry, and we would rather say that plainly than imply continuous monitoring.
Does this slow the shift change down?
No — it is the same frame as the face check-in, so it adds no time. Several stations on one account clear a large shift change in parallel.
Can we run it on the tablet we already have at the gate?
Yes, if it runs the Admin app. The station is a shared device: a tablet, a Windows machine with a webcam, or an IP camera.
Is a flagged check-in blocked or just recorded?
Whichever you configure. Recording with a flag is the usual starting point; blocking via access control comes later.
Does it work underground or at a remote pit?
Yes, in offline mode — the station verifies and records locally and syncs when it next sees the network.
Keep reading.
Safety hat detection
The feature page: what the check does and where it runs.
Construction
Gates, subcontractors and shift changes on site.
Mining
Remote pits, muster points and offline stations.
Oil, gas and refineries
Hazardous zones and contractor control.
Access control
Turning a check into a barrier that stays shut.
PPE and helmet detection at clock-in
Background reading on the check itself.
Check the hat at the same moment as the face.
Safety hat detection is on the Premium plan, with a 30-day free trial. Book a demo and bring your worst shift change.
Last reviewed: October 2026. Templates, not photos; deleted on request; on-premises keeps everything inside your network. Details on the security and compliance page.