How To Avoid Taking Business Security For Granted

In a world of cybersecurity threats, it’s very easy for businesses to think that their only hazards come from the digital space. While corporate espionage, fraudulent activity and information theft is certainly an outcome you have to defend against, this is in addition to the usual security concerns of your premises, not instead of.

Sure, the days of the thieves who wear black-and-white striped outfits, carrying comical loot bags over their shoulder are less common, but that doesn’t mean you have to watch out for physical issues, too.

Moreover, we have a duty of care over our clients, staff, guests, and anyone else who might be in the building we’re responsible for operating. As such, a safety review just won’t be complete if it ignores security.

In this post, then, we’ll discuss how to avoid taking business security for granted. We hope that this can give you more grounding as you move forward and operate in peace:

Identify Everyone

It’s important to identify everyone in your building, or have them identified as they come in. With ID card printers you can easily give guests passes, or ensure more permanent staff can be marked as such. Even if you recognize everyone’s face, it’s important to make this pass system, often used with an ID image worn by a light lanyard around the neck, to make sure everyone who is there has gone through the reception desk and is verified to belong there.

This also means that if you spot someone without an ID badge, be that a guest, a contractor, or anyone else, you can properly verify them, and if they can’t be verified, you can ask them to leave or even call security. It’s just not worth risking people coming into your firm, because as you know, anyone can say anything, and if your business is sizeable enough they might not be checked as they should be.

Good Camera Coverage

It’s important to make sure you have good camera coverage within the premises, not everywhere of course, and not in private areas like the locker room or the place where your staff eat their lunches.

However, camera coverage over your working spaces can ensure accountability. It might help you see someone ignoring the essential safety equipment maintenance they really need to follow, as this could potentially put someone in danger and that’s never acceptable.

This might even keep your staff safe, for instance, it might prove instances of workplace harassment that you haven’t been able to substantiate. This isn’t to say you need to keep close observation of your staff at all times, but it’s good to have that backup system so you can more accurately observe threats and then nullify or resolve them.

Sign In Systems

This is a supplementary point to the ID card system you might implement, but we’d recommend ensuring your reception and receptionists are empowered to make sure the flow of people in and out of the building is tracked. 

You can use their authority to help approve certain passes so that access to the building is given, as many fire doors could auto-lock and require the right access to be part of. Moreover, having a constantly shifting headcount throughout the day thanks to the people management software systems you train your receptionist with will help you account for everyone in the event of a fire evacuation.

If you can state with certainty that everyone has evacuated the building thanks to your robust head count and ability to track who might be present – you could potentially prevent many firefighters from putting themselves in harm’s way for no reason. Moreover, it’s always good to know who is on-site.

Accountability Matters

There can be no security without accountability. We mentioned above how security cameras can help with this, but so can reporting systems that help you identify issues ahead of time. If you notice damage you might consider who signed into that part of the building at a certain time.

The same might also go for deliveries and shipments, if the tally count of inventory has changed, it might be that you’ve been the victim of a theft, and calling law enforcement with your evidence is the next step.

Accountability might also mean disciplining or firing staff who egregiously break your security and safety policies. It might be that one of your staff members has been smoking inside, if some have brought open containers of water near all of the computer equipment, or perhaps they’ve been storing raw meat in the staff refrigerator, seeming to think that placing raw beef in their ramen to cook will be sanitary in a shared space. With accountability, you can make sure everyone is on the same page.

To help with that, we’d also recommend:

Essential Policies & Signage

Make sure your policies and protocols are explicitly clear so that staff, contractors, and even clients or visitors can follow them correctly. This might involve teaching staff how to clean certain areas, how to keep their data privacy secure while online, and also where to go from a certain area in the event of a fire.

The latter can help with essential signage, which helps you direct people clearly, even those who might not be familiar with your building. For instance, an important set of evacuation fire doors can offer a warning on the outside to prevent people from parking in the space opposite and blocking its opening.

Also make sure you update these policies as appropriate so that issues can be resolved or prevented in the future. It’s always a tangible set of rules to update and make most appropriate to now, not just following tradition for the sake of it. It will have an effect.

With this advice, you’re sure to avoid taking business security for granted, and hopefully thoroughly reduce the breaches, safety issues, and confusion that might have been caused otherwise. After all, the most basic standard we must always pursue is that no one is ever injured or caused harm on-site.