When we think of people and security, our minds may immediately make the jump to intruders but it’s important to think of your own employees too - you have a duty to keep them secure as much as you want to prevent ‘unknowns’ entering your building.
It’s important to consider the security of your people 24 hours a day - intruders can infiltrate your building at any time, not just at night as we may imagine. Think people coming in to fix a leaky tap, interview candidates and even people visiting from other businesses. We’re not suggesting that you need to be suspicious of everyone, but a few office security measures will never go amiss in these situations.
• A first line of defence has to be the door security. Can anyone walk in or do you have doors with a code that only employees know? Do employees have swipe cards with photographic ID to grant them access every day?
• Alarm – an alarm which alerts the local police is a fantastic burglary prevention measure. We know it sounds obvious but you’d be amazed at how many businesses cut corners and install fake alarm boxes.
• CCTV – this is another great deterrent to help prevent criminal activity at your place of work and it’s not as expensive as you might thing. Even some homeowners are installing it.
• Human barriers to entry – a security guard is perfectly placed to assess the purpose of people’s visits to your office. They’re human, not a machine, and so can really work to find out what’s going on and who’s hanging around. On the negative side, you may be sent different people each day and the inconsistency may prove frustrating.
The Quantum2 recommendation would be door security in the first instance.
It could be that your business has grown rapidly and you quite simply haven’t had the time to think about the extras such as security and that’s understandable. But, in order for you to continue to expand smoothly, you need to protect the assets that are helping you on that journey.