Improving Workplace Security
As a business, it’s important to protect the health, safety, and well-being of your employees and customers while also protecting equipment, inventory, and other business interests. That’s why improving workplace security is becoming a critical issue for businesses today. Consider these few steps you might want to take in order to enjoy a more secure workplace for all parties.
Make Landscaping Adjustments
Landscaping for most businesses is viewed as an aesthetic issue. However, when it comes to security, landscaping can also be a practical, or impractical matter as the case may be. It’s important to ensure that landscaping trees and bushes do not obscure entryways or potential access points to the business or property.
You especially don’t want trees planted in a manner that would allow easy after-hours access onto a gated business property or that serves to hide a presence near doors. This may enable an attack on employees who are working in shifts or leaving late. Choose landscaping that does not block sight lines, and keep it well trimmed and maintained throughout the year.
Key Card Access Security
Key cards can be used to limit access to your business property, but they can also be used to restrict access to certain areas of the business property. It’s a great way to ensure that even other employees within the organization do not have access to critical information, servers, plans, money, and more.
More importantly, unlike physical keys that can be easily copied, keycards can be deactivated when an employee leaves your company or reports them lost or stolen. Then that card will no longer be useful to gain entry.
Install Video Cameras
While most employers understand the potential value of video cameras for surveillance outside the business or in public areas of the business, many of them fail to see the value of using them to monitor employees too.
Unfortunately, 64 percent of small businesses, according to the University of Cincinnati, have fallen victim to employee theft. Shockingly, 61 percent of these thefts were schemes that lasted an average of 16 months before being discovered.
That’s not the only thing video cameras help to guard against. According to the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA), there are nearly 2 million reports of workplace violence in America each year. Video cameras not only help to deter these instances but are also instrumental in bringing perpetrators of workplace violence to justice.
Never overlook the value of having on-site patrols and security by trained and skilled law enforcement officers. These officers can serve as a physical presence to help to prevent bad things from happening and have the skill and training to respond when incidents do take place. It’s important to protect the people who keep your business running as well as the business property itself.