Be prepared; have a plan. Policies, though often mundane, are extremely important, especially when trying to keep your employees and data safe. Creating a solid workplace security policy will establish procedures to help minimize workplace risks. Keep these policies in an easy to access place, like the employee handbook or your company’s intranet.
Here are a few examples of policies and procedures that can be implemented for your staff’s safety:
- Have an on-site visitor policy that mentions the steps that need to be followed when a visitor arrives at the office.
- Instill digital best practices that describe the policies of personal screen time and cell phone use. Layout any dos and don’ts employees may need to be aware of.
- Create emergency procedures that lay out plans that instruct your staff on what to do and where to go in case of an emergency.
Set Up Employees for Safety Success
With the proper policies and procedures put into place, your employees need to be fully aware and set up for safety success. Here are some ways you can keep your staff members safe:
- Require safety and security training for all employees. You can hire third party members to come in and teach the entire company about safety or a manager that feels comfortable teaching your policies can do the job. It’s important that employees know how to react in certain situations and how to report suspicious activity.
- Go through emergency drills regularly. Depending on where your company is located, specific natural disaster training should be included in your emergency drills. For example, make sure you are prepared for hurricanes, tornadoes, or floods if those are threats to you. It is also important to make sure you have plans for a fire, power outage, or intruder.
- Create a team of voluntary emergency responders. This group of employees will the leads on the wellness and safety of their peers if disaster strikes. They are the volunteers that are specially certified and trained on any additional skills that would be helpful in an emergency. It may be beneficial to have the volunteers CPR certified – check your local community for classes that can be instructed on-site. This team would also be the go-to people for when an emergency is happening. They know all the safe zones and other staff members can come to them for help. Again, this would be a group of individuals that wanted to volunteer for this extra responsibility.
- Keep employees easily identified. Luckily, we know an expert on this matter (hint: it’s us!). Make sure employee identification is easy for security and other staff members know who belongs in the building with quick visual identification.
- Keep visitors easily identified as well. Visitor identification is also a quick way for staff to know who’s supposed to be in the building.
- Monitor and restrict entrance access. This makes it more difficult for non-authorized personnel to access the building.
- Make sure the office is well lit. By reducing the shadows and areas people can hide in, it makes it easier to spot suspicious behavior.
- Hire the right staff. It seems silly to note that hiring the right staff helps with your company’s safety and security, but inside threats are just as important to protect against. Doing thorough background checks and making sure new hires fit the company culture could hopefully deter internal threats.
Data Protection
In a world of technology, data protection is more important now than ever. In order to keep your digital assets secure, it’s crucial to have building security and system protection in place. Here are some key safety tips to keep your data safe:
- Lock all system rooms and Human Resources offices. Access is limited and granted to only those that are authorized to handle employee information and the company network.
- Have a network security system in place. Any files stored on a shared network needs to have a tight security system set. Many of your files most likely have information that should not be shared outside the company. Having good firewalls set up and password protected access helps keep that information intact.
- Update your systems regularly. Monitoring your digital systems are important and it’s critical to keep those systems updated with the latest malware and other safety features.
- Install online security. Many companies (and big companies at that) have been victims of an online breach. To avoid being another company that experiences this, keep employees educated and aware of online threats, as well as instilling mandatory password updates for all systems, applications, and employee devices.
Surveillance Systems and Alarms
Surveillance systems and alarms are the most common way to keep companies people and data protected. It’s important to do the following with your systems and alarms to ensure they are working properly.
- Keep your systems and alarms updated and to code. One of the worst things that could happen during an emergency is to have your alarms and surveillance fail. To keep that from happening, make sure they are constantly working. When testing employee preparedness with emergency drills be sure to also test the systems.
Emergency Preparedness
Being prepared for any threat could help minimize the damage done in that emergency situation. Stay prepared by:
- Staying stocked up on emergency materials. Having a back stock of “just in-case” items could help save lives. Be sure to always have on hand:
- First aid kits
- Fire extinguishers
- Back up tool kits
- Generator(s)
- Back up communication (i.e. emergency phone line)
- Know your local emergency numbers. 911 is a given, but it would be a good idea to list in common areas the contact information for the fire department, police station, poison control, and animal control just in case.
Download the Security Checklist >
Now that you are an office security expert, you can take these best practices to your office. If you need help deciding what ID system is best for you, check out this helpful video.