5 Steps to Keep Your Business Secure
In a recent government report, it was found that in England & Wales in a 12 month period, 606,282 crimes were reported against commercial properties. This is the highest increase in many years. It was also cited, rather alarmingly that more often than not, the perpetrator gets off scot-free.
Keeping your business safe and secure has never been so important, with the shift to working from home and less staff entering your buildings, every business owner should be asking themselves, “is my business really safe from threats?”
At Watch Systems, we are experts in keeping your business safe from crime, so we have put together five quick fire ways to keep your business safe and secure.
Make security an everybody thing
More often than not, a business will give one person the responsibility for site safety, while it’s great to have one guardian of site safety, everyone can play their part in keeping their workplace safe. We suggest site security being part of new starters inductions, from not letting strangers in without a valid reason & appointment to making sure doors and windows are locked with keys locked away in a safe place.
Change codes & passwords regularly
It’s a fact that staff members come and go, and with that, they take with them knowledge, while we would like to hope that every team member that leaves doesn’t use their knowledge for bad, a recent study suggests many break ins to commercial properties are done with the help of ex employees.
We would suggest introducing a safety policy where your site safety guardian is tasked with changing alarm codes and passwords at least every six months, however, to be super safe, we would recommend every time a member of the team leaves the business.
Test your equipment
Equipment fails, ask yourself, are you using the same computer and operating system now as you were 10 years ago? The most likely answer is, no. This is likely because it got old, slow and clunky. Security equipment is no different. Regular testing of equipment will highlight equipment that is starting to become obsolete. It will also be a lot more cost effective for your business to repair & replace kit as it requires.
We would also highly suggest having a maintenance contract with a reputable security firm to keep your kit in good working order, you can read more about Watch Systems maintenance contracts,
.
Keep your CCTV footage safe
So, you’ve got CCTV installed, great! But, have you thought about where all of that footage is stored? Many businesses keep their security hard drive in plain sight and then are shocked when the criminal hot foots it with their proof in stow. Making a conviction a lot harder. We suggest keeping the CCTV hard drive locked away in a server room or in a place where only a few key holders have access to.
Role play and understand your security weak spots
Have you ever stopped to think, how would a potential break-in happen? Would the intruder come through the front door? The answer is probably not. Task a group of your staff to try and identify security weak points, this might be open windows or short circuiting door sensors. Have you asked yourself where are your CCTV black spots? With all of your findings from getting your team involved, it will allow you to make the necessary changes to keep your business and staff safe.
We hope this helped you and gave you some actionable points to keep your business safe from those who are intent on taking what is not rightfully theirs. If you would like the team at Watch Systems to conduct a free security assessment of your site, please do reach out, you can learn more about our security systems HERE.
