Physical Steps to Safeguard Your Business

While there are plenty of digital threats that can impact businesses in the modern world, there are also a whole host of physical dangers as well. Sometimes, the two go hand-in-hand, whereas other times, they are quite separate. This blog post will focus on some of the physical steps that you can take to keep your business safe from criminals and anyone else that may have nefarious intentions towards it. Ultimately, prevention is always far better than the cure, so if you can stop a crime happening in the first place, this can help to stop so many headaches and costly disruptions to your business operations.

With this in mind, here are a few physical steps to help safeguard your business.

Just as you need to train employees on digital safety such as not clicking on phishing links, changing their passwords regularly etc, it is also important that you train them on safe physical practices. For example, it may be that you have them lock up their devices at the end of the working day. Perhaps you implement a policy of asking questions to anyone around the office who doesn’t have a pass and may appear suspicious. The last person at the end of the day should also know about how to properly lock up. These are just a few ideas, but they can be adapted depending on the specific needs of your business.

While this may not be right for every single business out there, hiring additional security staff can help to give your company extra protection. The most obvious staff members you can bring on board are security guards. How often you need them and where they are stationed depends very much on the size and type of your business. An often overlooked member of staff that may prove to be essential is a receptionist who can monitor who is going in and out of the building, as well as being ready to challenge anyone who looks like they simply shouldn’t be there.

You can also look into the ways in which a digital system can help to impact real-life security. Bringing in an access control system is one of the most obvious and helpful ways of making a difference. This helps to limit access to certain areas or your building only to people with the proper accreditation or passes. It can also help to link up your systems, sensors, and data to ensure that they are all properly protected and one isn’t at a greater level of risk. Make sure that you bring in a system that works properly for your business and your staff are trained on how to use it in the most effective way possible.

CCTV cameras can have a twofold impact on the security of a business. To begin with, there is the obvious difference they make in the monitoring of your premises and being able to react and respond to any threats around the place. At the same time, the physical presence of these cameras can help to deter any would-be criminals. You can also put up some signage to make clear that these cameras are in place and they are recording any nefarious activity that may be taking place.

It may be that all staff members have access to the key parts of the office, but there are other sections that are only restricted to those who have the proper permission. Again, this can go back to having proper access control in place, which helps to put in place scanners and passes that can access certain areas but not others. You should also think about what you need to store in these sensitive areas and why you have them in the first place. Also, consider the length of time that staff members have access and whether this needs to be controlled. A great number of threats to a business come from an internal source, so it is certainly worth mitigating this risk as much as possible.

The right policies can make such a big difference in properly protecting a business. While so many documents are stored in the digital world nowadays, for those that exist in the real world, there needs to be a policy that properly protects them. To begin with, this may mean having a proper disposal policy. Instead of just throwing everything into the same bin, it could be that everything needs to be shredded before it is disposed of. There could also be a policy of only printing off the documents when this is absolutely needed. Not only is this useful for proper protection, but it also helps to add to any environmental credentials of your company.

No matter how hard you try to stop any issues from occurring, there may be some breaches that come up anyway. It is important that you learn from them if this does happen. Otherwise, they may keep occurring again and again. For example, if burglars have used a certain access point of the building, it is worth making sure that it is properly secured with additional locks, cameras, lights, or anything else that can add an extra layer of protection.

The physical security of a business can help to stop theft, security breaches, damage, and a whole load of other issues that can cause a great deal of disruption - or even derail a company entirely. The better prepared you are and the more preventative measures you take, the more likely it is that your company will remain properly protected. One of the most important aspects is being ready to respond to challenges as they occur. The threats that exist against businesses are bound to change over time, so having one eye on the future is bound to have a big impact.