Importance of workplace and employee security

Workplace security is about more than protecting your physical location. Improving overall workplace and employee security helps your bottom line and protects your employees. Here are some reasons why workplace and employee security are important:

• Employee confidence: Strong workplace security gives your employees confidence and makes them feel safe when they’re at work. Since your employees are one of your biggest assets, keeping them confident is important.
• Increased productivity: Employees who feel safe can relax and focus on work, allowing them to increase productivity.
• Cost savings: A security breach can cost your business a lot of money. Even if insurance covers some of the damages, you’ll likely have to pay a deductible. You also lose work time while you repair and recover from the breach, which can decrease productivity and result in lost revenue.
• Fewer insurance claims: Filing insurance claims to cover burglaries and other security breaches could result in a rate increase. This increases your overall long-term costs.
• Reduced turnover : Paying attention to workplace safety and security shows your employees that you value and want to protect them. Safety can be a strong factor in employee retention because employees want to stick around in a safe environment.
• Client impression: Secure facilities give your clients confidence in your company. Strong security keeps client information protected, which reduces the chances of you needing to tell them about a security breach. That can help you keep clients long term.
• Fewer disruptions: Having a secure workplace reduces disruptions. If you have a cybersecurity breach, you’ll likely have significant downtime while the data is recovered. Cleaning up after a break-in can also disrupt work.

1. Create a workplace safety and security plan

A workplace safety and security plan helps you cover various risks and how to prevent problems. Ensure the plan meets all compliance regulations for your industry if applicable. Include your safety and security policies and procedures to ensure all employees understand your expectations. Your plan should also include procedures for reporting safety or security issues, so you can address them quickly.

2. Evaluate safety and security risks

Look at security workplace issues that expose you to risks to guide changes for the office. Analyze all areas of the building, indoors and outdoors, to look for potential safety issues. If you don’t feel comfortable doing the analysis, hire a security company to inspect your facilities and make suggestions.

Get feedback from all staff to determine where they think you have vulnerabilities. Maybe they don’t feel safe walking to their cars in the back parking lot at night, or they feel anyone can walk into the building and grab items due to lack of access control.

3. Control access

Controlling access to your building can stop thieves from slipping in unnoticed and making off with items. For a small company, you might give everyone a key and keep the doors locked at all times. But you’ll need to change the locks when an employee leaves. Having an intercom system allows you to buzz in visitors.

Security badges can be an easier option if you’re willing to outfit your doors with the system. Instead of worrying about a key, employees use their ID badges to unlock exterior doors.

You can expand this type of control system inside to limit access to certain areas to people who have clearance to be there. Badge systems let you customize access for each individual, so the badge only opens doors they’re authorized to enter. It can also log who opens doors and at what time.

4. Improve parking lot and exterior security

Cars in an unattended parking lot are often the target of quick break-ins. Your employees can also become targets when walking to and from their vehicles, especially at night. Lighting the parking lot can discourage people from approaching after dark. Security cameras or perimeter fencing with gated access can also improve your parking lot security.

Having a clear view of the building from the street can help as well. Large hedges or trees blocking the view or shielding windows give a burglar cover while they gain access to the building.

5. Install cameras

Security cameras indoors and outside can discourage would-be criminals from targeting your business. If someone decides to break in anyway, you have video evidence to give the police. Aim cameras at all entry points and valuable or confidential items inside the building to cover key areas. Invest in quality cameras that have high-resolution video, so you can get clear images if you need the video evidence.

6. Add a security system

Security systems protect your business during the workday and after hours when no one’s in the office. Monitored security systems can dispatch the police to your office quickly if they detect a breach. You can also add a panic button to the security system, so a staff member can sound the alarm if there’s a threat during working hours.

7. Consider a security guard

If you feel your facility has a high risk of security issues, hiring one or more security guards can help. Like cameras, security guards often scare away criminals before they attempt anything. A security guard can enforce your policies during the day, such as requiring visitors to show ID or be escorted to their destination. Nighttime guards add security when your business may be more of a target.

8. Secure valuable equipment

Your office is likely full of expensive equipment, even if it’s just a fancy copier. Some companies have hundreds of thousands of dollars in equipment. Make it more difficult for a thief to take those items by anchoring them to the floor or wall. For smaller valuable items, use a safe that’s anchored to the floor.

9. Protect sensitive data

All companies have at least some sensitive data. At the very least, your clients’ personal information should be treated as confidential. Proprietary information can also be considered sensitive. Encrypting any data stored on your computers helps protect it. Physical files, business documents and other data should be stored in a secure area where only those authorized to see them have access.

Consider how you set up workstations and how it might expose data. If someone can see the computer screen through a window or from behind the person inside the office, they can potentially see confidential information. Position desks strategically and use privacy filters on screens to reduce this risk.

10. Practice cyber safety

Another point of entry for thieves is the internet. Suspected internet crimes resulted in losses of over $4.2 billion in 2020. Small businesses are often the target of cybercrimes. Firewalls, encryption, hidden Wi-Fi networks and updated antivirus software are basic workplace cybersecurity elements you need to have in place.

Require your employees to use secure passwords for all logins, and force them to change the passwords frequently to reduce the risk of getting hacked. Multifactor authentication on all logins for work purposes can also help.

Back up your data frequently in case your systems become compromised. Storing your data in multiple places increases the chances of still having a backup if disaster strikes. Cloud backups can be especially helpful in case of a fire or natural disaster that physically destroys your office.

11. Reduce injury risks

The threats aren’t always external. On-the-job injuries can keep your employees out of work for an extended period, and they can cost you a lot of money for workers’ compensation. Here are some ways to reduce injury risks in the workplace:

• Require appropriate safety gear
• Post warnings about known hazards
• Lock up chemicals and other hazardous materials, giving access only to those who need those items
• Remove tripping hazards
• Enforce breaks to ensure employees remain alert
• Keep work areas clean
• Inspect equipment and perform routine maintenance to ensure everything is in good working order
• Make changes after an accident is reported to prevent a repeat

12. Account for internal threats

You don’t want to think about your employees causing security issues, but it happens more than you may realize. Employee theft is a $50 billion a year problem for businesses. Accounting for 68% of the cases, small and midsize businesses often get hit the hardest by internal theft.

Cameras inside the office can discourage employee theft. Implement checks and balances to make it more difficult for an employee to embezzle money. Require that more than one person handles financial transactions. If one person prepares a purchase order, someone else pays it, for example. Serially prenumbered sales slips and purchase orders can make it more difficult for employees to be sneaky.

Keep logs on all equipment in the office. If employees need to use something, especially a high-priced item, make them check it out so you can track who has various items.

13. Conduct employee safety training

Conduct training sessions at least once per year to keep your employees current on safety and security guidelines. If anything changes with your security policies, hold a special training session to ensure everyone knows about the update.