Want to protect your organization from the threat of break-and-enters, vandalism and other violent crimes that can have damaging outcomes for your business? Your security policy should be your first line of defence. 

Through the implementation of security technologies and some best practices, you can create a security policy that minimizes the chance of your business’s premises falling susceptible to criminal activity. 

In this blog, Sonitrol Western Canada has listed five security best practices that you should strongly consider implementing into your organization’s security policy.   

1 - Access control

Restricting access to your business (or at least certain areas within it) to employees with permission is one of the most effective ways to protect the assets inside your business from being stolen. Best of all, it’s pretty easy to implement.

Installing managed access control, or keyless entry, will allow your business to get rid of those physical keys. You’ll be able to restrict access to rooms for certain employees and access real-time reporting features that show you who was in which room at any given time. If a crime is committed, you’ll know exactly who was in that room and when.  

2 - Employee training 

Your physical security solutions are the most important methods to prevent crime from occurring at your business, but there’s much more to security than the technologies you use. To properly implement your security policy you need to have complete buy-in from your employees.

Make sure you train your team in how to act in an emergency situation and instil them with a security mindset that protects your facility and assets from theft. You can do this through security training. 

Training your employees on how to identify internal and external threats, how to react in the event of a security incident and how to follow security protocols will ensure your business is properly protected from criminal activity. 

3 - Don’t ignore internal threats

Depending on the industry your organization operates in, one of the biggest security threats may actually be your internal workers. While most businesses are concerned about the threat of thieves coming in off the street and taking their assets, they often forget about the threat of disgruntled employees.

It’s important that you address this issue in your security policy. Make sure you run background checks on all new employees, and include courses in your employee training about how they can identify and report inside threats. 

4 - Annual security assessments 

Criminals are constantly evolving, but what does that mean for your business? The security updates and policies you put in place today will potentially be outdated in a couple of years’ time.

To make sure your business is as secure as it can possibly be, it’s crucial that you conduct annual security assessments. By doing so, your organization will ensure it’s able to find any new weaknesses in its security policy and update them accordingly. 

5 - Verified surveillance 

Are you still using conventional CCTV systems that don’t really protect your business from vandalism, break-and-enters and other crimes? It’s time for your business to consider upgrading to verified surveillance. 

Verified video and audio surveillance, unlike conventional CCTV, almost completely cuts out false alarms. By sending live video and audio feeds directly to a security expert in a central monitoring station, a specialist is able to verify whether the activity on your site is a real crime or not.

Once verified, police receive real-time notifications that update them about the crime. Due to this verification, police respond in just 3.5 minutes compared to the 45 minutes or longer it takes for them to respond to conventional CCTV alarms. That’s because they know it’s a real crime.

This means the criminal will get caught red-handed, and your business won’t lose any assets or suffer damage in the process. 

Want to learn more about verified security alarms? Sonitrol Western Canada has been protecting Canadian business for more than 50 years. Get in touch with our team of security experts today to find out more.