11 Clever Ways to Ensure Security and Safety in the Workplace

Any responsible employer knows to prioritize security and workplace safety.

If employees feel that the workplace is unsafe, it will be challenging for them to be comfortable staying in that environment. Moreover, it poses risks to your workplace’s safety.

Therefore, you should ensure that your office security and workplace safety are in place. You can get started by applying these 11 workplace safety tips:

1. Follow provincial and federal regulations

Before you run your business, make sure that you are following any provincial and federal regulations that there are in your area. The codes aren’t there to be an unnecessary hurdle for you.

Instead, they are there to ensure the safety and security of your workplace. They usually cover everything you need to do to keep a standard security and workplace safety level in the office.

These regulations usually include employee training, maintenance regulations, first-aid measures, and more.

You can get the help of professionals to help you figure out how to follow these regulations to the t. You can also check your government sites to know more about the rules that your workplace needs to have.

2. Create a security and workplace safety plan

You can’t ensure security and workplace safety nor implement any security plans in your office if you don’t have a plan to follow in the first place.

For any situation, having a plan is essential. It would be best if you had protocols in place. This is to maintain security in your office and know the right steps to implement when you are in a security and safety emergency.

The initial parts of your security and safety plan should center around the security measurements you are going to apply. You should consult with a security professional to better grasp what protective measures your office needs. They can also help you spot the most vulnerable areas in the office.

After the security measures, it is time to implement a plan for any security emergencies. These measures should also involve natural disaster response, robbery mitigation, and workplace violence.

Again, the help of a security professional is going to make this plan easier to accomplish.

3. Equip your office with a security system

Leaving your office vulnerable without a security system is extremely risky.

You have expensive office equipment that criminals can steal. Plus, the many confidential documents inside your office. That is why, if you don’t have one installed yet, make sure that you equip your office with a security system.

When equipping your office with a security system, you have to figure out first the right alarm window contacts for you. The best way to do that is by figuring out whether you want a wire-free or hardwired security system. Once you know your choice, it will be easier to choose what type of alarm contacts you should have in the office.

Since you have valuable assets inside your office, you might want to invest in all the bells and whistles. This includes sending an automated notification to the authorities in case of break-ins. That is why you should double-check your security system provider to see whether your plan consists of that.

If you are not in the office, you want to know that you are getting the fastest solution possible should alarms trigger.

4. Implement an access control policy

You have to be more careful about the people who come in and out of your office. Being lenient with office access is opening you up to vulnerabilities. That is why you need to implement some form of an access control policy in the office.

The access control system isn’t something that only applies to when you have one-time guests in the office. They are also useful when you want to disable access from previous employees or maintenance specialists.

You can even use the automated access control system to track people’s entry and exit based on their IDs.

5. Examine potential exit and entry points

Criminals and other suspicious individuals don’t break into your office by breaking through walls. Instead, most of the time, they manage to get into your office by going through your exits and entry points. That is why, if you want to beef up office security, you need to examine the potential door and entry points.

Your usual doors and windows are a vulnerable place, but there are other potential areas for breaking. For example, any broken elevators, fire exits, and other open access locations can be a point of vulnerability.

Remember to check on these areas regularly to ensure that your office won’t have a glaring entranceway. Most of the time, though, you are going to have to focus efforts on strengthening your doors and windows.

6. Provide employee training

You can’t implement a security and safety plan and expect a thorough implementation of it if you don’t involve and notify your employees about it. Ensure that your employees receive the training they need to help keep your security measures up and running.

The lack of information will be a massive vulnerability for you. That is because your employees will likely be the people to notice a glaring security concern at first glance.

With untrained eyes, they might not be able to see the signs. However, if you provide the right employee training, they’ll see the signs a mile away and know what to do with it.

If you are going to provide security training, remember that this shouldn’t be a one-time thing. You should rehash the security training with your employees every once in a while. That way, it is always going to be present in their mind, and they don’t forget their training.

7. Ensure the workplace safety of staff belongings

You want to provide a means for your staff to protect and hide away their belongings while they are in your office. Not only will that reduce headaches for office peace in the future, but it will also keep things secure.

Your employees will also feel more comfortable while inside the office. And this can help improve the quality of their work and foster company loyalty.

Your employees might want to keep confidential work documents in the office. To ensure that your staff’s belongings are safe, you should provide them with a desk drawer that they can lock or even an entire locker to keep their items.

8. Provide unique Wi-Fi credentials

When setting up your office’s Wi-Fi, you shouldn’t allow public access to it. Otherwise, you are going to open up your office to all sorts of significant cybersecurity concerns. However, what would you do if a guest or important client comes over to the office and want to connect to your Wi-Fi?

All you need to do is give them guest Wi-Fi access. That way, they can still connect to the Internet without you opening your office up to particular vulnerabilities.

Remember to change your Wi-Fi credentials often, including the ones for staff and guests. Previous staff and guests might still be able to access your Internet, so you want to change it regularly to prevent that. Plus, it’s always a good security practice to change your passwords for anything.

9. Lock up your server room

When you have a server room in your office, make sure that you restrict entry to that. Any damage or theft that happens in the server room is a significant dent in your office operations. That is why you have to make sure that only people with a high-security clearance will be able to enter that room.

Also, when you are planning your server room location, you should place it in the middle of your office. Don’t have any walls of the server room connect to any barriers that are outside of your jurisdiction. Usually, server rooms will be somewhere in the middle of their facility.

10. Include cybersecurity in your priorities

Security concerns won’t only manifest in a physical way. Criminals have also figured out that cyber assets are of value to them. That is why you need to include your cybersecurity plans when you are protecting your office’s security and safety.

You should hire a cybersecurity consultant. Doing so allows you to call someone who can help you reinforce your cybersecurity plans.

Forgetting your cybersecurity measures is leaving your digital assets vulnerable. Depending on the type of business you are doing, this will be either an oversight or a severe oversight.

Since many business operations are digital nowadays, it would be unwise to forget your cybersecurity plans.

11. Have a list of your business assets

You must ensure that your office is secure to keep track of all of your business assets somehow. That is also one way you can see whether your security plans are working. If you don’t list down your business assets, how will you know that you are missing some things without seeing it right in your face?

Listing down your business assets is also a convenient way for you to check on your investments. All you need to do is go through the list and check on them and their status. You won’t have to figure out which items you are missing or are unaccounted for because you’ve made a list of all the things you have.

It is a simple system, but there is a reason why it has been working for a long time.

Final Thoughts: Workplace safety and security tips

The tips listed above are the foundational steps that every business needs to apply to ensure workplace safety and security. Any employer should ensure that they implement these tips to avoid lapses that people can take advantage of and get to your valuable assets.

Seek the help of a security professional to know how you can best apply these workplace safety tips.