With Protection, There is a Cost – Part I

 

(Editor’s note: This is the first in a two-part series from H&S Protection’s Jeff Lukasavige on protecting office buildings. We seek new voices from our employees and customers to publish on our blog. Please send your idea to Mike Horgan at [email protected].)

A mentor of mine – a retired Lieutenant Colonel from the U.S. Marine – often talked with me about risk analysis when it came to security issues. His point was that protection comes at a cost.  “What is it worth to protect your assets – physical and intellectual, an office building or your people?”

Businesses should perform a risk analysis which includes: the value of the assets they are protecting, the level of risk or probability of loss of those assets, and the amount of money they are willing spend to protect the assets.   An office environment presents risks, both seen and unseen. At H&S Protection, we help you identify threats, and develop plans to address them, based on your business needs.

Office buildings can often benefit from properly designed access control that’s straightforward and can be addressed easily through a card-based identification system. There are other more subtle considerations that businesses should take into account in an office environment.  For example:

• If you work in an industry with a higher risk of having an upset customer (financial institutions or insurance companies, for example, often field a large volume of complaints), you should consider the value of protecting your employees from a disgruntled or upset customer. Unfortunately, these days we frequently here about workplace violence on the news. No one wants to see a violent workplace incident. The guy coming into an office with a gun is something you might never expect, but it happens and you should be prepared by working that into your security plan. You must control access to your office building to build protection for your most valuable assets — your employees.
• Domestic violence is a reality in the workplace. There is an increased risk of domestic violence based on sheer numbers, and the risk can be higher if your industry is predominately female. Relationship changes sometimes result in a violent incident involving the estranged husband or boyfriend, who typically knows where his spouse/partner is located in the building. Access control prevents an emotional/irate ex from getting onsite.

Those are a couple of the many reasons companies with an office building environment should consider access control, controlling entry points to ensure only those who should be onsite are allowed access to the inside. Stay tuned for our next blog, when I explain why specific areas within office buildings require a more sensitive security status.