Protecting your bricks and mortar business can enable you to offer added peace of mind to your employees, customers, or clients as they arrive at your location and remain on-site for a period of time.

Protecting your business means you can keep everyone on site safe and protect the business, the building, and surrounding areas so you have complete control and visibility at all times.

Let’s explore the empowering strategies you can implement to bolster security and take control of your business’s safety.

Physical Barriers

Physical barriers such as fortified doors, barriers blocking parking lots, doors that require people to be granted access, barriers outside buildings, boulders on the sidewalks to prevent vehicles from crashing into the building, or concrete planters, for example, bollards, turnstiles, and gates can be added externally to business to boost physical barriers around the building. These measures tighten security and instill a sense of control, deterring unwanted behavior toward the company.

Controlled Access

Controlled access means granting access only to eligible people, i.e., staff or those with an appointment or invitation. Whether it involves security guards designating people as they arrive or using biometrics for staff, this strategy provides a reassuring level of control over who enters your premises.

You can put this into place in sensitive areas around the business premises. For example, you can have keycards for staff to allow them access to different parts of the building they need to be while blocking others who don’t need to be there. You can have locks on doors leading to staff-only areas or use an intercom system to grant people access, much like what is used in hospitals to grant people access to different wards or clinics to limit people moving freely around the building.

Parking Control

Vehicular access can enable people to access the building freely. They can arrive in any car park and gain access to the building with ease. Even if they can’t get inside, if you have parking on your premises, they can simply drive up and be in the vicinity of your building.

Parking control measures restrict people from accessing your parking lot or entering your business. You can employ security guards and automatic barriers at the entrance. Staff can have a tag on their vehicle that allows them to gain entry, put a pin into a control panel, or use automatic license plate recognition software to enable access to pre-registered license plates and stopping anyone who shouldn’t be there entering.

Adding measures to prevent access entirely via any type of vehicle can afford a greater level of security as you only permit a select number of people into the ground for access. And if people are in a registered vehicle who shouldn’t be there, you can turn them away with additional security controls at the building itself or use CCTV to track their movements to remove them from where they shouldn’t be.

Staff Security

Your employees can be a valuable asset when it comes to protecting your business and enforcing security measures. Their physical presence can deter unauthorized individuals, and their understanding of retail businesses’ threats can keep them on high alert, providing a sense of reassurance.

You can include regular security training for threats pertaining to your business. You can equip them with the right security tools and knowledge to help them deter unwanted behaviors and actions, and you need to inform them of the proper protocols to follow in different scenarios, i.e., if a member of the public hurts an employee to call the police and medical assistance if required and follow the chain of command to escalate the incident to management. It can also show how to use CCTv to capture instances of criminal activity, such as theft from your store, and give it to police to catch perpetrators.

The more they know about the different types of criminal behavior and the more signs they can stop to pinpoint something untoward occurring, the easier it will be to stay safe and secure during operational hours. In addition, have a confidential and effective whistleblowing channel for people to alert management to nefarious behavior by employees internally. If people are doing something they shouldn’t be doing, i.e., committing theft or fraud, allow it to be reported anonymously.

Security Lighting

Lighting is a powerful security tool, especially after dark. Whether used independently or in conjunction with other security measures, well-lit premises can provide peace of mind, helping you spot any suspicious activity and deter potential intruders.

Motion sensor lighting is effective because it automatically comes on should it detect movement. Having lighting that can be turned on and off from different locations can be valuable, too; for example, if you have smart lighting linked to a control panel that can be accessed digitally, you can turn the lights on for added security checks, and your security team can use it to perform checks and stay safer when carrying out controls, too.

Intrusion Detection Systems

While intrusion detection systems are for your network traffic, they can help you identify when things are being accessed in a period when they should not be. For example, if someone is trying to gain access digitally to your building by overriding security measures or controlling your security systems, the intrusion detection system can alert you to activity outside of the normal scope and flow.

It can analyze data patterns and behavior to deliver reports that allow you to identify if your business is at risk digitally and physically and assist you in implementing physical safety options. When breaches or suspicious acts are detected, it can alert your security teams and allow you to implement additional defenses to remove or revoke access.

Protecting your business means being aware of all security threats, both digital and physical. This knowledge will help you put ethical measures in place to protect the business and your processes, as well as have appropriate control and oversight of what happens every day to avoid unwanted incidents. This post offers just a few ways you can easily reduce or mitigate physical security risks to help you stay in control.