It’s important, particularly now during the lockdown, to make sure your business is secure physically against would-be thieves and possible break-ins and equipment theft. When we all return from lockdown, business should resume as normal but security will still be a top priority for many. We take a look at the top 5 ways to protect your business, in and out of lockdown.
Risk Assessment
When thinking about protecting your business, it’s worth considering having a risk assessment performed. These assessments are ideal for identifying hazards and risk factors that are pertinent to your business. These are elements which could be harmful to your staff as well as your property. Risk control offers a way to protect everyone and everything within reason, when the hazard cannot be removed completely (for example in factories or locations using chemicals).
Identification of hazards is important and it’s recommended to also speak to staff about any issues they’ve become aware of that you as the owner might not be. Also, it’s worth checking instructions for hardware equipment, observing your staff and the operations at work as well as work data sheets that may contain important safety information. These can all give you more insight into where to spot potential hazards in the workplace.
Hazards are not just related to fire or chemical substances. They can also include noise, vibrations and manual labour considerations too. Although risk assessments can be carried out personally, it’s advisable to use a professional risk assessment service to ensure nothing is missed and so you can be confident everything is in place.
Secure Your Building
During the Lockdown many businesses have had to close, whilst operating remotely. This of course has meant that many properties have been left empty for longer periods of time (something we discussed in our Computer Theft blog) and so the importance of protecting your property has been front and center in many business owner’s minds. Securing your premises is vital and there are numerous ways to achieve this:
- Window Locks
- Security Lighting
- CCTV systems (including dummy cameras)
- Door Alarms
- Removing visible equipment and personal items from the office space
- Lockable cabinets and drawers
- Shutters or Grilles
These are just some options that business owners may incorporate into protecting their property. Workplace property break-ins can cause financial problems and increase your insurance premiums and that’s why protecting your property is crucial, especially during these challenging times when the building may be left empty for some time. Even when we all return to work though, these security solutions should be put in place anyway to deter thieves and prevent future break-ins.
Secure Equipment & Stock
Break-ins generally result in smash and grab opportunist thieves who are looking to grab whatever they can as quickly and as easily as possible. This is sometimes because personal belongings or items (phones, laptops etc.) have been left in view, on desks and they are easy to lift. Essentially, you should be locking away portable computers such as laptops and equipment such as phones and tablets in secure cabinets. Anything that is of value which can’t be bolted to the desk via secure locking systems, should be locked away out of sight.
By protecting that equipment, you are not giving the thieves any incentive to break into your property. The same can be said of stock and this could be the real reason, depending on your business and industry, as to why someone may target your building. Easy targets tend to be computer factories or depots, offices with valuables on view or warehouses/properties with mass stock of high value electronics which can be sold on quickly by thieves. Your stock is your livelihood though and it can be a devastating blow to your business if a break-in resulted in stolen stock. Insurance coverage would increase and unfortunately, once somewhere has been hit easily and effectively, thieves will often target that location again until deterrents are put in place. These can include CCTV in your stockroom, dummy cameras throughout the property at doorways and entry points (outside) and lock boxes or cages (for electronics) and security tag strips for other items such as clothing. By making it awkward to remove these security tags and systems, it won’t be worth their time and hassle. Just don’t leave tag removers and access keys in plain sight. Lock those away too.
Prevent information theft & Secure Sensitive Paperwork
We live in an age of data and data is big business. It’s also highly targeted by not only spammers and hackers, but also website companies set up purely to steal information. You never think it will happen to you but these groups are constantly changing the way they approach stealing data. No matter what business you are, there’s a good chance that you have an online presence of some sort and of course, a website is the most common way of promoting your business, along with social media to communicate with your clients. However, securing your business should include not only property security, but protecting your website and online profiles too.
Your website should have an HTTPS address (by using an SSL certificate) which will show it’s secure to visiting customers and from a business perspective, you should also ensure documentation for the website and any online properties are kept safe and secure (not left in the office on a desk or pinned to a wall). If someone can hack you remotely, then someone could certainly steal password and login information from a notice board or desk in an office. Don’t give them an easy way to steal your property as well as your online presence too, which could be devastating to your brand.
It could also be disastrous to your customers, as theft of your business records, or receipts and emails could expose customer information, including credit card details, bank information and personal addresses too, which could then be used to target them either physically or electronically.
Think About Your Social Media Approach
Most businesses have found the importance of using social media to connect to their customers and it’s a great platform and tool to reach your audience. From sales and offers to company information and important notices about opening times etc., it’s a powerful tool for advertising.
However, it can also be problematic and dangerous not only from the point of view of posting thoughts and opinions (which can divide people and be counter-intuitive for businesses to engage in) but more-so, by posting too much information which may indicate when you are closed and how long for. Although this is useful to many customers, it’s advisable to post that on your website rather than announce on your social pages, unless you are a large brand with multiple facilities.
For small companies though this can be dangerous, by effectively announcing that your property is empty and for how long. Thieves will use any information they can get to make a break-in easier and admittedly, if you are targeted by opportunists then of course this won’t matter but for anyone looking to plan to break into your business, posting on social media about the comings and goings of your staff for example can be a risk.
This was highlighted years ago when police advised across the country to not post when you were going away on holiday or even whilst you were away as this was advertising that your house was empty and an easy target for burglars. The same principle applies here.
