Designing security measures for any type of business requires great effort and attention to detail. Of course, installing the proper security equipment goes a long way towards securing any type of commercial property. However, many customers take a “set it and forget it” approach to their security plans. Unfortunately, this approach can hurt business owners in the long run. Taking this measure may prove effective against the threat of burglary, fire, or vandalism. However, it does little to address the threat of crimes committed by current and past employees. Creating complete commercial security involves finding ways for each employee to interact on an individual basis with your security measures. Over our three decades installing commercial security, we’ve worked with business owners to create plans for multi-employee commercial security that provides the long-term results they desire.
In this post, we share some important “best practices” to help secure your own business against both external and internal security threats! We’ll begin by sharing how you can both control and track access to your security system. Providing multiple user codes provides much more security than creating one code for your entire workforce. Therefore, following this step will go a long way in achieving your security goals. From there, we’ll look at how access control systems can help you add security for businesses with many employees. Finally, we’ll introduce master key systems, a popular mechanical multi-employee commercial security measure. We’ll exmplain how these systems work, and how they can improve security for your own commercial application. Now, let’s get started with a look at the importance of proper alarm code management!
If you have multiple alarm users entering the same alarm code, you could be greatly limiting your security.
Managing and Tracking Alarm Codes
Installing a commercial security system has long remained one of our top security tips for business owners. These monitored alarm systems greet burglars with a blaring siren response and a visit from the local police department. However, alarm systems do nothing to stop anyone with a code from entering your property. If you have one code for all alarm users, then you’ve greatly decreased your alarm’s effectiveness. Unfortunately, people who may have needed to disarm your security system at one point may come back months or even years later with less-than-pure intentions. If you do not properly manage your alarm codes, these individuals will have no trouble getting past your security system.
Giving different individuals their own codes allows you to delete codes as you experience employee turnover. This can eliminate the chance of an unexpected visit from disgruntled empployees (or their friends who may have learned your alarm code) down the line. Fortunately, we train all of our new customers on how to follow through with this process. Assigning different codes to each employee, and deleting codes as required, greatly increases your overall security. Additionally, we offer a unique way to add and track employee access to your alarm that we’ll explain in the next section. Let’s see how adding our preferred monitoring service can provide next-level security for your business.
Using the Latest and Greatest Alarm Monitoring for Added Employee Tracking
As we mentioned above, monitored alarm systems create a police response to disturbances on your property. This reponse occurs because our central station receives a call for “help” from your security system. Traditionally, we create this communication by connecting your alarm to a property’s existing phone lines. However, we have more up-to-date methods that add additional security and convenience. In particular, we prefer monitoring alarms with our cellular dialer powered by Alarm.com. Doing so provides multiple security benefits.
For starters, cellular-dialer based monitoring allows us to bypass your phone lines entirely. Therefore, interruptions in phone service will not interrupt your security monitoring. Instead, this dialer uses a dedicated connection to a cellular network to monitor your property, adding tremendous security. Furthermore, Alarm.com provides interactive security monitoring. This service enables you to control your security system with Alarm.com’s smartphone app. Moreover, it also creates the ability to receive notifications based on alarm activity. Therefore, you can elect to receive instant notifications when employees arm or disarm your security system.
Alarm.com customers receive alerts that lets them track alarm activity in their businesses.
When you combine these alerts with our previous security tip, you will receive unique multi-employee commercial security! Now, you can see which employees interact with your alarm, and when. If someone disarms the security system during non-business hours, you will know both when this occurs, and who is behind it. For these reasons, we greatly encourage all commercial customers to combine Alarm.com’s interactive monitoring with the use of unique alarm codes for every employee. Next, let’s move on with a look at the unique security provided by access control systems!
Employing Access Control Credentials for Superior Security
Over the past several years, access control systems have gotten increasingly popular. This security measure involves using advanced lock equipment to control access to your property. Access control systems utilize electronic locking hardware to operate specific doors within a business. Rather than using a key at these doors, users approach a keypad or a reader and present either a code or a physical credential such as a card or fob. Users who present an approved credential will then be able to open the door after the reader interacts with the door’s electronics to unlock it. Business owners can assign each credential to open only certain doors at specific times, giving them tremendous control over who can open which doors, and when.
In addition to controlling access to certain doors, access control systems include software that tracks access as well! Every time an employee approaches an access door, it creates a time-stamped event that you can view on a computer by logging in to your access control system. This allows you to easily track employee activity within your business. Furthermore, it allows you to see if anyone tries to enter doors in your business that they should not attempt to enter.
For example, if an employee without the necessary permission attempts to use their credentials to enter a secure room, the system will both deny access and “flag” this event. At that point, you will know which employee attempted this breach. The security and flexibility offered by these systems makes them an extremely valuable piece of any commercial security plan. Now, let’s take a look at how creating a master key system can create superior mechanical business security.
Creating an Effective Master Key System
When we design a key system for our commercial customers, we must do so with both security and convenience in mind. Creating an effective master key system allows us to achieve both. One of the biggest benefits of a master key system lies in the ability to minimize the number of keys needed to operate all of a property’s doors. We do this by creating keys that we place on different “levels.”
Master key systems allow you to control access to sensitive areas of your business while also maintaining impressive efficiency with key creation.
The “master” key sits atop this pyramid, and master keys can open any doors on site. We can also create keys that unlock only certain “sets” of doors. For example, we can provide employees with a key that works your property’s main entrance as well as their office and any common areas they must access. From there, we can also create keys that only unlock one door. You can then provide these keys, known as “user” keys, to contractors or others who may need access to a very specific area of your property. For example, you may provide a mail service with a key that only provides access to your lobby.
These systems allow you to provide the proper amount of access to every individual who receives a key. Additionally, they also allow you to give maintenance workers and management just one key to access any area of your property. For these reasons, master key systems represent an important component of any business security plan. For more information, check out our post on Creating an Effective Master Key System!
Putting it All Together for Complete Multi-Employee Security
We hope that this post helps you create multi-employee commercial security for your own application. Additionally, we encourage you to contact us with any security-related questions you may have. We are always happy to help with any and all security-related endeavors you wish to undertake. Furthermore, we also encourage you to take advantage of our free site survey program. We offer free site surveys to both new and existing customers alike. While on site, we can address any security-related concerns you may have. Moreover, we can make suggestions of our own based on observations of your business that we make while onsite. Together, we can create a plan to keep your commercial property safe and secure from both outside and “inside” threats alike!