Security from £15.95+VAT an hour*
Security from £14.95+VAT an hour*
18 March 2023
Good security is important in many commercial and public sector environments. The kinds of security services that are required will vary according to the nature and size of each building. In this article, we will consider some of the more common examples, and the roles that security staff can perform.
In town and city centres, many different businesses may operate from a single, large, purpose-made office building. Such premises can range from modest commercial units on business parks, right through to towering office blocks – of which we’re now seeing increasing numbers in Manchester, Liverpool and many other of the UK’s largest cities.
One key security challenge here is that the presence of multiple business tenants makes it very hard for those within the building to recognise who should rightfully be there and who might be an intruder. A single building might contain hundreds of workers, and businesses will always tend to experience some turnover in staff, so new faces will be entering the premises for perfectly legitimate reasons all the time. Other occupants won’t usually stop and question every unfamiliar individual they meet – a large office building will typically receive all sorts of visitors – so without some security checks upon arrival, it becomes easy for an intruder to wander the site unchallenged.
Intruders may try to enter office buildings for various reasons. Theft is an obvious motive. Offices are typically host to many expensive but easily portable items such as laptops and phones, and despite the best advice, many employees still leave keys, wallets and other valuables unattended in bags, coats and jackets. There is a common misconception that offices are safe and secure environments, especially during office hours. The truth is, they aren’t. Every year, there are thousands of reported cases of theft from the workplace.
Industrial espionage is not especially commonplace, but it is a risk, particularly for businesses that are built upon valuable know-how, intellectual property or proprietary technology. The more valuable the business and the more unique its intellectual property, the greater the likelihood that someone may seek to steal it.
Intruders may seek access to a building for other reasons, of course. Disgruntled former employees may try to return to the premises to cause trouble or to disrupt office routines. In more extreme cases, individuals may even try to cause damage to the building or people’s property, or to threaten physical assault. The same may be true of other disaffected individuals, such as former partners of employees, who may want to cause them harm or embarrassment in their workplace.
For some higher-profile companies and business people, there may also be a risk of nuisance from uninvited journalists, media news crews, job-seekers or even fans.
In all such cases, there is a clear argument for installing a security desk at reception and to ensure that visitors can only gain access through the main entrance, where their identity and credentials can be checked. This eliminates the possibilities of visitors wandering the building unaccompanied. Only when they have been identified and signed in, and their host company alerted to their arrival will they receive a visitor’s badge and be invited to wait to be met and escorted to their appointed meeting.
The security registration process can also dovetail very effectively with fire safety procedures. Logging people’s arrival at reception helps to ensure that all visitors are accounted for in the event of an emergency, if the building subsequently needs to be evacuated.
Councils and other public sector bodies often share large premises, so many of the above-mentioned risks and mitigations will apply here, too. In addition, however, there may be certain additional threats and challenges.
In law courts, for example, some visitors will attend in heightened emotional states. These can lead to aggression and conflict, either with other members of the public or against public sector and emergency services staff. Threats and violence against public servants are commonplace so such settings demand effective security safeguards. Those will often include identity checks and bag-searches upon arrival, site patrols and an emergency response service to deal with any hostile actions within the building.
Similar safeguards may also be useful in other sensitive public sector departments, such as social services and those dealing with issues such as taxation, local planning, residency status, adoption or entitlement to benefits. The list goes on, of course, but the point remains that some simple security measures can help to prevent a great deal of damage, disruption and distress.
We have talked mainly about security provision in larger premises but that isn’t to imply that security isn’t important or cost-effective in smaller office buildings. Staff and visitors should be entitled to expect to remain safe and secure whatever the working environment. The challenge here is that some businesses and owners of smaller buildings may question whether a security presence is affordable. However, it can often be made much more viable by appointing security staff who can play a dual role.
Security staff can attend a reception desk and provide guests with their initial greeting, their signing-in instructions and other useful guidance. This obviates the need to recruit separately a single-role receptionist. The same security officer can also perform other useful duties, such as signing for deliveries and dealing with any contractors who might be required to carry out repairs, maintenance work, or new installations on site. Here, the security officer is performing an important building management role and alleviating pressure on office staff inside the building by taking charge of tasks that would otherwise be a distraction to their usual work.
In addition to all this, a trained security officer will also stand ready to respond quickly and effectively to any security threats, of course, in a way that ordinary reception staff could not.
At Leisure Guard Security, we provide highly trained staff who can maintain tight and reliable controls in all kinds of office environments. In addition to being SIA-licensed, many of our staff are also trained to conduct general administrative duties within a business, adding value for the client by performing a valuable dual role.
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