If your employees work in an office, it is one of your many duties of care toward them to ensure they feel safe. They are there for eight or so hours every day, perhaps more time than they spend in their own homes (awake, at least), so they will need to feel as though they are safe and protected if they are going to be as productive as possible.
As a good employer, you’ll want to take whatever steps you can to ensure that your employees feel good in the workplace. Not only is this a moral thing to do as a fellow human being, but it’s also good for business; we’ve mentioned greater productivity, but feeling safe will also promote feelings of loyalty and will ensure your business is seen as a good one to work for in the eyes of potential future employees. Knowing how important making your employees feel safe at work is, here are some of the ways you can do it.
Start With the Parking Lot
If your office has a parking lot, this is a good place to start with ensuring your team feels safe. Parking lots are often dark structures with poor lighting and many places to hide. They can also be the ideal hangout for teens or young people, which can be unnerving for many.
To make the parking lot a safer place, make sure the lighting is bright and will illuminate any hidden corners so no one can hide there. Also, install CCTV and emergency phone lines – even if the phones are never used, people will feel automatically safer when they see them there. Equipment from mosquitoloiteringsolutions.com will prevent teens from using the parking lot to hang out, as the noise these machines emit will be irritating to them (although older people won’t be able to hear it).
CCTV
We mentioned CCTV in relation to your parking lot, but it is also something that you can use throughout your building, whether you have a dedicated parking area or not. CCTV is one of the biggest deterrents there is when it comes to criminal behavior; no one is going to want to risk their identities being captured on video when they commit a crime – they are much more likely to bypass your building and try another that doesn’t have cameras.
These cameras, as well as warning off potential thieves, are also a great way to help your employees feel safe. The best places to install CCTV are:
- Entrances and exits
- Gateways
- Doors
There are, of course, some places where you cannot install CCTV, including bathrooms. If you install it in an office area, you need to ensure your team is aware of this, and they do have the right to disagree if they choose to.
The Building Itself
Apart from deterring criminals, it’s also wise to protect the actual building you work in. This way, even if a thief did decide to risk getting caught on camera, they would still have trouble getting inside.
High fences are a good idea if you have any outside space, and if you add barbed wire or spikes on the top, this makes it even less attractive for those looking to gain entry this way. You can also install a fob system so that only those with the right tools can open the doors. A lift installation company can help add fob access to your elevators too. Motion detectors and alarms that are set when the last person leaves the building are also great. Even if you share the building with other businesses, you can still set the alarm in your office.
Online Safety
When we talk about employee safety, it might be the physical aspects of that security that come to mind first. First, however, you shouldn’t forget about online safety. The internet is potentially more dangerous than anything else. Just as there are burglars in the physical world, there are cybercriminals online who will want to hack into your network and steal important information, including your customers’ payments and addresses as well as your business bank details. Even if they can’t get anything from you, they can leave a Trojan virus behind that you could accidentally send out to many different people.
Teaching your staff about online safety including how to spot a scam, what a phishing email looks like, why they need to have strong passwords, and how to use their firewall and antivirus software, will help ensure that your business, and the employee themselves, remain safe and secure despite the number of threats online.
