Any business with a large and public operating space will often need to manage not only the general flow of who comes in and out, but also how those people are protected, even from one another. For example, at a certain number of people are expected to be present on average, more than one fire exit and evacuation route needs to be ensured, to prevent stampedes and doorway blockages.
It’s also true that clear and consistent messaging, such as with a tannoy system, should be present to help you disseminate essential information quickly. But these are just two principles. In order to make certain your people come and go correctly, at the right pace, and with a mindful management system, you have to account for the worst possible outcomes or prevent behavior that will cause issues.
In the following post, we believe you’ll find some helpful steps that can fit into your wider security plan, no matter the kind of business you run:
Access Control
You’re probably already familiar with key card access, or perhaps using a fingerprint scanner to get into a certain area. This is great, but it’s also helpful to know who is in the building at any given time, and where they’re supposed to be.
This is generally why companies that offer access control system vendors should become essential partners in your safety plan. If you can negotiate a plan, you’ll be able to design clear policies about who can go where, making sure only authorized staff entering sensitive areas. It can often feel like a big step, but protecting your people and your assets is always worth the effort, even if it limits how easily they can get around too. Sell it as an investment in their safety, because that’s what it is when you boil everything down.
Design Implications
Ultimately, people need to be diverted well, because bottlenecks at entry points or how people naturally move through hallways during busy times can sometimes cause an issue, and you don’t want to create an environment where everyone piles up in one spot, especially in an emergency.
It’s helpful to place security checkpoints and access points logically so they don’t interrupt the natural path of traffic, and you can achieve this if you think about how wide your doorways are, where the emergency exits lead, and how quickly your staff can respond if there’s an alarm, and make improvements accordingly.
Strict Definitions
It’s easy to get lost in all the technical jargon when talking about security, which is why it’s useful to define exactly what certain security terms mean for your specific business. For instance, what exactly do you mean when you say “authorized personnel”?
Is it everyone with an employee badge, or just certain department heads? You should write down clear, easy-to-understand definitions for all your staff to make sure everyone is on the same page, and also give them the clear avenue to report a problem if they see one.With this advice, we hope you can process vast numbers of people and still ensure safety as required.