Do you know who is in your building?
Recent research shows that levels of fraud have increased by threefold during the last 12 months and look set to increase further due to the current financial climate. Unfortunately the recession drives an increasing number of individuals to commit fraud in an attempt to manage financial demands facing them.
One of the key issues that must be continually addressed is the problem of security and adequately controlling access of individuals into an organisation. Richard Farmer, UK Sales Director of Kalamazoo Secure Solutions Limited discusses the problems faced in today’s security dominated culture.
Managing both an individuals access to the building and their whereabouts once inside is important in order to ensure security levels are maintained at all times. Do you know who is in your building? Do you know why they are there and on how many occasions have they returned? Who are they here to see? Do you have an accurate record of exactly when they arrived and what time they departed?
Knowing exactly who is on the premises can help protect a number of vital elements. These include the protection of employed staff, ensure property and assets are kept safe and secure and eliminate terrorist threats.
Considering the type of visitors is important to ensure they are fully catered for and that they are instantly identifiable. Whether they are visitors, contractors, maintenance staff, delivery drivers, suppliers and sales reps, company clients, temporary staff, or employees they all need to be managed effectively and controlled within the perimeters of the organisation.
Richard comments “Whatever type of visitor they are, a standard procedure must be adhered to ensure they are greeted politely, their details are logged and validated and that when exiting the building they are properly logged out. A designated VMS can be implemented to complement existing processes and to ensure visitors are easily identifiable.”
He continues “By ensuring identification passes are visible at all times employees and security staff can quickly and easily identify different types of visitors and challenge or question a visitor’s intention if required.”
A number of measures can be put in place to help manage who is in your building. For example surveillance cameras, physical security such as window and door locks, entry systems such as turnstiles and access doors, and also intruder alarms. These measures can be utilised at different levels depending on the size of the organisation and the perceived threat posed. A security measure implemented by many organisations, whether big or small is the visitor management system. This system can take a variety of formats, including both manual and electronic, depending on the requirements of the individual organisation.
Visitor management
For smaller organisations that have comparatively low number of visitors, a cost-effective manual visitor management system will enable the organisation to provide visible identification for the visitor and create an instant fire evacuation list should the need arise. A hand-written visitor system can incorporate high levels of security techniques such as CopyVoid, which is used to protect passes from fraudulent photocopies. Each time a pass is copied, the word ‘void’ appears, rendering it useless. Time-dependent ink is a further security feature, which after a set period (typically 24hr) will appear with the word ‘expired’, ensuring each pass has a clearly defined lifespan. These features can be used to help prevent contractors, for example, from accessing the site after their contract has expired.
Alternatively, for larger organisations with a higher number of visitors’ electronic visitor management solutions you can provide fully personalised visitor identification, and incorporate photograph and signature capture. Electronic visitor management systems can also accommodate a comprehensive database of visitor details and a detailed reporting facility. This customisable reporting facility allows detailed activity and cost analysis.
Richard concludes “It is important that organisations recognise that security awareness and threat prevention is a process which needs to be demonstrated by all, including front of house personnel, security staff and employees throughout an organisation. Gone are the days when security cameras and lighting were sufficient to deter security threats. A pro-active approach must be taken at all times and professional and effective processes must be adhered to.”
Kalamazoo specialises in visitor management and ID solutions for a range of environments and budgets. For further information please call 08445 766 770, or e-mail kalamazoo@ksp.co.uk.
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