Site Security Planning - Best Practices
Introduction
Site security planning ensures protection of your organisation’s physical infrastructure, assets, and personnel. By assessing potential risks and implementing appropriate security measures, you create a safe environment for employees, visitors, and stakeholders. Let’s dive into how you can ensure your site is secure from the ground up.
In our previous blog post, we provided a snapshot on how to develop a robust security plan that ensures that security of your premises.
Get Security on the Drawing Board Early
You need to ensure that your security team is involved in the process right from the very beginning when new sites are being planned or during renovation if existing locations. Feedback provided at early stages by security team ensures that all security requirements are incorporated into the location’s design brief and contracts right from the start. Adopting early feedback seamlessly integrates all required security measures into the project’s overall structure.
Security needs to be considered as a fundamental block rather than additional add-on to be incorporated at a later stage
Understand Your Risks
Initiate a detailed risk assessment specific you you location that accounts for unique characteristics of your location
Ensure that you incorporate the following in your risk assessments:
- Location: Urban, suburban, or rural?
- Ownership: Owned or leased property?
- Working Hours: Will it be operational 24/7?
- Access Points: Map out all possible entry and exit points
- Surrounding Environment: Evaluate your surroundings to account for criminal activity
You need to inspect your site location meticulously, identifying all possible security risks. You need to discuss with your operations team on following once risks are identified:
- Can we control access to individual rooms and parking areas?
- Is there a dedicated space to inspect suspicious items?
Addressing these questions right in the start ensures a more secure environment for your site
Physical Security Measures
You need to ensure that apart from deployment of security personnel, you adopt electronic security solutions such as access control systems, CCTV surveillance and patrolling across your entire site. The measures should be designed to ensure that there is sufficient delay that allows your security or operations team to respond to security incidents in an effective manner
You need to ensure the following for effective security measures:
- Access Control Systems: Limit who can enter sensitive areas.
- Surveillance Cameras: Monitoring and recording of activities across the site
- Perimeter Protection: Secure the boundaries with fences or barriers.
- Video Analytics: Ensures proactive management of security incidents
You need to develop detailed SOP that documents all your security protocols across your site while ensuring that access to certain rooms and CCTV feed is limited to only specific personnel with authorisation. When customers or vendors or media are provided access to your site, ensure that they are escorted to avoid access to locations with sensitive information in your site
Blend Security with Business Needs
Your security measures are only effective if they are able to meet the needs of your business. Security measures developed in isolation are most likely to fail as they lead to disruption to daily operations or access to related personnel. Ensure that operations team provide their feedback right from the start as they will also be able to make changes into their process to account for security requirements. We at Knighthood have observed on multiple situations where operational teams did not adhere to security rules as they hindered their daily work. Hence, security has to blend itself with business needs. Understand what are security needs for different teams such as audio and video privacy in areas where sensitive discussions are held. When your security systems enhances your daily operations, only then will your business remain secure 24X7
Engage and Act
Ready to secure your site? Connect with us at Knighthood to assess your current security measures and identify areas for improvement.
We at Knighthood have been working with over 200+ organisations for over 5 years. We focus on ensuring high service levels at affordable prices. You can read more about why our customers choose to work with us.