For an employer, the safety of their workforce should be one of their main priorities. As working conditions and demands evolve with the requirements of a modern office, so must an employer. They should ensure all the necessary processes and standards are met so employees feel safe and happy.
So how are the businesses of today providing a safe and secure working environment for their employees?
Particularly for older buildings, a sensible place to start is to undergo a building diagnostic. This process will help you predict the causes of potential problems and provide you with a solution before it occurs. An example of where this will be beneficial is when a structural defect is identified that you were not aware of, which may mean a burglar can break in. Finding and resolving this will protect you from potential theft. A building diagnostic means you will be able to find anything before it happens and allows for a proactive rather than a reactive approach in ensuring everything is structurally secure.
As an extra level of security from break-ins, many modern offices have installed security cameras so they are able to carry out surveillance of their grounds and surrounding areas from any unusual activity that poses a danger to employees. A surveillance system particularly comes in advantageous in being able to capture and record activity. Business owners will be able to view and find evidence should they be unfortunate enough to experience criminal activity. Of course, security cameras can be situated both internally and externally of a building, and it makes sense to place them in areas of high activity.
With a safe and structurally sound building, you can start looking internally and review how safe your actual office environment is for your employees. Office safety inspections commonly take place once a year and one of the most popular inspections is testing the safety of the electronics. From computers to coffee machines, today’s offices are now generally fitted with expensive electronic equipment, all of which need to be checked for whether they are safe to use and do not pose any potential dangers to the users. A large majority of electrical faults can be seen by eye, but there are also those that can go unknown and can only be found via testing. For this, professionals are called in to help with a process called PAT testing. PAT testing equipment, readily available at popular manufacturers such as Fluke testers, can identify and flag any appliances that may not be safe to use.
With their expertise and knowledge, gaining professional support to make an office safer is recommended. But there are actions that business owners themselves can undertake that can provide a safer workplace for their employees. An example of this, is doing workplace risk assessments. Information that a business can gain from these assessments is useful in ascertaining what extra measures, if any, may need to be added in the interest of their employees’ safety.
Risk assessments can reveal issues that you may have missed. For example, if your business is within a shared building with other companies, there is the potential risk for people entering your office when they should not be. Offices have high value equipment and confidential files, so it is important only those that should be in your office can enter. From this therefore an additional process will be to fit doors with locks or key cards. It is a very simple solution but can often be an oversight that would have gone unnoticed without a risk assessment.
Another area that can often go unnoticed is the level of protection you are providing employees with their online presence. More likely or not, today’s modern workplace will involve the use of the internet and in recent times there have been many headline stories about cyber threats and the importance of protection online, particularly as so much of a business’ sensitive information and data can now be stored online with the cloud.
If hacked, there is potential for strictly confidential information on employees, clients and business financial details to be accessed. With this, though it can be considered that the effects of physical asset theft is great, theft of online details can be much more damaging due to the longer term effects it can have and its potential irreplaceable nature.
With this, particularly in the wake of the latest news stories, many businesses have carried out reviews and consulted experts to check that their security software provides all the protection required to safeguard from cyber threats and viruses, and if not, they have made the installation of the necessary level of security one of their highest priorities in the interest of protecting employees and the business itself.
