If you’re anxious about rising insurance premiums and other associated costs, then you might be interested in making your premises more secure. Here’s what you can do to make your business premises more secure.

1. Don’t leave valuables on display. If you are on the street level, and have a lot of people passing by, why not install blinds or shutters so that your computers and other valuables cannot be seen by those walking past when your premises are closed? You wouldn’t lave valuables on display in your car, so why would you at work?

2. Remember to close all doors and windows at the end of the day. If you work on the 5th floor of an office block, this might not be as important as if you work in a school or a shop.

3. Think about ensuring that only allow staff access to the areas they need access to. Do marketing staff need unchallenged access to all areas of the factory? If orders are incomplete or wrong, can customer services staff pick the right items from the warehouse to complete the order without being approached?

4. Think about installing CCTV so that you can monitor the exterior of your premises. You might be in a popular location, that sees a lot of traffic during the evening, or be in a remote place miles from anywhere. You might even want to consider installing CCTV so that you can monitor parts of your building, or other branches of your shops or company.

5. If you deal with a large amount of people, or lots of potentially suspicious people, then you might want to think of installing a video analytics system to make the best use of your CCTV. Video analytics will allow you to tag footage with dates, times, events and even names, so that if the same person is seen, or the same location is breached, or somebody else is acting in the same manner, the system will send alerts. This can mean that security staff don’t have to spend their shift glued to monitors in the hope that something happens.

6. Think about employing security staff for the safety of your staff and customers. You might sell high value products such as jewelery or designer clothes, and want to avoid being targeted by organized thieves. You might also want to reduce the instances of shoplifting.

7. You can avoid opportunistic thefts by not leaving keys, money or other valuables lying around.

8. Don’t forget to ensure building maintenance checks are carried out regularly and any issues are resolved quickly. You don’t want to find out that you have a cracked window frame, or a faulty door lock, after a burglary.

9. Challenge all “strangers” into the building. No one will bat an eyelid at someone in a uniform who wants to remove a PC or a TV, but are they legitimate? Have they got paperwork? Who arranged for them to visit? Do they know what they are collecting?

10. Install a biometrics system so that only staff can access the building. This will ensure that only authorized people can have access to your premises, and so will make the whole issue of security and identity management much easier and cost effective.

Now you know how you improve the safety of your staff and how to protect your premises, perhaps now is the time for you to improve your security.