Commercial developers invest significant time, money, and effort in building and maintaining properties. The goal is 100% occupancy, and beautiful spaces combined with modern services and amenities help secure rental contracts.
Security and safety are amenities that tenants will ask about. Investing in commercial security services is crucial if you wish to remain in contention with other commercial properties.
Here are eight simple steps to improve safety and security in your office building.
1. Evaluate Your Current Security System
Begin your journey to improving your office building’s security by considering your current system.
These questions can help guide your mini-security audit:
- What security features do you already have in place?
- When were they installed?
- Do you have a current contract with a security provider?
- Are there any components of your current system that are broken or missing?
There’s no shame in having a system that’s out of date (or even nonexistent). But you must be honest with your self-evaluation to know where there’s room for improvement.
2. Add Exterior Lighting
One of the quickest steps commercial developers can take to enhance their property’s security is fortifying their exterior lighting.
Folks with criminal intent want to act where they can’t be seen. Adding bright lights to the exterior of your property can be a highly effective deterrent for thieves.
Most office buildings have lighting out front so employees can safely enter during business hours, but what about your buildings’ back entrances and side alleys?
Because these spaces might only be used by your staff, they’re often left out of the exterior lighting plan. Adding a few motion-activated flood lights around the entire perimeter of your building can prevent folks from sneaking in a back or side entrance undetected.
3. Secure All Means of Entry
Windows, garage bays, storage hatches and any other unsecured entryway are potential access points for crooks. Go through your space and note every means of entry or exit. Then, make sure they can all be locked.
As a commercial property developer, you don’t have control over how diligent your tenants are about locking up their space. That’s why smart lock solutions are one of the best investments you can make.
Smart locks give you complete control over every point of entry to the property, and they make it easy for your tenants to keep their spaces secure–even from afar.
4. Install Modern Cameras
Camera technology has come a long way. Think about the smartphone in your pocket: The clarity of the images it can capture would have been unimaginable a decade ago.
The same is true of modern security cameras. Even inexpensive cameras on the market today provide high-resolution images.
Many of today’s commercial security services also allow building owners or property managers to live-stream camera footage to their phones. This empowers you to respond swiftly to any incident, even if you’re miles away when it happens.
Whether you’re watching footage in real-time or wish to review your cameras following an incident, a modern camera can provide insight into any situation that happens on-site.
5. Train Your Team
One of the simplest ways to improve security is to involve your team. Educating employees about security best practices can keep them safe on the job and protect your assets.
This starts with creating policies around security. Train your team on how to respond to security threats. Teach them de-escalation techniques and provide a roadmap for how and when to contact emergency services.
Create clear protocols for your entire team, not just the folks who are on-site during the day. Your janitorial or security staff, who might be around late at night or early in the morning, will need their own set of guidelines for assessing and managing potential security threats.
6. Don’t Forget About Fire
Fire can be one of the most destructive and devastating events to happen to a commercial property. Even if a fire occurs after-hours when your tenants and staff are home, it can cause substantial property damage to your building and your tenants’ belongings.
Investing in a business security alarm monitoring service is a simple way to mitigate fire damage around the clock.
Alarm monitoring services are up and running 24 hours a day, so there’s always someone keeping a watchful eye on your property. If a fire breaks out in the middle of the night, they’re around to catch it quickly.
7. Lean on Technological Advances in Security
Today’s security systems are highly advanced and give you and your property management team control from anywhere. When you work with the right security partner, an app is all your team needs to get eyeballs on your property–no matter where they are.
A smart security app provides access to a live camera feed, plus entry and exit logs for your building. It empowers you to lock windows and doors with the click of a button, and control lights, thermostats, and more.
8. Select a Partner with a Central Monitoring System
The last simple step to improving your commercial security system is selecting a security partner that provides central monitoring.
By asking potential security providers one quick question about whether they offer central monitoring services, you can identify the teams positioned to give you round-the-clock support.
Central monitoring systems mean that it’s not just you and your property management team watching your security system from your app. A professional is keeping an eye out, too. No matter what time of day it is, when a sensor is tripped or fire alarm sounds, the central monitoring team is notified and takes immediate action.
Stepping up your commercial property security and safety doesn’t need to be complicated. Security providers do the work of helping developers and property managers fortify their buildings every day. They have the expertise to assess what you need to keep your property safe, plus the tools and knowledge to level up your security.