How Communication Enhances Every Aspect of Corporate Security
It’s easy to think of security as consisting of the fun stuff, be that security guards in suits with earpieces, cameras, keycards, and restricted gateways. All of that may be relevant to your business of course, but it would be wrong to think this is all security is about.
That’s because a proper security system in a commercial environment is also about how people talk to each other, how they share information, and how quickly they respond when something feels off. No matter how many safety measures are in place, they don’t mean much if employees don’t know what to do with them or how to collaborate in their use.
After all, if someone sees an unfamiliar person wandering through an office but doesn’t mention it, the risk goes unnoticed, or if an employee finds a suspicious email but isn’t sure whether to report it, a cyber threat might slip through the cracks. If security teams and upper management aren’t able to correctly discuss developmental needs, resources might be stretched thin in all the wrong areas.
So, in this post we’re going to discuss just how much you can achieve with great communication, and why it should be the bedrock of everything you do:
Encouraging Employees to Speak Up
People often hesitate to report something unless they’re absolutely sure it’s a problem. No one wants to be the person who makes a fuss over nothing, after all, because having egg on your face about an issue that didn’t pan out might seem silly.
But when it comes to security, small concerns can turn into big problems if they’re ignored, and it’s always best to have a false alarm. As such, employees should feel comfortable bringing up concerns without worrying they’ll be dismissed or seen as overreacting. That speaks to how your communication policies make staff feel in the culture of your business.
As ever. leadership sets the tone here. If managers take all your staff concerns seriously and respond with appreciation rather than skepticism, people will be much more likely to say something when they notice a potential issue.
Clear reporting channels help too. In your firm, that might involve a simple form, an anonymous tip line for your customers when needed, or a quick message to a designated security contact, as employees should know exactly how to share security-related information and trust that it will be handled properly.
Departmental Communications
Security isn’t just one team’s job. While you might have different teams for different things, security is still something that involves the entire company. When departments work alone or don’t discuss an issue, it may be that a detail is ignored and then leads to harm, which is a terrible outcome.
For example, the IT team might know about a new phishing scam, but if that information doesn’t reach the rest of the company, employees could still fall for it.
Alternatively, a facilities manager might notice a broken lock, but if they don’t flag it to security, an entry point stays vulnerable and that might cause a break-in.
It’s good to have a security or safety section of your weekly briefings or giving each department a contact for each side of the business to talk to, and to have this placed in writing so it’s not just all verbal. A separate team chat could help also.
Making Emergency Responses More Effective
Most people know that when stressful issues take place, they don’t think clearly. But it’s hard to plan for times when you’re not thinking clearly, or so it seems. Actually, having a strict regimen in place can allow people to kick back to their training and move forward with confidence if an issue does take place.
That’s why strong communication protocols need to be in place long before an emergency happens. If employees know exactly what to do in a crisis, they won’t be left scrambling for answers when seconds matter, or struggle to get a hold of anyone because that kind of apathetic relaxation has become part of your business culture.
More than all this, employees should feel comfortable asking questions ahead of time.
The more openly a company discusses emergency procedures, the more prepared everyone will be if something actually happens, be that a dangerous member of the public coming in, or learning how to manage a child that doesn’t have a chaperone and is frightened. This should be a regular part of safety training when it happens.
Making Physical Security Measures More Effective
Of course, physical safety measures are not only important, but they need to be used correctly. If the doors close when an alarm is triggered, then staff need to know about that and how to deactivate it. They also need to know what to do if someone is violently trying to gain access so as not to put themselves in harm’s way.
Moreover, staff also need to know what the no-no practices to avoid are, as a high-tech access control system doesn’t do much if employees hold the door open for strangers. Moreover, surveillance cameras aren’t helpful if no one reviews the footage or correctly archives it in the cloud system.
It helps to make security reminders part of everyday workplace conversations, as a quick mention in team meetings, refresher emails, or even friendly check-ins from security staff can keep awareness high and mistakes reduced.
Building Trust With Leadership
Now, security and safety is not something that staff can volunteer to opt into, or something they get to have an opinion about unless the process is hard to actually achieve.
That being said, employees are much more likely to follow security policies when they feel like leadership genuinely cares about their safety. If security updates are delivered in a top-down, impersonal way, people tend to tune them out and they might not keep up with the updates or think through your reminders.
But when you showcase why you’re enacting a new change, like implementing a new sign in system that could potentially prevent a firefighter searching for you and being put in harm’s way due to not signing out, staff see the utility of the rule.
Preventing Insider Threats
This isn’t supposed to sound like a spy thriller, but you’d be surprised how while most security risks come from outside threats, sometimes, they originate from within the company.
That can include intentional misconduct or an honest mistake, but either way the threat can be the same, yet harder to detect than everything you’re protected against. That’s why being able to properly escalate issues or report problems can be important. This way you might catch out anything from embezzlement to staff stealing to a more intensive plot.
Having a fair investigative review process in your policy literature can be important here, because it will allow you to deal with these claims with care and confidentiality, as while communication is important for security, often you need to communicate securely with people who have the correct access. This can help maintain the dignity of your brand as time goes on.
With this advice, we believe you’ll feel better able to implement better communication strategies into your brand, potentially enhancing every aspect of corporate security and giving you something more to focus on.
To summarize, if you encourage employees to communicate, limit departmental boundaries, ensure physical security responds to your communication, build trust, prevent insider issues with clear and protected reporting systems, and have good emergency plans, you will have maturely considered the holistic view of your safety planning.
