How Indy Small Businesses Can Stay Secure When Reopening
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowIn the coming weeks, businesses around Indiana will begin to reopen their doors to employees and customers. This next step of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic will present plenty of new challenges for companies as they navigate this “new normal.”
Your company’s security should be at the top of your priority list. When you closed your doors earlier this year, you likely reviewed your full security plan to prepare for your extended closure. Now it’s time to review it again to ensure your physical and network security are configured properly to protect your business.
Revisit your physical security systems
As you open your doors to this new world, risk will be top of mind. Your physical security systems can help you ensure the safety and security of your employees and customers. Inspect your system and devices before you completely reopen.
Confirm your fire and burglar alarms are working and reporting properly. Also, check your security cameras to make sure they’re recording as intended. If you have an access control system, make sure you update access privileges to allow your employees to get back into the building according to your new hours of operation.
Reactivate the network securely
Equally important as your physical security is your network security. If you disabled any functions or features like a guest Wi-Fi profile, consider rebooting them as your customers return. If you had previously set up alerts or notifications regarding access to your network, disable ones you don’t need now that you’re back on-site and keep others that might continue being helpful. For example, you may no longer need an alert for clients connecting or disconnecting from your network, but you still want alerts when malware is blocked or a security device goes down.
Take the time to comb through your security system for any changes you might’ve missed from when you closed. Resolve any pressing issues before your employees and customers return to your locations to keep your operations smooth.
Review policies and procedures
With employees returning to your businesses, you’ll want to ensure everyone is on the same page with policies and procedures. During this time, you should evaluate:
- If you added new policies and procedures in response to the pandemic, are there any you need to retain as your business reopens? Are these new policies and procedures reflected in your security systems?
- If you updated or changed older policies and procedures, do those changes need to be reflected anywhere so employees know about them?
- If you added new elements to your security system, did you also create policies to manage them? Are there any system updates to run or policies to teach to employees?
Work with your teams to ensure they understand any new policies and procedures you choose to keep and be sure to leverage your security systems when possible to reinforce these policies.
Create a long-term plan to address gaps
The time away from your business may have revealed gaps in your security. As you reopen and the world becomes more active, your security concerns won’t simply go away. You’ll need to be prepared for them — just like you planned on doing before the pandemic.
You might even consider new tools and resources as part of your post-COVID-19 response. Many organizations are investing in human temperature detection devices and visitor management systems for an extra layer of screening and detection for their facility. If during your time away you wondered how you could manage your security off-site, you should consider remote security management options. Remote security can support your physical security system with cloud-based solutions for monitoring and recording camera footage as well as your computer network security with specialized tools and alerts.
After you complete your immediate plans to reopen, ensure that you have security as a priority in your plans for your business’s future. There will always be new challenges, but you can meet them with the proper security program and the right policies and procedures.