In many business settings, physical security is either absent or insufficient. The belief is, since there hasn’t been an incident, the current level of physical security features are sufficient. In many cases, however, it’s not that the security is working; it’s that no one has made a serious attempt at unlawful entry.
This is compounded by inherent challenges to securing a place of business. From a physical security standpoint, it can be challenging: There are different points of entry, different doors, a lot of different people coming and going, and unexpected visitors. For your corporate security to be effective, management needs to look at the entire facility and think in protective layers. There’s no cookie-cutter solution here—you need to look at all the factors, who needs to go where, and design for that unique situation.
Good corporate security planning requires thorough hazard assessment and risk mitigation.
The All-Hazards Approach to Corporate Security
An all-hazards approach helps organizations take a comprehensive look at their challenges. When you work with TSS, our team can help you create a comprehensive system for addressing them using a four step process of comprehensive threat analysis, vulnerability analysis, understanding threat impact, and mitigation techniques.
We’ve compiled a concise All-Hazards Assessment guide with links to further resources. Within this framework, there are some best practices that are specific to corporate business offices:
1. Comprehensive Threat Analysis
The first step in an all-hazards approach is to consider how your corporate facility may be vulnerable to different types of threats. This includes everything from extreme weather events to would-be intruders.
Most armed attacks in the workplace are driven by one of four factors:
- Economic gain
- Business disputes
- Personal or domestic disputes
- Ideological motivations
While you may think workplace gun violence is uncommon based on news reporting, it’s actually more prevalent than most people are aware of. Active shooter incidents have become far more common in recent years.
It’s always a good idea to consult a security expert like TSS for help on identifying the threats that are most relevant to your office. Someone with in-depth knowledge of the typical risks for a business like yours can help you cover every angle.
2. Vulnerability Analysis
A corporate office typically has three main assets: people, property, and data. Identifying the points that require the most protection can give you an idea of the total scope of your security project.
While protecting your assets can look different for every facility, the immediate opportunities to deter or detain intruders are the entryways. The best practice here is to add a ballistic security system in the main entryway, including a robust system for visitor verification. The goal is to prevent a malicious entity from gaining entry. It’s always better and easier to prevent an attack than to react to an active, unpredictable situation.
If you’d like to delve beyond the basics of entryway security, make sure to download our free guide: How to Bulletproof Your Corporate Facility.
3. Impact of Potential Threats
While there are many potential threats to a corporate office, ballistic security exists primarily to provide protection from an armed attacker, regardless of their motives. As you move on from a vulnerability analysis, you should walk through a potential adverse event. An attacker gains entry. What happens next? Who or what is at risk?
This impact analysis will naturally lead to the next best practice for bulletproof corporate security: containment. The ability to lock down a portion of the office and contain the threat creates the ability to reduce the impact of an attacker.
Typically, this is done by replacing existing doors with bulletproof doors at chokepoints or adding entryways if no doors exist. This may look different for every office, depending on the layout, but a ballistic security expert like TSS can help you determine the best way to create containment opportunities in your security model.
4. Mitigation Techniques
We’ve discussed ways to mitigate hazards that may affect your corporate facility, but here is where the details come out. As you add ballistic security to your office, you have a multitude of options for implementation.
Most corporate offices don’t want to turn their facility into a closed-off fortress. This can impede the flow of work, both physically and mentally. The best practice is for any ballistic barrier to feel natural and attractive within the building’s aesthetics.
If your facility has been experiencing threats, or if your employees feel unsafe, then you may prefer a barrier that is obvious and gives off the visual appearance of impenetrability. Providing a safe environment for employees is tantamount for a happy, healthy workplace.
Or, you may prefer a barrier that is so subtle employees themselves don’t even notice the change. With custom barriers tailored to your building’s aesthetic, installed after hours by an expert team, you could fortify your corporate facility with minimal visible difference.
At TSS, we pride ourselves on ballistic barriers that are sleek, modern, and blend in with their surroundings. We can take care of the entire project from design to installation, so you feel confident that your security is in the experienced hands of experts.
TSS: Corporate Security that Focuses on the Human Experience
At TSS, we know that bulletproof systems are more than just an impenetrable wall of protection. Ballistic barriers require a delicate touch to ensure the space feels open, inviting, and visually elegant, while maintaining comprehensive protection from a multitude of threats.
Our free ebook, How to Bulletproof Your Corporate Facility, will cover all the details you need to know about adding ballistic barriers to your workplace. This includes everything from threat analysis to structural logistics, and can help you understand more about ballistic protection for what matters most.
