Key takeaways
- Commercial security awareness is the practice of staying up-to-date on current security standards and trends.
- The most important security awareness topic for property managers is physical security awareness.
- Four ways to promote security awareness at your commercial property include establishing a culture of awareness, engaging in regular communication, investing in educational programs, and keeping documents handy.
- Properties that should conduct security awareness training are retail properties, residential buildings, and office buildings.
As a property manager or owner, you understand the importance of a physical security protocol. You’re aware of your property’s security needs and committed to enhancing everyone else’s awareness of them.
That’s why commercial security awareness training is critical to the success of your property. Below, we discuss how to conduct security training for your staff and boost awareness among your tenants.
In this post, discover:
- What is commercial security awareness?
- What is the most important security awareness topic?
- Who should do commercial security awareness training?
- 4 ways to promote security awareness
What is commercial security awareness?
Commercial security awareness is the practice of staying up-to-date on current security standards and trends.
Security awareness training benefits you, your staff, and even your tenants. By helping everyone in your building stay updated on security education, you can avoid potential risks and failures that stem from a lack of knowledge.
Furthermore, training on subjects such as security protocol, access control systems, and actionable steps should occur at least once a year – or sooner if you upgrade your security system.
Types of security awareness include:
- Cyber security awareness
- Social network awareness
- Data management
- Password security
- Email safety
- Physical security awareness
- Commercial security alarm system awareness
Moreover, separating security awareness topics into different training days will help staff retain information from each topic.
What is the most important security awareness topic?
The most important security awareness topic for property managers is physical security awareness. This includes how to use an on-premise security system and how it benefits your organization.
For instance, many properties are secured by physical security systems, much like the ButterflyMX access control system. As such, property managers and owners will want to focus their training around it — or another system they may use.
So, here are some tips for how to cover this topic with a security system:
How to guide
First, you should teach your staff (and even tenants) how to use the security system in question. Providing a user manual for each member could also be helpful. You should detail the ins and outs of the system’s power, access methods, troubleshooting, and so on. Furthermore, teach your staff how to access the time- and date-stamped audit log and how to add and revoke access from the remote dashboard.
Benefits
Next, detail the benefits of using an access control system for property security, namely, how they can remotely monitor access from property visitors. Staff should also be aware of the added advantage of helping tenants set up self-guided tours.
Features
Then, staff members should have a list of the features they can expect from a state-of-the-art access control system. They should understand the specs, the size of the camera, and whether the system is wired or wireless.
Security
Lastly, staff members need to know how they can impact security, even with a security system. You can manage this by integrating a dose of cybersecurity training to make them aware of the risks they take when using cloud databases and property management software online.
Discover how access control systems work:
Who should do commercial security awareness training?
There are several types of commercial properties that can benefit from security system training:
- Retail stores. Retail businesses have products, money, and more all in one place, making them a target for security issues. If you run a retail business, you would benefit from training your staff on security system awareness.
- Residential buildings. Residential places such as apartments, condos, and senior living facilities are vulnerable because of the number of residents. Commercial security awareness training for staff is important to protect property as well as the people who live there.
- Office buildings. Many office buildings are at risk for security breaches of all types. To protect data, tenants, and employees, it’s important to maintain an updated security training protocol.
4 ways to promote commercial security awareness
Promoting commercial security awareness starts with educating your staff about the importance of property security. Putting together a training program is the quickest, most effective way to instill security awareness in your employees.
Four ways to promote security awareness include:
- Establish a culture of awareness
- Engage in regular communication
- Invest in educational programs
- Keep documents handy
1. Establish a culture of awareness
The best way to establish a culture of awareness is to integrate it into your organization’s core values.
Commercial security is imperative in the changing landscape of society. As such, it’s equally important that property managers, owners, and staff are all given a level of responsibility in upholding safety for all.
By making commercial security awareness part of your organization’s core tenants, you’ll make it easier for everyone to accept responsibility.
2. Engage in regular communication
Engaging in regular communication with your staff about potential risks and solutions goes a long way toward creating a cohesive security standard.
When employees and staff members are kept in the loop, they feel empowered to do more. Furthermore, engaging in two-way communication with staff also encourages them to come forward when they notice something suspicious.
3. Invest in educational programs
One of the newest methods of investing in educational programs for staff members is the gamification of pertinent training materials.
These gamified training programs not only provide relevant information but also entertain staff in a way that helps them retain more.
Further, these types of educational resources are easy to find and even easier to distribute. And staff members don’t feel they’ve wasted a large portion of their day in training instead of doing their work.
4. Keep documents handy
It’s not uncommon for staff and managers to forget details about their security training or even some of the features of their security system.
For this reason, it’s a good idea to keep manuals and documents on hand that have a list of protocols to follow in certain situations. Moreover, it would also be helpful to keep a guide on how to use security systems and their management software.
