An office building is not only a place of work and business, but is also the place where many people spend more hours during the week than they do in their own homes. It wouldn’t be a stretch to call an office building a ‘home away from home,’ however many people may not see it that way. Office buildings often have large numbers of people working their day and even night, with many visitors as well. Security, and a sense thereof, would clearly be important to those who work at and visit an office building.
However, office buildings have often been the target of criminal acts in the modern era. These breaches in safety and security can range from the annoying (undesirable people in the building with no valid reason to petty acts of theft and vandalism from offices) to the more serious (more expensive theft of physical or intellectual property), arson, wide-scale vandalism, personal assaults and other criminal acts. Office buildings, big and small, run these risks. It can get a lot worse, unfortunately. 14 employees were shot dead by a colleague at a post office in Edmond, OK in August 1986, whilst 7 were killed by a co-worker in offices in Wakefield, MA in December 2000. This occurs on a too regular basis in America.
The services that OSP can offer owners and management teams that run office buildings can include:
- a fully integrated security risk assessment for the building and all offices and entities therein
- considerations regarding the size, location and demographics of the office building, as well as the tenant mix (which can be very varied and present its own security-related risks)
- assessment of adjacent and nearby road traffic and foot traffic relevant to the building’s security profile
- any other relevant risk factors pertaining to businesses and landmarks that are adjacent to or near the office building, especially those with a high profile or inherent security risk of their own
- security gaps and needs analysis for the building
- access control measures
- emergency routes and routes of egress for the building
- surveillance / CCTV / motion sensor and other allied capabilities and needs
- security control desk / room / center analysis and viability
- security personnel profiling / hiring / vetting
- security-related training for employees within the building
- building lockdown measures for extreme scenarios and events
- in-building investigation procedures, including petty security incidents
Whether building owners and management teams care to acknowledge it or not, office buildings are potentially fraught with security risks. That is why a building could benefit from having a comprehensive security management plan in place for all its employees, customers, contractors and visitors.
OSP’s philosophy is that we provide our esteemed clients who own or manage office buildings with security solutions that are customer-oriented and customized to suit that specific building. The security of their office building is our objective and what drives the service that we provide. This approach and commitment is befitting of what OSP stands for. It is what we do – and we do so with pride and conviction.