Summer is a great time of year for many local businesses in Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire. Pubs and restaurants fill their outdoor seating, cafés see more people ordering iced coffees and even sports clubs become busier! We see more venues hosting events, parties and celebrations especially as it is also wedding season.
Whilst more visitors are good for local business, they can also bring additional security challenges.
When your premises are busier than usual, staff can become distracted, or even just busier with their daily tasks, temporary employees may be unfamiliar with your security procedures, deliveries can increase and there may simply be more people moving around your site. That makes summer the ideal time to take a look at your business security and ensure you are operating securely all year round
More visitors can mean more opportunities for theft
A busy premises can be difficult to monitor. As you have more customers coming and going, staff serving people and deliveries arriving throughout the day, it is much easier for things to go unnoticed.
This isn’t us saying you should be suspicious of every visitor. It simply means that your security measures need to work effectively in the background, helping your staff keep an eye on what's happening while they concentrate on running the business and serving customers.
CCTV can be particularly useful during busy periods, providing visibility across key areas and helping to identify activity that may otherwise be missed.
Are your staff-only areas actually secure?
During busy periods, it can be tempting to leave doors open or allow people to move freely between different areas of a premises, especially when navigating deliveries. However, areas such as stockrooms, offices, kitchens, staff rooms and storage areas may contain valuable equipment, personal belongings or sensitive information.
Access control can help businesses manage who is able to enter staff-only areas, providing an additional layer of security without making things difficult for employees.
This can be especially useful when you have temporary or agency staff joining the team. Rather than relying solely on keys, access can be managed more effectively, helping you maintain control over who can enter certain areas and what makes it even better, is you can remove their access or change codes once they leave, meaning your business is future proofed too!
Don't forget about car parks and outdoor areas
Security shouldn't stop at the front door and in reality, it goes much further than the front door anyway.
During the summer, outdoor areas can become much busier, as we all make the most of the warm weather.
Pubs and restaurants may have beer gardens and outdoor seating, while garden centres, sports clubs, wedding venues and community spaces can have large numbers of visitors using car parks and external areas.
These areas can be worth considering when reviewing your CCTV coverage and we recommend to ask yourself these questions:
Are entrances clearly visible?
Can you see what's happening around your car park?
Are side gates, loading bays and delivery areas covered?
What about less obvious access points around the back or side of the building?
A security system is only useful if it covers the areas where you actually need visibility.
Deliveries and cash handling
Summer can also mean more deliveries and sometimes increased cash handling.
With staff already under pressure during busy periods, deliveries may be received by different members of the team and cash may be handled more frequently. Having appropriate CCTV coverage around entrances, delivery points and cash-handling areas can provide valuable reassurance and an additional record of activity.
Good security isn't about creating extra work for your staff, in fact, it should support them and help make busy periods easier to manage.
Protecting your customers
Security isn't only about preventing theft or protecting equipment. Businesses also have a responsibility to consider the safety and wellbeing of the people using their premises.
Whether you're welcoming customers into a café, hosting a wedding, running a sports club or organising an event at a village hall, knowing who is coming onto your site and having appropriate visibility of key areas can help create a safer environment for everyone.
CCTV, access control and sensible security procedures can all work together to help protect your customers, visitors and staff, as well as your property.
A good time for a security check-up
You don't necessarily need to make major changes to your security system every summer. Sometimes, a simple review can highlight areas that may need attention.
Consider:
If you already have CCTV cameras are they still covering the areas that matter most, or is time to get CCTV installed once and for all?
Are entrances and exits clearly visible?
Is your car park adequately covered?
Can staff-only areas be accessed by the right people?
Are temporary staff aware of your security procedures?
Are deliveries and loading areas covered?
Are outdoor seating areas or beer gardens visible?
Is your current system working as it should?
Are there any new areas of the premises that need additional protection?
If you haven’t done so this year, we strongly recommend taking a little time to review your security in order to prevent problems later.
Helping your business stay secure this summer
Whether you're a pub, restaurant, café, shop, sports club, garden centre, village hall, wedding venue or community centre, increased summer activity can bring new security considerations.
The good news is that effective security doesn't have to be complicated. The right combination of CCTV, access control and good security practices can give you better visibility, help protect staff and customers, and provide peace of mind while you focus on running your business.
At Herts Security Systems, we believe security should be practical and suited to the way your business actually operates. Sometimes, the best place to start is simply by looking at what has changed since your current system was installed and identifying whether your security has kept up with it.
Prevention is always better than cure and we are here to help.