Ways to enhance the Access Control System of your Premises

Even though your building has used the same access control system for years with success, you are thinking to implement a new system or an event occurred (for instance location, merger or security incident) and requires a change. Now is a good time to review your access control system and procedures or consider including it in your security scheme, if you do not have any in place.

Keep your tenants, assets as well as occupants free from danger by setting up a technology and a scheme to guarantee secure access to the right people in the right places of your buildings. Comprehending that access control is included in an entire security scheme is necessary. Other elements to take into account include complimentary security operations and systems, the building’s physical design, and training for the staff.

Here are several key things to have in mind when you try to improve and strengthen your building access control system, no matter where you are in your system or scheme.

Assess your access control system features

What are the components that matter to you in your access control system and does your actual setup have already these components? Several facility managers will go off verbal information and how a system looks, but they won’t really research the specific features dealing with the everyday challenges they face.

When choosing an access control system, think of:

• When throughout the day it will be used to gain access
• The number of people who will have separate access levels
• The places where you need a system
• How it adapts to other components you already have in your buildings

Access is about convenience. More secure is not necessarily convenient.

Define your access levels

Not everybody needs access to every part of your building. Before determining who should have access, look at your building itself to define which places need different levels of access.

It’s recommendable to take a map of the building and to separate it in different zones with different colors based on the security or the level of access which are needed. From that starting point, determine which level of access will be required and whether there are any date or time restrictions to it.

The outside is the first line of defense to a building, therefore you need to decide when people can have access to the building. It can make more sense for most of the personnel to exit and enter through one main door to be able to control easily who is coming and going. From that starting point, define which places different members of the personnel will need access to.

When establishing an access control system, you need to make sure everybody has a good level of access for her or his needs. It is necessary to have a protocol and process in place.

Defining the good level of access for different parts of the building and members of the personnel is up to the staff supervisors and facilities managers.

Companies should have an access form where each staff’s supervisor needs to sign off on the places and levels of access, and days and times the person is in the building. This form should be something which creates a digital fingerprint or paper trail.

It’s as well advisable making the process automatic by connecting the access control system to a third-party human resource database, therefore when one member of the staff is terminated or leaves, access is withdrawn at the same time.