How To Best Secure Your Office Building in the Era of Hybrid Work

Hybrid workplaces bring in many unique challenges, even as the number of hybrid workers explodes. Before the Covid-19 pandemic, only 7% of workers in the U.S. worked from home full-time. Now, one-third of all workers who can work from home all the time do. Hybrid workers make up 41% of those who can work remotely. So, what does that mean for the modern office from a security perspective?

Security is a major factor when looking at hybrid work environ­ments. Buildings with multiple tenants may have varying schedules, and each tenant may have different security needs. A finance business might need more security than a B2B company that doesn’t deal in regulated information. 

With no set office hours, creating solid security around an office is more challenging and may leave businesses more vulnerable to those most likely to steal from the workplace — employees. 

Both physical and cyber security measures develop new challenges when your employees don’t come into the office every day or on a fixed schedule. Let’s look at how these changes can affect things in a real-world setting and what you can do to protect your business. This blog will explore:

The Added Risks of Multi-Tenant Buildings

Multi-tenant buildings are the norm for many businesses. It’s very common to see large office buildings that house every­thing from financial services companies to janitorial suppliers. While most tenants in these buildings aren’t open to the general public, they aren’t neces­sarily closed to it, either. Consider an accounting firm during tax season and the number of clients that might make their way through the doors or a travel agency just before the summer vacation season. When you share a building with other businesses, you share the risks of everyone who comes through the front doors.

Installing security systems on your specific suite of offices is a must to minimize your risks. From entry alarms to video surveil­lance with remote access, you’ll likely need some of every­thing for good office building security.

Scheduling Challenges with Hybrid Work

In a tradi­tional office, your alarm is only armed after hours, when the office is empty. But, with a hybrid workforce, your office might be randomly empty. Do you still have a recep­tionist come in every day to handle walk-ins? Are employees required to make a set number of weekly trips to the office? How you handle the sched­uling for your hybrid workforce can have a major impact on your physical security. The last thing you want is someone in the office alone if you’re worried about data theft or missing products, partic­u­larly if you don’t have a way to track who is in the office at any given moment.

The Dangers of the Empty Office

If you don’t have in-office atten­dance require­ments and set schedules, your office could be empty during normal business hours. While that doesn’t seem like a risk, consider that the rest of the building — if you’re in a multi-tenant building — is open to the public during that time. Almost anyone could have the time needed to get into your office without much trouble if you don’t have the right security.

A lock alone is not enough to deter a profes­sional from gaining access. The basic rule of thumb is that it takes most criminals less than a minute to get past a locked door, and they’ll spend less than five minutes inside the premises. But, if there’s no one in your office and no security system to send out a signal, a criminal could spend hours boxing up equipment and stealing other supplies. An empty office is an invitation to some.

Security Solutions for Access Control

With security needed both inter­nally and exter­nally, access control is a necessity when you allow hybrid work. You need to know who’s on the premises and when they arrive and leave. Keypads, ID cards, or mobile access creden­tials on your phone can all fill in this gap. Why is it so important? If there is internal theft, you need to be able to pinpoint the people who might be respon­sible. You can only do that if you track entry and exit. From the more general office building security perspective, you’ll also want to track metrics such as the number of customers through the doors and any unautho­rized or attempted entries during open hours.

Additional Security Features Needed

Video monitoring is another important part of securing your premises when atten­dance rates can shift on a daily basis. You’ll want to be able to see who’s requesting access and grant one-time permis­sions to a temporary employee or keep an eye on opera­tions remotely. If you have an employee failing to hit targets, a look at the surveil­lance camera might reveal the cause. No manager can be on-site round the clock, so having other monitoring systems in place is important to handle some of the load. 

Good video surveil­lance also acts as a deterrent against casual break-ins. If you have cameras in plain view, the general public is less likely to try the door. While no security system can completely eliminate the risks posed by highly skilled and deter­mined criminals, you don’t have to leave the door wide open, either.