Deciding who should have a key to your office is a dilemma that many business owners have to wrestle with. A key gives a person free access to your workplace – including access to valuable equipment and sensitive information. What happens if that person isn’t trustworthy? What if they lose the key or it gets stolen and ends up in the wrong hands?
Because of these security concerns, some business owners choose to be the sole keyholder, refusing to share keys with anyone else. However, this can often be impractical in many workplaces – it means that you always have to be in the office when others are (which is not realistic in workplaces open 7 days per week), and that you always have to be the first to arrive and last to leave. What if you need to leave the office early one day? What if you’re sick or you want to go on vacation?
Ultimately, most businesses will need to have more than one keyholder. This post can help you decide who to give keys to.
Which employees should be given a key?
Ideally, you want to only be giving keys only to your most trusted staff members. This could include long-time managers or family members that you work with. Giving keys to new recruits can be very risky and is best avoided unless this employee has been thoroughly vetted. You may also want to avoid giving keys to employees who have a habit of losing things.
Should you give office cleaners a key?
Cleaners may need to be given keys if they are entering your office out of hours. Some companies hire cleaners to clean their office during working hours so that they can be monitored. However, other companies find this to be a major interruption as it means having to clean people’s desks while they’re working at them or use vacuum cleaners while people are making calls. It comes down to how much trust you have in your cleaners.
What are some more secure alternatives to handing out keys?
It could potentially be worth exploring other access control solutions. For example, keycards can provide extra security as they can be digitally managed through software – you can easily deactivate keycards if they get lost and you can monitor when keycards are used to flag up suspicious behaviour. Biometric access controls like fingerprint scanners can meanwhile ensure that only authorised personnel have access – no risk of a key or card falling into the wrong hands or being cloned.
What other security measures are worth considering?
For your own reassurance, consider installing security cameras around your premises. This allows you to monitor your workplace at all times so that you can check who is using keys to enter your workplace and at what times. If an unauthorised individual tries to sneak into your office with a key, you’ll have video evidence of them – although it’s likely a camera will simply act as a deterrent.
Conclusion
Only give keys to people you trust. Carrying out background checks could be a way to make sure keyholders are trustworthy. You can also use security cameras to monitor who is using keys. Alternatively, you could consider switching to a different form of access control that can be digitally monitored and that allows you to easily deactivate keys.
