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An Office Safety Checklist Everyone Needs

StrategyDriven Risk Management Article |Office Safety|An Office Safety Checklist Everyone NeedsAn office is a place which seems like it is super safe. There are no moving vehicles, no heights, and no moving machinery. However, like any other workplace, there are still safety issues which we face as office workers. Today we are going to share with you the essential safety guidelines that you need for your office this year.

Protect the body

The most important tips to consider are the ones which will directly help to keep you safe and protected all year long. Here are the top tips you need to follow to keep yourself safe at work:

  • Sit upright – There is nothing worse than slouching at your desk. We know it might be comfier at the time, but after some time it will hurt your back and can cause real health issues.
  • Look where you are going – This might seem obvious, but with most of us burying our heads in our phones, it is important to reiterate this fact. Look ahead at where you are going to avoid tripping over and having to contact social security disability lawyers for compensation for an injury.
  • Don’t run – ahhh, the old school adage. As kids, we thought out teachers were killjoys for saying this, but as a safety tip, it is paramount.
  • Hold the handrail – For some reason, a lot of us don’t bother holding the handrail when climbing up and down the stairs. It might seem unnecessary, but if you lose your footing you could seriously hurt yourself if you don’t hold on.
  • Get up and move – it is important now and again to stand up and move around. This will allow blood to circulate and reduces the risk of blood clots.

Equipment and Furniture

As well as us, the second most common reason for accidents at work is issues surrounding equipment and furniture in the office. It is important for us to take the chance to make the office safer in this regard:

  • Move cables – it is incredibly important if you are to stay safe in the office that there is no risk of falling over loose cables on the floor. When installing cables, there are many ways to keep them tidy and away from the open floor such as cable organisers and ties.
  • Try not to eat and drink – this is more of a risk for the computer itself than you, but when you eat and drink often at your desk, you run the risk of spilling food or drink onto your machine and breaking it.
  • Close your drawers – one simple thing you should always do is keep your drawers closed. This will make life a lot easier and will ensure that you are able to avoid walking into your drawers and hurting yourself.
  • Don’t store heavy items high up – This is an incredibly important one to consider. When storing your items in cupboards and drawers never store heavy items in high up places. This can be a huge risk if you try to take items down because if you lose your grip they could fall onto you and hurt you.

These handy safety tips will keep you happy and healthy in the office all year long.

6 Easy Office Security Tips

Whether you are at home or in the office, you’ll agree that security is important. At home, you worry about the doors being broken into and you install a top alarm system, double lock the doors at night and even invest in a dog. Life is busy, though, and security can be easily forgotten about. You get complacent, you shut the door but don’t lock it. You leave the building without setting the alarm and all is fine. Then all of a sudden, that complacency will bite you when you end up being broken into. Your home and your office have got to be places that you look after, but your office is going to be the place that your livelihood gets messed with. Almost every business out there is at risk from theft by employees or outsiders, criminal break-ins and data theft. It’s a tough world, full of competition and you should be doing everything that you possibly can to look after your office and home, keeping them both secure.

People tend to get more concerned about their homes when they go out to work in the day, but they have a lot less concern for the security of their office. Unfortunately, it’s not potted plants that are at risk of theft or damage when people decide to take it upon themselves to break into your office. It’s going to be your data and your personal information, along with the personal information of your clients and your financial data. As a business owner, document storage and retrieval is going to be a big deal for your company, and paying attention to every way that you can secure your office is going to tighten up your business. Working in an office is going to mean you are exposed to certain threats, and we’ve got a list of tips for both you and your employees to keep as safe as possible while you are there:

Social Media

Your job doesn’t have to be completely online, but social media is important for any business. Your whole business is going to be critiqued and reviewed online, and so it makes sense for your staff to be very careful about what they say online; whether it’s business related or not. Social media profiles should also be private as much as possible, so that nothing about work that is shared is visible online. Sensitive information about your workplace that goes up about your office can leave you in a position of vulnerability. This could end up in lawsuits and leaving your business open to those who want to pick your business apart.

Integrated Security Systems

When you have a physical office building, you need to have an integrated security system to stop people who are unexpected from coming into your space. You should ideally have doors that are opened with key cards and a video camera system that can see the doors from every angle. Some offices that keep highly sensitive information on site also choose to use facial recognition software or video cameras for access. Making sure that your internal and external doors are locked at night, and auto-locked throughout the day with glass that isn’t easily breakable is so important. People may not be able to bypass the electronic systems, but it only takes a power failure to short circuit the whole thing. This is why manual locks are so important, and double-locking the place isn’t going to be over the top.

Employee Screening

A big reason for theft in a company is via the very people that work there. While you want to be able to trust your employees, it doesn’t mean that you can be complacent about the people that you hire. You could have the most stringent checks around and still find yourself at the mercy of the people working for you. Criminal record and referencing checks should be done upon hiring, and the control that you give your employees will need to be monitored. Do not allow employees or anyone outside a very tight and trusted group to have full access to the documents and data in your company. Financial documents should only be accessed by the proper finance teams at all times.

Lock & Key

Server rooms in your business are going to be the very place that sensitive information is stored. Anywhere that can be infiltrated by outside influences has to be kept under a physical lock and key as well as a data lock and key. Using the Cloud is a good way to keep sensitive information safe and away from servers, but it’s still precarious. Those servers have everything that makes your business what it is, and only those with an in-depth security clearance should have access to the server room. Ensure that you install your server room in the middle of an office and make sure that there are no walls that lean into your office neighbours. We’re not suggesting that there’s going to be a great heist with drills through the walls, but you never truly know!

Secure Workstations

Most of the time, people will bring their own tablets and laptops to the workplace so that they can work off something portable. If you have desktop computers, instead of portable laptops or tablets, you need to get these locked down so that in the event of a break-in, they cannot be stolen. Paperwork and documentation, if not in a secure storage centre, should also be under lock and key. Any desktop computers you’re not using should be locked away, as well and wiped of any data. Anything you don’t intend to keep should always be shredded and not just placed into recycling bins, as criminals tend to keep sensitive information including names and addresses. You’re not being overly cautious by taking a moment to look at your office security and not wanting to lose thousands of dollars in equipment.

Disable The Drives

Ideally, you don’t have someone among your staff that will steal information from you, but just in case you should disable the drives. USB ports and floppy drives are the perfect way for people to steal information from inside the office and bring it outside; all they need is an external drive to plug in and go. You can have your IT team disable these drives or remove them altogether, which will prevent any of your company documentation or data that is held on the main server from being removed and brought anywhere outside of your office.

While you are making sure that your office and your data is completely secure against outside unwanted access, you should also be keeping your knowledge updated about the recent cyberattacks and office break-ins that are in your area and could affect you. It’s so essential to ensure that your IT team have brought the best malware and latest antivirus to you to install on your machines. If you are truly concerned about whether your office will get broken into, you could ensure that you bring in a security company and hire some guards for the front and back of your office. Protecting the company assets, data, software and equipment is an absolute must and as a business owner, you must do everything that you possibly can to ensure the safety of your staff and your information. Physical security is rather overlooked by most businesses but ensuring that you have the right security in place could change whether your office is a target or not for would-be thieves.