Since 9/11, the threats confronting our local communities are constantly evolving and increasing in their complexity. Many companies and organizations make the wrong choice or no choice at all regarding emergency and critical incident response preparedness. Security and safety health checkups are a critical operational function to ensure your organization is prepared to respond to and survive a critical or catastrophic incident. Security and safety is no longer optional.
At Integrated Security, we understand that deciding where to begin can be a daunting task. Determining the level of assessment that fits the needs and budget of your company is where we come in. However before you pickup the phone, ask yourself, is my organization committed to identifying our vulnerabilities and, more importantly, are we ready to implement change?
Where the rubber meets the road is pairing best practices with a readiness plan that will be embraced by your entire workforce. While executive management may be motivated by compliance, mitigating risk, and protecting the brand, selling your work force on security preparedness requires smart tools and employee engagement. A simple ten question survey of your employees is the perfect starting point.
Sample Questions: responses can be based on a scale of 1-5 with 1 being very unprepared and 5 being prepared to take action.
- Would you know what was expected of you in the event of an armed active shooter incident?
- If you felt threatened by a co-worker’s actions or comments, would you know who to approach in management to discuss this with?
- Have you read the company’s policy on emergency preparedness and do you know who at the company is responsible for security & safety?
- In the event of an unplanned weather emergency, would you know where to take shelter or stage for additional instructions?
Too often the most important asset–your employees–are left out of the conversation. Security preparedness and decision-making is a collaborative process and not including your employees to be a part of it will most likely result in a work force unwilling to support this important initiative.
Let us guide you through this process. A security and safety assessment by our executive team of retired law enforcement professionals and security experts can be the single most important decision you make for your company.
Did You Know?
The US Department of Labor-Occupational Safety & Health Administration reports that nearly 2 million American workers will report having been victims of workplace violence each year.
According to 2014 Bureau of Labor Statistics:
- 15,980 workers in the private industry experienced trauma from nonfatal workplace violence.
- 409 workers in government and private industry were victims of workplace homicide.
- 2015-2016 Educator’s School Safety Network (ESSN) – U.S. schools have experienced 1,267 bomb threats, an increase of 106% compared to that same time period in 2012-2013.
Work-site Risk Assessment
The first step for any company is acknowledging the variety of experiences and perspectives, which arise in the workplace from differences in race, culture, religion, mental or physical abilities, heritage, age, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity and other characteristics. While this dynamic gets played out daily and most of the time seamlessly, it’s important to understand how these dimensions affect performance, motivation, stress, and interactions with others. Unfortunately, for many innovative companies and their C-Suite management, institutional paradigms and practices create barriers and/or miss red flags which otherwise would be very transparent.
The dynamic of every company varies in size, location and management style. Often for these reasons and others, it is important that all companies, large and small, carry out regular assessments. A proper risk assessment includes, among other things, making sure that all relevant risks are reviewed (not only the obvious ones), testing the effectiveness of the safety measures adopted, and reporting the outcomes of the assessment to management and employees.
At Integrated we approach your risk assessment in steps:
- Identify the architectural, procedural and technical vulnerabilities
- Evaluate and triage risks observed
- Create a preventative action plan and checklist
- Identify Workers’ roles and responsibilities
- Identify Employers’ roles and responsibilities
- Conduct preliminary outreach to identify local resources and partnerships
Vulnerability Assessments
Vulnerability assessments identify, quantify and rank the weaknesses of your security solution. It not only looks at and isolates a specific object or component within the solution, but seeks out the impact or consequences on other elements of the business environment and how to triage your response. Vulnerability assessments also identify the possibilities in reducing ancillary consequences and improving the capacity to manage future incidents.
Develop New Master Emergency Response Plans
Our consults will review all safety and security policies and procedures currently in place, including pre-employment hiring practices and termination practices. We will evaluate all the specific roles of your incident response team, emergency action/incident plans, internal and external communication network and post incident response procedures. Our goal is to align your policies and procedures with best practices and develop more effective methods to execute emergency procedures, by coordinating resources and personnel under one common objective: Saving Lives.
