Working from home, flexible working and hybrid working is here to stay for a lot of businesses and their employees. This is great for lots of people as it promotes a better work life balance. However, there are some impacts of hybrid working on security and fire safety that may have been missed in your business.
While creating hybrid working policies for your employees, did you consider updating your security and fire safety policies?
Perhaps the office layout has changed for example. Lots of businesses changed the layout of the premises to better suit social distancing. However, have fire risk assessments been completed since? Is the CCTV still able to view all of the business or has the movement in the business meant the view of the CCVT surveillance cameras is blocked?
Who is your responsible fire person? If the person that tests the fire alarms weekly, ensures fire alarm systems are in good working order and books the fire risk assessments now works from home – who is looking after this?
How about the employee that checks all the doors and windows are locked at the end of each day? Are they still in the office at the end of each day? Who checks the CCTV cameras, cleans them and reviews footage? If you only have one person, do you need to train up a second person, or even a third?
Think about parts of your business that may not be unoccupied. How will you know if there is a fire in these areas of your business? Are they checked for intruders at the end of each day and during the week? These may be parts of the business you didn’t need to worry about before as people were working in them. However, with hybrid working these could be areas that could be a potential fire or security risk to your business.
While hybrid working can be great for businesses and employees, it can have a serious impact on the security and fire safety of the business. If you are unsure about the impact that hybrid working has on the security and fire safety of your business, call our team.
We have specialist fire safety and security experts that can help ensure your business is safe and secure. Call us now to find out more, or to book your security and fire safety review.
