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Following up on procedures is as important as the procedures themselves

by Paul Kazlauskas

Has this ever happened to you? As a Security Manager, you’ve created security protocols to protect your employees and company assets. You’ve spent many hours on these policies to make sure your organization has done its due diligence to reduce risk and liability. You’ve consulted with the legal team or outside authorities to make sure your security protocols are solid. You’ve held company-wide training on the new policies. You’ve even trained the individuals who would be using any related equipment.

Then, a few months after you put the security policies in place, what happens? You find out they are not being followed or worse, an incident takes place that your policies were intended to prevent.

Checking in on how your security policies are being carried out is a fairly simple follow-up action to do. And it should be done relatively soon after a security policy is announced -- and every month or so thereafter. Rather than just reading reports or attending meetings on a security policy’s progress, Security Managers find it’s better to get out and see their policies in action, first-hand. These spot inspections are typically informal and not considered a security assessment, per se.

Here are some things to look out for as you make informal, spot inspections as a Security Manager:

• Do employees working at the front desk appear to have too little or too much to do?
• Are all visitors being recorded in a visitor management system and wearing a visitor pass while on facility grounds?
• Are there any unidentified people walking around the building without visitor badges?
• Are all employees wearing their employee I.D.?
• Are employees individually using their access control cards to enter the building or are employees holding the door open for others to tailgate?
• Take a look at unattended desks. Is there confidential information out in plain sight (ex. passwords on sticky notes next to a monitor) or unsecured laptops/PCs?
• Are there any sensitive documents left on a printer or in a garbage can?
• Are emergency exits obstructed in any way?
• Are all windows and outside doors properly locked?
• Are all the sensitive areas that should be restricted (Server room, HR offices, Accounting Dept., etc.) actually restricted?
• Does your outside landscaping appear overgrown and obstruct lighting or surveillance cameras?
• Are shipping/receiving areas left open, unattended, or used as an unauthorized entranceway?

The above ideas are not meant to be as formal as a security assessment. The informal spot inspections are meant to get an overall sense of what is going on and how well employees are responding to possible changes in procedures. Depending on what you find, you may see the need to change how training is done or alter the policy itself once you see it in practice in real life.

What other areas should Security Managers look for when doing unannounced, spot inspections? Please add your thoughts in the “Comments” section below.

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Posted on 8/19/2016