A warehouse without proper security becomes a tempting target for thievery and other criminal activity. Keep your workplace secure with these essential methods.
A secure warehouse is a safe warehouse. When you’re in charge of a fully stocked warehouse with thousands of dollars’ worth of goods or materials inside, keeping security up to date should be your first priority. Prevent security breaches and accidents before they happen or reduce their impact on your bottom line with some of these ways to improve warehouse security. With a mix of technology and extra training for your staff, you’ll protect your warehouse from any exterior or interior dangers and practice responsible risk management.
Emphasize Security in Your Training
Your warehouse’s security system begins with educated, capable employees. Give your staff members the tools they need to succeed by providing them with detailed training. If you notice or receive feedback that your training is lacking in a certain area, consider revising the documents and presentations with updated information. Have your workers repeat an abbreviated version of the training every year or whenever a process undergoes major changes.
For warehouse security, you’ll want to expand on the following topics:
Communication Training
Every employee should feel comfortable communicating with their coworkers and members of other teams. Train workers to know their main points of contact for issues they find while on the job—especially during security-related inquiries.
In addition to knowing who to talk to first when issues come up, all employees must learn how to use the warehouse’s communication system. If you provide all workers with two-way radios, ensure that they learn how to operate them and learn how to speak using proper two-way radio etiquette.
Emergency Training
Even if you don’t advise new employees to tackle warehouse emergencies on their own, you should still educate them on the processes. Go through the various security emergencies that your warehouse may experience and provide them with the role they need to play in an emergency scenario. You may want to post these procedures around the workplace to ensure all employees are informed.
Handling Security Threats
When an employee spots a potential security breach or threat, they should know when to report it and who to report it to. Whether it’s an intruder in the warehouse, leaked privacy information, or an employee causing problems—make it easy for them to know the steps they would need to take.
Handling Inventory Discrepancies
One way to detect a theft—if the thief got past your security system—is by performing regular inventory checks. While training your employees how to do their jobs, especially if they do data entry duties during inventory, teach them what to look for and when to write a report. You may ensure accurate inventory reports by performing them digitally at the loading dock; workers should still look over the reports and make note of anything that doesn’t add up correctly.
Instantly Connect Your Employees with Two-Way Radios
Handheld, two-way radios on a secure channel used only by the warehouse employees are essential communication devices that enhance your security system. In an instant, a worker can report an incident to anyone that is available to assist.
Though basic push-to-talk two-way radios do enough on their own to enhance communication in the workplace, Motorola MOTOTRBO two-way radios offer many apps that can enhance efficiencies, productivity, and security. There are many apps available for MOTOTRBO two-way radios, such as:
- Alarms and Alerts
- “Man-Down” Incapacitation Warnings
- Work Order Ticketing
- WAVE™ Push-to-Talk
Install an Access Control System
Warehouses have many points of entry, making it challenging to monitor manually. Installing an access control system can help you focus on securing staff, property, and assets—while giving you the ability to respond to alerts remotely. Systems such as the Avigilon Access Control Manager seamlessly integrate with camera and radio systems. This allows security and management to act quickly should a problem arise.
Effective Surveillance Cameras
Surveillance cameras can do so much more than just record video and display live feed to your security team. Surveillance systems today combine an effective alarm system with high-quality video. Before you install a new camera system, make sure that it can record well in the dark or in poor lighting conditions. Thermal cameras are perfect for dark, dim, or foggy areas.
Some surveillance networks, such as Avigilon, equip security teams with self-learning video analytics. Avigilon commercial video surveillance systems minimize the risk of human error by enhancing their cameras with AI learning capabilities to immediately alert staff of irregularities.
By pairing Avigilon technology with Motorola MOTOTRBO two-way radios, your surveillance network will alert staff with an Avigilon Control Center alert on their radio and provide them with any important details.
Maintain Different Access Levels for Employees
Even if you trust all your employees, different levels of access are essential in a warehouse. Knowing specifically where a security alert happened, along with who has access to it normally can aid security.
Adding ID scanners or other recognition hardware to the most important entrances and rooms around the workplace can help. There are many ways to improve warehouse security, and wireless technology plays an important role. ERS Wireless can help you implement radio, video surveillance, access control, and software solutions that work together to allow you to proactively monitor and secure your staff, property, and assets.
