Lock Out Key Loss: Three Way To Stop Employees From Losing Company Keys
Employees are a company's greatest asset, but they can be a company's biggest liability too. Allowing your employees access to keys that unlock exterior and interior doors at your place of business increases the risk an unauthorized person will gain entrance to the building or sensitive information, because someone will inevitably lose his or her key. Although it's not possible to completely eliminate this risk, here are three ways to help your employees keep track of the keys.
Keep Track of Keys Using Technology
One way you can help employees stay on top of the keys is by attaching them to tracking tags and requiring employees to download the associated apps. Tracking tags and apps work in a couple of different ways depending on which ones you get. Some apps will cause the phone to sound an alarm if the phone and key are separated by a certain amount of distance.
More commonly, though, the app will help a person locate lost keys. Some apps do this using geolocation. The person taps on the app and it will show them on a map where the key is located. Others will use a paging system. The app will send a signal to the tag on the key and the tag will sound an alarm alerting the person to its location.
Tracker tags are a good option if you let employees take keys home with them. If you don't want the keys leaving the building, you can tag the keys with an RFID transmitter that will trigger the building's security system if people try to pass through an electronic door monitor with them. This will prevent employees from taking restricted keys home. If a key does get lost, then you can be fairly certain it may still be in the building. You can use a combination of RFID and tracker tags to keep an eye on them.
Put Keys on Lanyards and Retractable Chains
If the previous options are simply too high-tech for your business or you're working with a tight budget, a low-tech way to help employees hang onto keys is to attach the keys to wearable devices such as lanyards and retractable chains. Both of these are designed to be worn on the body while still providing enough flexibility for keys to be extended out far enough to unlock doors.
Since the keys are attached to their person, there is less of a chance employees will set the keys down somewhere and walk away without them. At the same time, there is a greater risk employees may leave the building with restricted keys, having forgotten the lanyards were around their necks or the keychains were on their belt loops. You can mitigate this by having a sign in/sign out system that forces employees to check for keys before they leave for the day.
Hold Them Financially Accountable
A third option that may motivate employees to be more careful with keys is to hold them financially responsible for changing door locks should they lose the key that opens it (i.e. make them pay to change each lock the key opened). You can bet an employee will likely never lose the office key again after having to fork over a hundred dollars or more to help secure the building.
You must have employees sign a contract acknowledging this is expected of them. It's best to consult with an attorney to ensure the contract is legal and enforceable.
Preventing employees from losing keys can be challenging, but with a few tools you can reduce the risk of loss. For more tips about this issue or assistance with rekeying your building, contact a commercial locksmith or visit a site like http://scscincus.com.
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