Why is access control so important for businesses in city centres?

Safeguard your assets and resources

Let’s start with arguably the most obvious benefit: security. Specifically, protecting your assets; whether it’s valuable merchandise, sensitive information, or business-critical equipment, or anything else crucial to the ongoing function of your business.

Access control can be instrumental in helping you to keep these secure, so that you can stay protected against the risk of theft or vandalism, and preserve your operations and reputation. Electronic keycards, biometric scanners, or gated entrances are all proven to help prevent anyone from entering restricted areas without the proper authorisation, and automated gates can provide the same security value against unauthorised vehicles.

By the same token, implementing access control measures such as CCTV surveillance, intrusion detection systems, and security personnel helps you detect and respond to security incidents effectively, reducing the likelihood of losses or disruptions to your operations.

Ensure employee safety and well-being

The safety and well-being of your employees are another perennial concern, especially if you work in a city centre. Now, if you are specifically targeted by prospective intruders (which let’s not forget, is relatively rare), they’re most likely to be interested in your valuables. Not only can automated gates and access control systems help to directly obstruct them, but these systems can also provide a valuable sense of safety and security for your employees too. Restricting access to designated personnel-only areas can help, as well as implementing panic buttons or emergency evacuation procedures. Your team is at their happiest (and most productive) when they feel safe at work.

Enhance operational efficiency

This is a slightly less well-known benefit of access control solutions, and can be regarded as a handy bonus. Right off the bat, they can eliminate manual key management and the associated overheads – tracking them, storing them, and inevitably replacing them when they occasionally get lost. With the right supporting infrastructure, they can also provide useful data too – such as insights into employee movements, visitor traffic, and facility usage. All that can be particularly valuable in helping you to optimise resource allocation, and ultimately improve your operational efficiency.

Complying with regulations and standards

As a business owner, you’ll already know all the most important regulations and regulatory requirements that your business is subject to, but you may find that access control systems can help make compliance even easier. Extra security can help to ensure that you’re meeting your obligations to effectively protect your staff, your visitors, and members of the general public. With the higher density of population in city centres, this last one may be a more pivotal consideration than it might be in more sparsely-populated areas, such as suburbs or rural areas.

Now, it’s true that there are no specific laws governing business security here in the UK, but it plays a role in your obligations to a variety of others, including:

• Health And Safety At Work Act 1974
• CCTV Code of Practice
• Human Rights Act 1998
• Employment Law
• Building Regulations
• Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order (RRO) 2005

By the same token, if an employee, visitor or passer-by is endangered or harmed (directly or indirectly), and inadequate security is deemed to have been a factor, that can open up the possibility of legal consequences. As the saying goes, it’s always better to be safe than sorry!

That’s just a sample of some of the most crucial reasons why access control is so important in city centres – it’s also worth checking out our recent post on the core benefits of access control for businesses at large. And if you’re looking at buying or building up your access control system, you’re in exactly the right place. We’ve got an extensive range of intercom and access control systems to choose from right here at Gate Auto, and with 30 years of experience behind us, you can always count on us to provide you with as much or as little help as you need. Feel free to give us a call on 01282 677300, and we’ll be happy to see what we can do!