Most businesses need somebody who can access the premises when everyone else has gone home.
Traditionally, that responsibility often falls to a trusted employee. They are given a set of keys, alarm information and a phone number to call if something goes wrong.
For many organisations, this arrangement develops naturally and may work perfectly well for years.
The question is what happens when that employee receives a call at 2am because an alarm has activated.
Professional keyholding provides an alternative by placing responsibility for out of hours access and attendance with trained security personnel. The difference is not simply about who carries the keys. It is about who carries the responsibility that comes with them.
What does being a staff keyholder actually involve?
Holding a key may sound like a relatively minor responsibility.
In practice, a staff keyholder can become part of the organisation’s security response. Depending on the arrangements in place, they may be contacted following an alarm activation, need to travel to the premises outside normal working hours and potentially arrive without knowing exactly what has happened.
Most alarm activations will not result in the employee encountering a serious incident.
But that uncertainty is precisely the issue.
If there has been an attempted break in, damage or suspicious activity, the member of staff may be approaching an empty premises at night with limited information about the situation.
Businesses therefore need to consider whether responding to security incidents is an appropriate additional responsibility for that employee.
Professional keyholding changes who carries the risk
Professional keyholding transfers that responsibility to a security provider.
Keys are managed according to agreed procedures and, where attendance is required, trained security personnel can respond rather than relying on an employee being available.
That creates a more structured approach to out of hours incidents.
It can also remove some of the practical problems associated with staff keyholders. Employees take holidays, become ill, change jobs or leave the organisation. If security arrangements depend heavily on particular individuals, businesses need to ensure responsibilities are continually reassigned and contact information remains current.
Professional keyholding makes the response part of a defined security service rather than an additional duty attached to someone’s day job.
Security is also about employee wellbeing
There is an important people consideration here.
A facilities manager, office manager or senior employee may be completely trusted with responsibility for a building. That does not necessarily mean they should be expected to investigate an alarm activation in the middle of the night.
The same principle applies to employees responsible for opening and closing premises.
A member of staff arriving first may be entering an empty building, while the person locking up could be leaving alone after dark. Combining professional keyholding and alarm response with lock and unlock services can remove some of those responsibilities from employees altogether.
This is one reason physical security and employee wellbeing increasingly overlap.
Sometimes the best way to manage a lone working risk is not to give an employee another procedure to follow. It is to remove the unnecessary exposure in the first place.
Better information can support a better response
Professional keyholding can also form part of a much wider security strategy.
Through Virtual Guard, monitored CCTV can provide additional visibility around a premises and help security professionals understand activity outside normal working hours. Where appropriate, mobile patrols or manned guarding can provide further physical presence.
Technology and physical response can therefore complement each other.
The objective is not simply to send someone when an alarm activates. It is to create a clearer process around how security events are identified, assessed and responded to.
That is significantly different from relying on an employee receiving a phone call and heading to the site to find out what has happened.
Which approach is more appropriate?
There is nothing inherently wrong with trusted employees holding keys, and many organisations will continue to use staff keyholders as part of their arrangements.
The important question is what those employees are expected to do.
If holding a key also means taking responsibility for responding to alarms, attending empty premises outside normal working hours or managing security incidents, businesses should consider whether a professional service provides a more appropriate approach.
At Copeland Group Services, our blended security offering combines professional keyholding and alarm response, lock and unlock services, manned guarding, mobile patrols, Virtual Guard, access control, EcoWatch Rapid Deployment CCTV, TrakNet Technologies and T.A.L.I.U.M. according to the risks and requirements of each organisation.
Because the important question is not simply who has the keys.
It is who you want responding when something happens.
If you are reviewing your keyholding or out of hours security arrangements, contact Copeland Group Services to discuss how professional keyholding could support your organisation.