Despite the rise in online corporate crime over recent years, much of the crime risk posed to businesses continues to be physical threats, such as theft, access breaches, and vandalism.
Some of these crimes may even be committed by members of staff; in fact, in 2019, around 75% of the workforce reported committing a theft offence in their place of work, leading to an overall loss of $136 million to large corporations by staff and shoplifters.
For smaller businesses, theft can be an even more pressing concern, as they may have less revenue on-hand to cover the losses caused by theft, and to invest in security measures that will prevent goods from being stolen in future.
Thankfully, ID cards can provide an affordable and effective way to minimise thefts by ensuring that members of staff - and the general public - are unable to access the most sensitive areas of your site, where the highest value items are kept.
Here, we will discuss how to create and successfully implement an ID card system in your business.
The Benefits Of Using ID Cards
ID cards have several advantages for businesses of all sizes, both in terms of security, and in promoting a brand identity and sense of professionalism.
• Security: Using an ID card entry system ensures that only authorised staff can enter the premises. This helps to prevent theft and reduce breaches of security by staff or members of the public.
In addition, using ID cards that have an image of the authorised staff member on them ensures that security personnel can check IDs as needed, helping to reduce the risk of ID card theft.
• Employee Time Management: ID cards can be used to register the time your employees ‘clock in’ and ‘clock out’ of work. This allows you to manage their time more effectively by identifying where staff may be arriving late or leaving early.
At the end of each day, you can also print a report that enables management to more easily and effectively assess employee attendance.
• Emergency Response: In the event of a fire, you may need to fully evacuate the building of all members of staff. By using an ID card system, you will have a full log of everyone in the building that you can use to ensure all staff members have left the premises safely.
Also, using an ID card system can help you to quickly identify a staff member’s location if they are trapped in the building.
• Professionalism: ID cards show customers that your business is safe, trustworthy, and legitimate.
These increased signals of professionalism make customers more likely to engage with – and trust - your business, while staff are less likely to act inappropriately in public if they are wearing their IDs.
• Brand Identity And Marketing: Using a branded ID card system helps to establish a consistent brand identity across your organisation, and will make your business more memorable to customers.
This can be crucial in building brand loyalty, encouraging customers to buy from you again in future, and ensuring that they recommend you to others.
• Motivating Employees: When your employees put their ID on for work, it helps them get into ‘work mode’ and adopt the right frame of mind for the professional environment. ID cards also help customers to know employees' names, which removes obstacles to communication and promotes friendlier interactions.
Creating And Implementing Your Business’ ID Card Policy
To ensure a successful ID policy that all staff members are compliant with, you will need to plan the policy out thoroughly. The following factors are some just some of the considerations that you will need to take into account.
Pre-Card Issuance Procedures
Pre-Card Issuance sets in place the procedure required to issue cards to members of staff and guests.
When you construct your Pre-Card Issuance Procedure, you should consider how the cards will be produced - including any ID badge printing or photography services you might need to use, whether the badges will be produced individually or in a batch, who will issue the ID cards and when, and what the process for requesting a new ID badge will involve.
ID As Uniform
ID cards should be regarded as part of the uniform that your employees wear to work, and this standard should be regularly enforced to promote compliance.
When creating your ID card policy, consider when your employees should wear their IDs, how they should be worn to ensure maximum visibility, the card inspection procedure that will be used by management and/or security staff, and whether you wish to use a different type of access card for visitors to your site.
Enforcing the use of ID badges is critical to ensuring the success of your ID card procedure. The sooner your employees learn to wear their ID while at work, the more likely they are to remain compliant with your ID card policy.
You can enforce the policy by regularly reminding your staff of their responsibilities through work emails, announcements, and alerts on intranet systems, and by including guidance on the importance of wearing IDs in the staff training that you deliver.
ID Card Deactivation
Workforces are ever-changing, and even with a low staff turnover rate, your business will soon find that staff will come and go due to alternative employment prospects, ill-health, or retirement.
You should therefore have a procedure in place for deactivating ID cards when no longer required, and your allocated ID issuer(s) should be informed of all employees leaving the workforce.
You also need to confirm who is responsible for returning the card (i.e. will it be the employee themselves, or their line manager?), how returned cards will be documented, and who is responsible for deactivating and destroying the card, and how.
Want to introduce an effective ID card system into your business? Contact us today!