UNDER A WATCHFUL EYE

BEST PRACTICES FOR KEEPING PROPERTIES AND TENANTS SAFE AND SECURE

BY NICK FORTUNA

As American workers gradually return to the office, building owners and managers should take a fresh look at their security programs to ensure that their properties are adequately protected and tenants’ needs are being met.

That’s a message from Greg Falahee, managing director for facilities management at Allied Universal, a leading security and facility management company with more than 800,000 employees around the globe. 

Falahee said the scope of work outlined in contracts between many security companies and their clients has remained “stagnant through multiple contract cycles.” Meanwhile, buildings’ security needs have changed substantially during the pandemic, with new technologies available, occupancy rates in some building types down sharply and businesses adjusting their hours of operation to provide workplace flexibility.

Some building supervisors are requiring security guards to take on more customer-facing tasks, such as checking visitors’ vaccination status and enforcing mask rules. At the same time, the national labor shortage is forcing security companies to raise wages in order to recruit and retain workers, leading to higher costs for building owners and managers. 

All of those factors make it important for building operators to stay in close contact with their security providers and periodically review their priorities, Falahee said. 

“The pandemic has challenged all of us to look at things through a new lens,” he said. “Between the pandemic, civil disobedience and economic uncertainty, there’s definitely been a growing concern about providing safe and secure environments for tenants and guests. 

“Successful property managers work with their security partners in reviewing incidents both on and off their property, evaluating if there are foreseeable risks and deploying means for mitigating those risks. Maintaining a healthy cadence of communication and assessment will best address security concerns.” 

Falahee said building supervisors should establish and maintain a “reasonable standard of care” with regard to security at each property. Simple steps include:

“It’s important to keep in mind that not all building security programs are the same,” Falahee said. “Not only do they differ by building type, but they differ depending on who’s occupying the space, their risk tolerance and what types of business activities are being conducted there.”

Technological advancements are giving building owners and managers more sophisticated tools to maintain security. Falahee said today’s security professionals are interacting with a host of Internet-connected digital applications that include closed-circuit television, life and fire safety systems and remote online access-control systems.

Long-term industry trends include identifying tasks that can be performed by technology applications such as robotics, Falahee said. Examples include deploying an integrated visitor management system to expedite the credentialing of contractors and visitors and using robotics to patrol a building’s perimeter, allowing security guards to focus on decision-making tasks and customer service.

“Larger organizations are investing heavily in technology, analytics and intelligence tools to help move toward integrated security programs that provide better flexibility long term,” Falahee said. “Integration is the buzzword du jour in the commercial real estate security sector, with increasingly complex and disparate systems being integrated on a single platform. 

“Incident reporting, tour watches and security officer tour systems are all included on a single platform run with artificial intelligence. Today’s security professional is not complacent. Rather, he or she is technologically savvy and committed to continual training.”

Falahee said that when selecting a security partner for a customer-facing program, building owners and managers should consider: