TODAY’S POST IS BY REBECCA, WITH SPYTOWN.COM. We welcome our guest author, and hope you enjoy reading about security at your workplace.
There’s at least one news story every day about schools adding security cameras, public parks mounting security cameras on lamp posts, and working parents installing nanny cameras in their child’s room to see what both their little one and the nanny are doing during the day. But how about the workplace? Should security cameras monitor your movements while you’re on the job, especially if they could help prevent safety issues in the future? Or should the company trust its employees and conduct regular safety training to educate employees? The Security Camera Systems experts from SpyTown.com are here to shed light on this controversial topic.
Business Security Cameras Look Out For Employees
Many businesses have added security cameras to genuinely protect their employees from any kind of misconduct or verbal/physical abuse from other employees. Team building exercises help employees work with each other, but if there is a situation, security camera feeds can be the unbiased eye-witness on the scene.
Security cameras also act as a safeguard to see where any safety mishaps are occurring or identify potential safety issues. Be sure to have each department manager review the tapes weekly and point out any safety concerns, and develop a plan to minimize those concerns for the future.
Have quality control checkpoints? Security cameras act as just another step in your quality control route, and are your eyes in the sky to document what’s happening throughout the production process. Review the tapes often to see if they spark any ways to increase efficiency and safety for your employees.
Companies Should Trust Their Employees, Instead Of Watching Over Them
The other side of the coin says that businesses should invest time into choosing talented employees they can trust, eliminating the need to “monitor” these employees to ensure they’re doing their jobs. Regular performance meetings and quality reviews can also help to ensure the employees are performing up to the company’s standards. Savvy management and solid leadership can identify a top performing employee and have the know-how to spot an employee in need of motivation and additional training.
Another argument against security cameras in the workplace is that regular safety training should educate employees on workplace safety best practices, and safety reviews should be conducted at regular intervals. In addition, management should also be looking out for gaps in workplace safety, rather than security cameras watching over the employees.
What’s our take? We have helped many companies choose the business security cameras right for their business, and we’ve heard firsthand experiences where security cameras have been an invaluable tool. Of course, security cameras should complement safety training, quality control checkpoints, and employee performance reviews, rather than replace them. In addition, it’s important to be open and honest with your employees as to the location of the security cameras and reasons you have installed them, rather than having them feel as if you distrust their movements or “big brother” is watching. This goes a long way in helping your employees feel like valuable contributors to your organization and doing their part to ensure their workplace safety is top notch.
(Thank you, Rebecca, for this invaluable information from SpyTown.com.)