How to Protect your Business from Terrorist Attacks

After what happened in many areas around the world with restaurant and concert shootings, it is clear that it isn’t just areas like shopping malls that are at risk of terrorism. As an employer, naturally you want to ensure that your business and your employees are kept safe, which is why knowing how to protect your business from terrorist attacks is so important.

Terrorism is a significant threat, especially if your business is located in a busy city, which is why knowing how to stay safe is so important. To give yourself the best possible chance of protecting yourself, your team and your customers, take note of, and implement, the below advice – it could save yours’ and many other people’s lives.
 

What Steps Can You Take to Prevent a Terror Attack at Your Business?

The first step that you should take to protect your business from the threat of terrorism is to attend regular Project Griffin meetings. This is a national scheme to help protect buildings from terrorism, where all of the latest security and counter-terrorism advice is shared. These specialist briefings are made to help businesses better understand how to detect terrorist threats, and deal with incidence, should they occur.

The next step could be to begin working with a counter-terrorism security advisor who can help to ensure that when it comes to terrorism you, and your team, are as prepared as possible for this very real threat. You will find that by working with a counter-terrorism specialist, you will feel better equipped to deal with any terror incidents that may occur.

It is also advisable that you take the time to consider terror proofing your business. The chances are that this isn’t something that you have thought about, but now that the terror threat has risen, it should be something that every business owner takes seriously. The most important part of terror proofing your business is checking that all entry points into the building are secure. Is each entrance point locked and monitored with CCTV? If it isn’t, now is the time to up your security to help mitigate the risk.

A great way to help make a terror attack on your business less likely, it can help to determine what the potential threats may be. Identify which areas of your business may be most at risk and why. Look at your customers and determine whether any of them could be potential targets, for whatever reason.
 

What Can You Ask Your Employees to Do?

One thing that you can encourage each of your team members to do is understand how real the threat is, and encourage them to take it seriously and be clued up when it comes to security. Ensure that each of your employees has a security card that gives them access to the building – explain the importance of keeping these cards safe and reporting it should one get lost.

It can also be useful to run terrorism drills where you and your team act out different terrorism scenarios to determine how you would cope should the situation arise. A terror threat may be unlikely, but that doesn’t mean that it won’t happen. So preparing for it is important, as that way you know that your team are equipped to deal with whatever comes their way, be it a suspicious package or an intruder breaking in.

Another vital thing to make your team aware of is that reporting suspicious behaviour or a strange package to the police is never a waste of time. There is a common misconception that reporting something when you aren’t sure about it, is a waste of time. But the fact is, it isn’t a waste of time – reporting something that doesn’t seem right could save a lot of lives. It might be nothing, but what if it isn’t? It’s always worth reporting something that seems suspicious, just in case it is something to worry about.

The UK is on high alert for terror attacks, which means that there is a chance – albeit a slim chance – that your business could fall foul to a terror attack of some sort. That is why it is so important to know how you can protect your business from this threat, as well as how you can ensure that your team is equipped to deal with any potentially devastating situations that may occur due to terrorism.