As a business owner, it is only right that you should want to keep your premises and employees safe at all times. While on-site, you can have some level of control over this, such as by providing your staff with a certain level of security training or by installing CCTV cameras.
However, when you and your team aren’t on the premises, it becomes much harder to keep your site secure. That’s why you need a strategy in place for when the alarm gets raised - and that’s where keyholding comes in.
But what exactly is professional key holding, and does your business need it?
What Is Keyholding?
Key holding is when a designated person or organisation holds your keys so that your site can be accessed in case of an emergency. Your chosen key holder will always hold the keys off-site in a separate location. If an alarm at your site is raised indicating a potential security breach, your key holder will be able to quickly access your site and investigate the disturbance. All of this means that you have someone able to keep an eye out on your business premises even when you’re not there, giving you some level of round-the-clock protection.
While key holding doesn’t have to be a paid service, there are several benefits to hiring a professional security provider (more on these benefits later).
Why Do I Need Keyholding?
On the whole, a keyholding and alarm response service keeps your business premises and your employees safe. Some of the benefits of having a keyholding service in place include:
- Being able to respond rapidly to any raised alarms and potential criminal activity
- Reducing the likelihood of a false alarm
- It gives you peace of mind knowing that your business site is always being looked after.
- You’re guaranteed to have someone respond to the problem
- It’s the safest way to ensure that your site is secure.
Do I Need to Pay for Keyholding?
Strictly speaking, keyholding doesn’t need to be a service delivered by a professional security outfit. Many businesses, in particular smaller businesses, will nominate a member of staff to be the designated keyholder. This makes it their sole responsibility to respond in a timely manner whenever the alarm is raised outside of usual working hours.
While this can work, there are some drawbacks. Firstly, it requires having someone on your team willing to take on this role. It can be a big responsibility that means that they have to arrange cover anytime they want to be away for an extended period.
Additionally, it requires you to have someone you can wholeheartedly trust to quickly respond to a raised alarm at any hour of the day, and not abuse having 24/7 access to your site. While finding someone like this likely won’t be a problem for many businesses, some may struggle with this.
Finally, it’s likely that the designated person has no formal security training. While this may be fine for smaller businesses, a larger business is more likely to need a professional they can trust to keep their key secure, respond to a raised alarm rapidly, and not get upset about being called out in the middle of the night to check out the source of the disturbance.
Do Small Businesses Need Professional Keyholding?
Regardless of the size of your business, any business that has its own premises can benefit from a keyholding service. From multi-storey office buildings to retail stores, construction sites to restaurants, your premises and the contents you keep there all have value, making it worthwhile considering keyholding for your business.
When it comes to small businesses, many may decide that they don’t have the budget for a professional keyholding service. In this case, it’s highly recommended that they come up with their own in-house keyholding system at the very least.
How Do You Find Reliable Keyholders?
When it comes to finding a keyholding security provider that you can trust to protect your premises, you first want to make sure that your provider is SIA (Security Industry Authority qualified, meaning that they’re legally approved to deliver private security services in the UK.
Next, you want to check that your chosen provider has a wealth of experience delivering a reliable key holding and alarm response service. You’re entrusting this provider with the security of your premises while you’re not there, so you want to be sure that they’re competent and experienced.
It’s also good if your provider can offer a wide range of additional services, such as a lock and unlock service or a mobile patrol service. While you may not need these services right now, you should examine what services you may need in the future, so that if and when the time comes that you do need these services, you already have a security provider that delivers your needed service and who you can trust.
Finally, it’s worth taking the time to find a security provider familiar with the local area. While this isn’t essential, knowing the area can make your security provider better able to deliver an expert security service.
Taybar’s Expert Keyholding Service
When it comes to delivering reliable and professional security solutions, Taybar are widely considered to be industry experts, which is why we’ve been awarded the NSI Guarding Gold Medal.
With over 20 years of delivering SIA-approved security services, we know what it takes to provide a key holding and alarm response service that you can rely on 24/7. Delivered by hand-picked and highly trained security officers across the Midlands and South Yorkshire, our team will store your keys in industry-approved pouches at all times.
To find out more about how we can keep your business premises safe at all times through our key holding service and our other premium security services, get in touch today.
