As a business owner, you have a responsibility to provide a safe work environment for your team members. The efforts you make to secure your premises can help avert potentially disruptive activities, ranging from violence to theft. They boost team engagement and morale. And, they can keep you on the right side of legal liability concerns.
Your responsibilities aren’t just confined to the building, though. You also need to provide your employees (and for that matter, clients and customers) with a safe parking lot. As employees leave work at the end of the day, or arrive early in the morning, the last thing you want is for them to feel vulnerable or endangered as they make their way into the office.
So what can business owners do to ensure safe, secure parking lot areas? Here are a few tips.
How to Ensure a Safe Parking Lot
- Be sure you have the right lighting. Nothing deters criminal activity as well as some good, basic lighting. Make sure there aren’t any dark, shadowy corners of your parking lot, even when it’s late in the day or early in the morning. Regularly check your parking lot lighting and make necessary repairs promptly.
- Provide a set of guidelines. You might also furnish your employees with a list of parking lot safety suggestions, simply reminding them of best practices. Some examples might be to always walk with someone else, to keep vehicles locked, etc. Consider posting these rules in employee break areas or in the parking lot itself.
- Urge your employees not to wear headphones/earbuds in the parking lot. You can’t necessarily force this but do remind your employees that attentiveness is key… and nothing distracts them from their surroundings quite like listening to music or podcasts.
- Ensure a safe place to wait. What about employees who have to wait for a bus, or for a loved one to come pick them up from work? Be sure there’s a safe, secure place in your lobby where employees can wait.
- Consider security cameras. Do you have visible security cameras set up in your parking area? If not, it’s something you might at least contemplate. Often, the mere sight of a camera is enough to deter criminals and wrongdoers.
These are just a few simple steps you can consider as you seek to make your parking lot a truly safe space, one where your employees and customers alike can feel reasonably confident and at-peace.
If you have any questions or want to know more about keeping your commercial space as safe as can be, reach out to Kuester CRE today. You can connect with us at our toll-free number, 855-723-2500.