Running a property is a big responsibility.
It can be fun, but it can also be challenging in many ways.
You deal with all sorts of things.
From unhappy customers to disgruntled employees to vandalism, and even felonies.
Although you never know what you’re going to encounter daily, you do know there is always something.
You might even find it overwhelming.
It’s your duty to keep your property and the people on it safe, though, right?
But, that’s not always easy.
If you don’t have the resources to take care of business, it makes it worse.
Proactive operations know this.
They have systems and processes in place to handle it all.
Do you?
Do you have the right tools in place to manage any situation that could occur on your property?
Would you even know what to expect or how to respond when the time comes?
If you’re uneasy about today’s article – we get it!
It’s not the most comfortable feeling to face the fact that your operation has weaknesses.
But, we’re going to help you out today to get your Proactive Operations juices flowing.
We want to share four different scenarios of what could occur on your property, and how the right software can help you change the outcome for the better.
How does that sound?
Progressive Software Improves Operational Effectiveness
Professional execution relies on strategic training.
Modernizing your training process is accomplished using advanced solutions.
Well-trained staff executes more efficiently, which means that building a strong training foundation is critical.
Incident management systems along with guard tour systems contribute to this effort.
Pairing the process for security checks and managing incidents digitally reduces human error and ensures accountability.
For example, your security guards can record details from a mobile device, and the details are immediately recorded in the web-based incident management system.
See what we mean?
Through expert training, proactive operations introduce solutions into their daily activities which enhance the effectiveness of their staff.
What’s the result?
The safety of your customers through skillful execution of your team.
Providing staff with solutions to make their job less stressful increases their performance and your operations credibility as a world-class property.
Software removes operational challenges currently faced by companies and replaces them with real-life solutions.
Here’s the thing, you’re probably tired of dealing with all of this, right?
- Confusing procedures prevent efficiency and effectiveness
- Incident calls get overlooked due to lack of resources and time to respond
- Incomplete documentation leads to legal battles and finger-pointing
- Exchange of critical information is limited because real-time communications are missing
- No one is aware of the things you know must be occurring under the radar
The overall performance of an operation is directly related to your team’s ability to:
- Quickly respond to incidents
- Complete accurate and digital reports
- Check off pertinent inspection items
- Report potential hazards
Now, let’s look at how software changes your operations from reactive to proactive.
4 Different Scenarios That Demonstrate the Need for Valuable Solutions
Let’s put the value of solutions into perspective.
Below we’ve defined four instances where deploying solutions surpasses the use of old methods like pen and paper or nothing at all.
1. You Just Fired a Bad Employee
You’ve terminated an employee.
This person has worked for you for 14 years, so it’s ugly.
You request your security team’s assistance with escorting them off the grounds.
Nick, the head of security, will need the name and photo identification of the correct person to pick up and escort off the property.
How do you contact Nick to communicate this information efficiently?
Without a solution: you’ll search the property for Nick or another security guard, try talking over your radio, and hope to locate and communicate with someone in a short timeframe.
Using your solution: from your office, you attach the photo identification, make a few clicks within your incident management system (IMS), which sends the information to each of your guards’ mobile app.
A member of your security team acknowledges receipt of the details, which is also documented in the IMS.
Your toxic employee is no longer a problem for your organization.
2. Water Floods Your Property
While conducting overnight location inspections in your back-of-house zones, an employee identifies broken plumbing and possible water damage.
At 12:20 a.m. water begins flooding your property’s back-of-house.
In a panic, how do they react?
What do they do?
Without a solution: they search the property looking for the water turn-off valve.
As they’re doing this, they attempt to contact someone from the engineering team, who will know where the valve is, using their cell phone.
Water continues to flood the property.
This incident causes significant water damage.
Using your solution: they input the incident into your solution, see the protocol-to-handle, which includes how to shut off the water and where the stoppage valve is located.
It even forwards the details to your engineering manager who calls your employee to confirm everything is handled correctly.
With a response time like this, the incident is over in under two minutes.
Your teammate can snap pictures of the broken pipe while verifying that they conducted their tour at the scheduled time using their mobile device.
3. A Protocol-to-Handle Changes
You expect the best from your employees, right?
Well, your boss expects the same effectiveness from you too.
You’re supposed to familiarize your staff with requests regarding procedural changes quickly.
Laws, legal cases, or previous experience can lead to last-minute protocol-to-handle changes.
An hour before an event, your property’s general manager notifies you of a substantial update to a current protocol-to-handle.
This change will drastically affect your operating procedures for today’s event.
Your boss knows this is an impossible request but is feeling pressure from his boss.
So, he expects all staff to be immediately advised, and to conduct themselves accordingly.
You act promptly to take care of this impossible request.
Without a solution: you make a copy and have your operations supervisor hustle throughout the property to find each staff member.
A lot can happen before he reaches everyone – and that’s if he even reaches everyone!
Using your solution: you amend your current protocol in the solution, make a few clicks, and your team receives the update to the protocol-to-handle directly to their mobile devices and tablets.
Proactive solutions are the difference between minutes and hours.
4. Assault in the Parking Garage
Witnessing a forcible felony, such as kidnapping, assault, carjacking, or murder, is anyone’s worst nightmare.
It’s even worse after working long hours into the night.
They’re exhausted and stressed.
They’re watching the minutes go by until they can go home.
It’s now 5:49 a.m., roughly an hour before their replacement comes in, and they witness an intoxicated male pull a knife on a couple walking near your parking garage.
Your parking garage sits next to a sidewalk that people frequently use when leaving Downtown in the early morning.
Your staff believes the suspect has seen her.
Your employees are well-trained, but she’s nervous.
She clenches her fists and starts sweating.
She must act now.
Without a solution: she calls the management office to see if you’re in already. No one is available.
The phone keeps ringing.
At this point, the guard is unsure of what to do, and how to take proper action.
She calls 911 but knows she will have to react before anyone arrives.
Here nerves inhibit her ability to do anything.
She freezes.
Using your solution: she doesn’t hesitate for one second.
Instantly grabbing her incident management mobile app, she enters the incident into the device.
The protocol to handle this situation populates in seconds.
She acts quickly and can document the details.
She attaches a video and pictures to the incident report.
The Police apprehend the suspect from the photo, and she has saved lives – all in a day’s work.
All it takes are having the right solutions.
Over to You
We can’t cover all the potential issues, incidents, or threats your property might face in one article. But, we’re confident that the four we’ve outlined get the point across.
You can and should implement incident management and guard tour systems to improve efficiency across your property for multiple scenarios.
Proactive operations understand this value, do you?
Editor's note: This post was originally published in November 2016 and has been updated for comprehensiveness and freshness.
