Key Control for Your Business – Just How Important Is It?

While it’s of course essential that you have a good locking system at your business premises, it is worthless without a responsible, well-devised key control policy in place. Helping to protect employee lives, valuable property and the overall security of the entire premises, such a policy is very important, and should not be overlooked by any business owner.

How can your business ensure key control at all times?
Ideally, each business should have a written policy in place to ensure that all keys for the premises cannot be duplicated without proper authorization, and a patented key control system must be implemented. With a patented system, the key blanks are available only to the locksmith, who gets them directly from the manufacturer; this way, the locksmith has total accountability. It’s important that you only work with a reputable locksmith though, since it’s not good enough for a key to simply have ‘do not duplicate’ stamped on it, it must meet the standards of a true patented key control system.

The benefits of working closely with a locksmith
It’s always of benefit to liaise with a locksmith, whether you’re looking to secure your home, or your business, and with their years of experience and specific security knowledge and training, they are best placed to give you up-to-the-minute and trustworthy safety tips.

Trained to do so much more than simply copy your keys, locksmiths can help you design a keying system for your business that can be successfully enforced, and you can work with them to create keys for the owner, employees and any night staff who might have varying levels of access to certain parts of the building.

If you answer yes to any of the following, then you might need a locksmith’s help with setting up and enforcing a key control policy:

• Do your employees have keys to your business?
• Can your employees make copies of these keys without your permission?
• Have you put a policy in place for issuing and reclaiming keys?

How can you begin creating your own key control plan?
Begin with a patented keying system, as mentioned above, and make sure the product you go with has a Utility Patent. Then, only those personnel authorized to make copies of keys, can do so, and only through the originating locksmith.

Once you have the key control system in place, you should closely monitor who has copies of each key, and how many copies there are in total, helping to prevent your keys from being copied at a local store by anyone with the blank.

You can easily track keys and their copies with a key management software designed to be compatible with your existing system, should you so wish.

For more help devising a comprehensive key control system, remember that your local locksmith is a fantastic resource, so be sure to seek their advice to help make your business as secure as it can possibly be.