Comprehensive security is more than door locks and some security cameras. With integrated security systems, alerts, automation, and more, comprehensive security extends into more of a facility’s operations. This also means more of your team may be in contact with various aspects, and it’s important to your facility security that they are familiar with the systems that can affect them. Security awareness training usually covers the cybersecurity side of things, but what about your other security systems? Here are some reasons your team needs to be trained on your security systems and the negative impacts of undertrained teams:

6 Reasons Your Team Needs to Be Trained on Your Security Systems

Comprehensive training is one of the operational imperatives facility managers need for better physical security and more efficient operations. These are some of the top reasons why your team should be trained on your security systems:

1. Staff training eliminates potential security gaps.
2. Trained team members keep your facility secure.
3. Security system awareness can help meet and maintain compliance standards.
4. Staff training can help reduce false alarms.
5. Trained team members can help combat alarm fatigue.
6. Staff training can provide cost-savings.

1. Staff Training Eliminates Potential Security Gaps

Integration, customization, scalability, remote access and monitoring, and more are all qualities of good security systems. With the advances in technology and enhanced capabilities through integration and customization, security systems are ever more extensive and connected.

Although many systems are built to have user-friendly interfaces for day-to-day management within a facility, training internal team members on the systems can ensure they remain as effective as possible. This also eliminates any potential security gaps that could be caused or overlooked by someone who didn’t know what they needed to do or what to look for. Identifying roles and making sure everyone knows what they should be doing in an emergency is also essential for creating an emergency plan.

In addition to reducing or eliminating potential security gaps, if anything isn’t working as it should, trained team members may notice it sooner and allow for the proper maintenance or repair to occur. Not only is this type of regular maintenance part of managing and maintaining security systems, but it can also ensure security gaps are not flying under the radar because they weren’t noticed, were overlooked, or happened between regular maintenance schedules.

Many security systems are also equipped with tampering and damage alerts. When your team knows these are in place and what to look for, it can mean even shorter downtime, or no downtime, as components are adjusted or repaired. This type of cohesive and comprehensive communication is one of the benefits of integrated security systems, and training your team on your systems allows you to get the full range of benefits from your systems.

2. Trained Team Members Keep Your Facility Secure

Prioritizing training your internal team on security systems they may come into contact with can also help keep your facility more secure in the long run, whether it’s security for a single-location operation or security for multi-site businesses. Security risks and threats evolve over time; your security systems also need to improve and evolve to continue to cover them.

A regular building vulnerability assessment can help ensure your facility security remains comprehensive and continues to minimize risks, close gaps, and address emerging threats. In addition to that, staff members who are familiar with the security in place and what it can do are uniquely poised to provide valuable insight into things as they evolve in and around the facility.

They may be able to notice potential gaps or vulnerabilities and bring them to attention to be addressed. Additionally, they may be able to identify improvements around the facility and within the systems themselves to further improve building security and increase efficiencies in facility operations.

3. Security System Awareness Can Help Meet and Maintain Compliance Standards

By creating this type of culture of security and improvement, your team becomes committed and involved in keeping your facility secure, and also ensures everyone is aware of and follows the same security standards and protocols. In high-security facilities and operations, like secure hospitals, healthcare facilities, and other highly-regulated facilities, this can even help meet and consistently maintain compliance standards.

This is also one of the reasons reviewing existing processes and staff training is often included in hospital security assessments. A lack of training or improper or inefficient procedures can lead to HIPAA violations. In these situations, training your team on your systems and having robust standard procedures and processes can help you avoid mistakes that lead to HIPAA violations.

4. Staff Training Can Help Reduce False Alarms

One of the common causes of false alarms is human error. As security systems and components only become more advanced and more integrated, it’s important for any facility staff who will be interacting with systems to understand how they work, what they can do, how they are set up, and how to use them.

In the case of integrated nurse call systems, good products and configurations can help reduce human error and reduce false alarms. Effective training on top of that can help to further reduce these issues while also increasing staff efficiency. In addition to less stress, good security systems and proper staff training can help improve response times and patient satisfaction.

5. Trained Team Members Can Help Combat Alarm Fatigue

On top of reducing false alarms overall, training team members on security systems can help combat alarm fatigue, especially in healthcare and assisted living facilities. Team members who understand how to use the installed systems and the capabilities they have can make the most of the technology available to improve efficiencies across the board.

Knowing how to set up rule-based processes, generate valuable reports, manage alerts and notifications, and more can all improve facility security and staff effectiveness. These are also considerations for overhead paging systems, including how they are set up and where they fit into your communication processes.

6. Staff Training Can Provide Cost-Savings

Cost-savings analyses are important elements of risk management and can be valuable for security budget planning as well. Not only can the right security systems, integrations, and configurations provide a solid return on investment by protecting against expensive threats and improving operational efficiency, but staff training can also contribute to savings over time.

Training internal team members on the systems and security products in place makes them more effective and can also help speed up recovery time should an incident occur. Depending on the nature of the incident, this could mean preventing or reducing property damage, theft, injury, etc. This could also mean faster recovery of facility assets or a faster return to regular operations. In healthcare facilities, staff training improves staff protection and also means valuable insights when you evaluate your hospital’s staff protection systems and processes.

8 Negative Impacts of Undertrained Teams

Making sure your team is properly trained on your security systems provides several benefits to your staff and your facility overall. At the same time, there are risks and negative outcomes that come with teams that are not trained on your security systems. Here are some of the negative impacts of undertrained teams:

1. Increased risks and vulnerabilities
2. Compliance violations
3. Inefficient workarounds
4. Limits on patient outcomes in healthcare
5. Increased workloads for IT and support staff
6. Higher rates of burnout and employee turnover
7. Lowered ROI for systems
8. Lack of clarity around incidents

1. Increased Risks and Vulnerabilities

One of the biggest negative impacts of undertrained teams is increased risks and vulnerabilities. The best security technology in the world only goes so far. If your team is undertrained, not using the systems correctly, overlooking things, or inadvertently ignoring alerts, it can leave your facility exposed and at risk of serious security breaches.

Depending on your facility, operations, systems, etc., undertrained teams can also be more prone to causing accidents and injuries. This is a consideration in environments with mobile equipment, heavy machinery, and other risks to staff safety. These are common security concerns for warehouses, manufacturing facilities, and other similar environments.

2. Compliance Violations

Related to overall increased risks and vulnerabilities, undertrained teams can also lead to compliance violations. In highly-regulated industries, like healthcare, compliance violations carry hefty and serious consequences. Having the right systems in place and making sure everyone on your team knows how to use them properly can help your facility remain in compliance with required security standards and protocols.

3. Inefficient Workarounds

If your team is not properly trained on the systems available to them and their capabilities, they may be using their own workarounds and patched-together processes. Not only does this carry its own risk of creating security gaps and increasing errors, but it also often results in inefficient workarounds and miscommunications that make your staff less productive overall.

4. Limits on Patient Outcomes in Healthcare

In healthcare facilities, an undertrained team may take longer to respond to patient calls and be able to manage fewer of them. This makes your staff less efficient, more overworked, and negatively impacts patient care.

This may not necessarily cause negative patient outcomes, but it does increase the risk of them, drive up operational costs, and put a limit on the better outcomes that could have been provided. And, if critical alerts are missed, it can have serious consequences for patients.

Being trained on the systems you have in place and being able to take advantage of their full capabilities increases staff efficiency and productivity and allows them to deliver a better level of patient care. It also puts extra safeguards in place to ensure that critical alerts reach those who need to receive them, and staff can facilitate rapid response in an emergency.

Faster response times, more time for proactive patient care, and more all contribute to higher patient satisfaction and better outcomes. In this way, training your team on your systems in healthcare settings can contribute to better patient outcomes. As an added bonus, this can help hospitals improve HCAHPS scores, too.

5. Increased Workload For IT and Support Staff

Another one of the negative impacts of undertrained teams is that it often results in an increased workload and unnecessary burdens on IT staff and support staff. If everyone is constantly troubleshooting issues or trying to figure out miscommunications caused by not using systems correctly or to their full potential, they’re not able to focus on the impactful action items that matter.

This reduces productivity across your entire organization. Instead, you can train your team properly, establish standardized processes, and increase productivity across your organization. When your team is trained on your security systems, IT and support staff may still need to step in sometimes to help, but it will certainly be on an as-needed basis instead of an undue burden.

6. Higher Rates of Burnout and Employee Turnover

Other consequences of undertrained teams when it comes to security systems are higher rates of burnout and employee turnover. In industries that are already high-stress, like healthcare, retaining top talent, combatting alarm fatigue, and preventing burnout are already challenges. By forgoing training on systems, you can leave your staff struggling. Inefficiencies and workloads pile up along with stress, which can easily turn into burnout and a loss of your top talent.

7. Lowered ROI For Systems

One of the reasons your team needs to be trained on your security systems is that it can provide cost savings. Conversely, if your team is undertrained on your security systems and it results in inefficiencies or security incidents, it will lower the ROI (return on investment) for those security systems, while leaving all those benefits and gains behind. This can make it difficult to make the improvements your facility needs and can create additional obstacles when it comes to security budget planning for the future.

8. Lack of Clarity Around Incidents

In addition to the increased risk of an incident occurring, another one of the negative impacts of undertrained teams is that you could end up lacking clarity around incidents when they do occur. Integrating systems for a comprehensive security solution and reviewing incidents to make iterative improvements are essential to good facility security.

Being able to track, get a full view of an incident, and then gain insights to prevent another incident in the future are reasons why you need incident management software. However, if your team is not trained to use these systems or you don’t have policies in place to regularly review and assess security, then you are missing out on these valuable insights. This could mean that you also end up overlooking emerging security risks or existing gaps that could create serious issues for your facility.

Get Comprehensive Security For Your Facility With NEPPS

These are just a few reasons why your team needs to be trained on your security systems, as well as some of the negative impacts of undertrained teams. Some benefits of using a full-service security systems integrator include proper installation and configuration, support and maintenance, and can also include training internal teams on new or updated installations. If it’s time to review and upgrade your facility’s security, contact NEPPS at 1-800-736-1456.