What Is Key Holding? A Complete Guide for Businesses

Did you know that 34% of burglaries that happen each year affect businesses? The use of alarms and other security technological tools is not always enough to keep criminals out.

Luckily, there are different ways to protect your business, even if a breach were to occur. Key holding is a security solution that every business can utilize. What is key holding exactly?

Keep reading to find out what you need to know about this service.

What Is Key Holding?

Key holding is a security service where a firm holds a set of keys for your commercial building. The keys are held in a safe off-site location to use in the event of a security breach.

A trained and reliable security professional will respond to any security issue such as a burglary.

How Key Holding Works

Small businesses typically select a member of their staff to respond to emergencies. This is often a manager or someone higher up who has access to specific codes and keys.

This individual gets alerted no matter the time of day an emergency occurs. For larger companies, this same system won’t work. Looking for key holding services is common for bigger businesses and corporations for this reason.

However, key holding is beneficial for a company of any size.

A specialist security firm will take on these responsibilities themselves. Key holding professionals will have access to your premises so that companies don’t have to force a staff member to respond to emergencies.

Benefits of Key Holding Services

Once an alarm key holder service is notified of an emergency, they will quickly make their way to your premises. They’ll then analyze the threat level and determine if the alert is real or a false alarm.

If required, they will notify emergency services for you. Let’s uncover the key benefits of key holding services:

An Ideal Safety Solution

When it comes to safety solutions, trusting a staff member with emergencies is not ideal.

If the alarm is genuine, will your employee have the skills needed to protect themselves and the premises? In most cases, the answer is no.

On the other hand, a security professional will be able to take action if necessary. This solution is safer for everyone involved.

Guaranteed Response

When an intruder alarm gets activated by your commercial security systems, a key holder’s control room is immediately notified. Control rooms are equipped with 24/7 security personnel to respond to emergencies at a moment’s notice.

When you leave this task to an employee, you won’t have a guaranteed response. It’s possible for a 9-5 worker to sleep through a security alarm. If they do see the alarm, they will probably have a slower response time.

Cuts out Confusion

When you hire a commercial security key holder, they can provide an effective response to any circumstance. They’re well-trained for their job which is not something you can say when leaving this responsibility to an employee.

There is less confusion when hiring key holding services especially if you have multiple key holders who refuse to communicate with one another.

Staff Remains Safe and Productive

If a staff member is forced to respond to an emergency during the early morning or late night, their sleep could be disturbed. Without a great sleeping schedule, a person’s productivity levels are going to be lower.

When an emergency is a real threat and not a false alarm, you are asking your employee to risk injury and trauma. Both of these scenarios can be avoided when you opt for key holding services instead.

Thorough Examinations

The person who has access to your keys should thoroughly investigate the building to ensure it is safe and secure. Professional key holding services will leave nothing to chance.

The same can’t be said for your employees, especially when the emergency occurs at a random hour of the day. Most likely, your employee is going to want to rush back home without conducting the best survey.

Trained security personnel can examine the premises and spot security flaws that might go unnoticed otherwise. You’ll then be able to remedy any security issue before a security breach were to occur.

Once a security professional has responded, resolved, or deescalated the situation, they will stay on-site until they can confirm that there are no other immediate risks.

They can report in-depth findings to you that can help in the future. Your employees will have peace of mind when coming into work as well.

Key Holder Responsibilities

Hiring a key holding company to deal with emergencies is beneficial for a lot of reasons. However, you’ll want to assign an employee to hold a set of keys to open and shut the business each day.

Duties of a professional key holding company might include the following tasks:

• Handling operational procedures
• Assisting cashiers
• Providing customer service
• Supervising cleaning staff
• Setting alarms
• Keeping the entry area clean and organized

A private security service can also help you if your key to the premises is lost or stolen. You’ll still have a way to get into the building because a third party holds a set of your spare keys.

If your cleaning crew comes after hours, a key holding service can supervise them and lock up the building when they are done.

Should You Hire a Key Holding Service?

For many businesses, the ability to hire a key holding service is a necessary part of their security solutions. If you want to protect your premises and your employees, don’t load all of the responsibility on them.

A key holding service is equipped to respond to different types of emergencies while recognizing security flaws. To reap the benefits from this guide, start searching for a key holding service in your area today.

For more business articles like this, check out the other posts on our blog.