Properly managing a team of security guards requires a lot of work, from managing guard schedules to ensuring that each guard is adequately fulfilling their responsibilities.

Unfortunately, when large piles of paperwork get involved, it can be easy to bog down these and other important tasks related to on-site security – especially when it comes to your company’s security incident reporting procedure.

Companies that continue to rely on filing paper reports or even just calling in an incident over a walkie-talkie are much more prone to human error as they try to deal with the problem. Be it failing to get incident information to the proper personnel or even losing an incident report under a stack of papers, these old and inefficient methods can create a wide range of issues for security staff.

Because of this, an increasing number of security teams have begun to use automation software to streamline their security incident reporting procedure.

So how can these systems benefit your reporting methods?

Let’s take a closer look.

Accurate information gathering

Should Your Security Incident Reporting Procedure Be Automated?One of the biggest issues that hampers security incident reporting is when a guard fails to provide adequate information when they submit their report. This is especially common when using paper reporting systems – after all, there isn’t any way to force someone to fill in each information cell on the paper.

Inaccuracy can also be a problem when submitting reports manually. Quite often, these reports are filled out well after the incident took place, which can make it hard for guards to remember the time and other details. These and other seemingly minor errors can lead to major gaps in the reporting process, which can slow down response times or lead to conflicting reports.

Neither of these are problems when using an automated system, however. Back office management can set up their reporting system so that guards are unable to submit an incident report without filling out all required cells. Better yet, many systems can automatically fill in certain pieces of information (like time and location stamps) so your guards don’t have to worry about submitting that data themselves. When combined with mobile access, this ensures that accurate incident reports can be filed with extreme speed.

The right info to the right people

Another common issue that hampers a team’s security incident reporting procedure is making sure the right information gets to the right people. While some incidents don’t require any additional support from back office staff, other events may require additional instructions from the owner of the facility or even assistance from emergency personnel.

Should Your Security Incident Reporting Procedure Be Automated?Attempting to relay this information via emails or phone calls can often be confusing as both guards and back office staff try to figure out who they need to contact – but with the help of an automated system, this isn’t a problem.

An automated system allows management to input all necessary contact information, which users can then access to forward alerts and notifications to the right people

For example, if a security incident is reported, and the incident requires additional instruction from the facility manager, back office staff wouldn’t need to search through records for that individual’s contact information.

The push of a button would get the message sent to the right person using the most effective contact method (even if that requires push notifications or text messages). This way, security staff can avoid miscommunications and delays in the reporting and response process.

Conclusion

When your team uses an automated reporting system to ensure that detailed and accurate information is submitted by your guards and then transfers that information to the right people, you can achieve faster responses to security incidents. As you resolve incidents more efficiently, you will achieve better results for your clients, cut operating costs, and build a strong reputation that will help you grow your business.