Tuesday, June 12, 2018

Technology and Your Business - Video Surveillance


Today we have an ever increasing number of technology tools to choose from to employ in our businesses.  The workforce has become more mobile with computing power held in our hands that was barely imaginable 30 years ago.  Productivity gains have been incredible and we can do more with less people.  That trend seems to be increasing as well with automation top of mind of many business leaders around the world.

There’s an old saying in business… “Employees don’t do what we expect, they do what we inspect.”  Well today we can inspect in better and different ways.  One such way is through video surveillance.  Security cameras can be utilized in many different aspects in business.  A business owner can place them on the manufacturing floor, in the warehouse and on the construction jobsite to name a few examples.  At our business we are considering placing cameras in the common areas of our building for added security for our professional staff and to better safeguard equipment.

You can see just in the examples above that cameras can be used for different purposes.  On the manufacturing floor, management can monitor equipment and people making sure processes are operating smoothly and all equipment is up and running effectively.  In a warehouse, cameras can be used to monitor inventory and serve as a deterrent to theft.  Additionally, any unsafe practices with forklifts, ladders or any other shortcut that an employee may take can be mitigated by the presence of surveillance cameras.  On a jobsite, you can again monitor the efficiency of processes as well as equipment usage practices, etc.  Safety can be increased as laborers will be less likely to take poor risks in the execution of the work.  What would it mean to your workers comp insurance premiums if your experience modification was improved in part due to this monitoring as well as keeping your employees safe and on the job?

In all of the above scenarios, having “eyes in the sky” can serve as essentially having another foreman on the site, in the warehouse or on the production floor.  Today’s cameras are high resolution and with certain makes/models, you can zoom in without losing any resolution providing clear pictures in the area of interest within the frame.  One can access these cameras anytime, day or night, from any device including your cellphone, tablet or desktop computer.  If you haven’t already added video capabilities to your business, now is the time to consider doing so.  If you are unsure where to find a technology provider, ask one of your business partners (banker, attorney, CPA, insurance/surety provider, friend in your industry).  This is an investment that should pay for itself in short order.