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Personnel Safety, Training, and Awareness

As stated previously, personnel safety is the number one goal of physical security. This includes the safety of personnel while onsite and off. Safety training provides a skill set such as learning to operate an emergency power system. Safety awareness changes user behavior (“Don’t let anyone follow you into the building after you swipe your access card”). Both safety training and awareness are critical to ensure the success of a physical security program. You can never assume that average personnel will know what to do and how to do it: they must be trained and made aware.

Exam Warning Physical security training and awareness is critical because of the possible stakes: injury or loss of life. Safety is the primary goal of all physical security controls.

Evacuation Routes

Evacuation routes should be prominently posted, as they are in hotel rooms. All personnel should be advised of the quickest evacuation route from their areas. Guests should be advised of evacuation routes as well.

All sites should use a meeting point, where all personnel will meet in the event of emergency. Meeting points are critical: tragedies have occurred where a person outside the front of a building does not realize another is outside the back, and reenters the building for attempted rescue.

Evacuation Roles and Procedures

The two primary evacuation roles are safety warden and meeting point leader. The safety warden ensures that all personnel safely evacuate the building in the event of an emergency or drill. The meeting point leader assures that all personnel are accounted for at the emergency meeting point. Personnel must follow emergency procedures, and quickly follow the posted evacuation route in case of an emergency or drill.

Special care should be given to any personnel with handicaps, which could affect egress during an emergency. Elevators should never be used during a fire, for example, which could impede the egress of personnel in wheelchairs. All sites should have mitigating controls to allow safe egress for all personnel.

Duress Warning Systems

Duress warning systems are designed to provide immediate alerts to personnel in the event of emergencies, such as severe weather, threat of violence, and chemical contamination. Duress systems may be local and include technologies such as use of overhead speakers, or use of automated communications such as email, instant messages, or phone calls. National duress safety systems include the United States Federal Communication Commission’s Emergency Alert System (formerly known as the Emergency Broadcast System).

Travel Safety

Personnel must be safe while working in all phases of business. This obviously includes work performed onsite, but also includes authorized work from home, and business travel. Telecommuters should have proper equipment, including ergonomically safe workstations.

Business travel can be dangerous to certain areas. Organizations such as the United States State Department Bureau of Consular Affairs issue travel warnings (available at https://travel.state.gov/); such warnings should be consulted and heeded before travel to foreign countries.