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Well planned is half complete

For good reason, the employee risk assessment environment is becoming crowded with practitioners, equipment and techniques to the extent of bewilderment. As the business world expands, so do the risks associated with it, especially the people risks. The requirement today is for an assessment procedure that is concise, sensibly priced and accessible; one that cuts the time and money such investigation can unnecessarily demand. Are we anywhere nearer such a Golden Fleece?

Perhaps the total solution is still out of reach and will stay that way as long as the industry continues to expand and constantly reinvent itself. For this state of the sector’s development, a tool is needed that guides employers through the risk assessment jungle and delivers them to a place where risks are easier to see and deal with.

iFacts has developed a process that literally arms you with information, in itself proving the adage that 'knowledge is power'.

Complete company security is a labyrinth, but only to be feared if you do not know your way around it. The company says it can show you how and prove its commitment that ‘we remove the people risk’.

iFacts’ independent risk assessment is like a do-it-with-us process that will improve the protection of companies’ staff and assets by examining and evaluating the effectiveness of existing security from intelligence gathering to security vulnerability testing and everything in between. With this information at hand a complete and updated security plan can be prepared.

Throughout the process, the key is thoroughness. For example, in the intelligence category we analyse crime perpetration in all its guises in the area going back over as many years as it takes to complete the picture. Such input is invaluable to the risk analysis itself and the capability of existing systems and their security effectiveness.

This takes us on to an assessment of the security personnel – from the efficacy of its employee screening processes, if any; the calibre of security staff, and implementing training programmes for security staff and employee awareness procedures. An inventory is made of security-related equipment for modernisation and effectiveness. Are security personnel up to standard and is upkeep maintained and costs kept in check?

How the security task is planned and performed is the foundation. Henry Ford remarked when he installed his first motor car assembly line: “Well planned is half complete”. Henry never said anything truer, and it applies in great measure to the company’s security component. Plan it to the last detail and then implement the plan as thoroughly.

Laying the groundwork for the assessment is as important as what goes on top. This includes interviews with management, employees and contractors, with the premises being visited at all hours allowing company security procedures to be assessed, including the security financials.

Adding value to our independent risk assessment and non-financial due-diligence offering, iFacts has joined forces with AfricaEye (www.africaeye.co.za), an online solution designed for investors, businesses, researchers and entrepreneurs. We can now offer clients access to market analysis and demographic insights for a greater number of South African and other African cities.

In its premier offering, AfricaEye gives users access to data from 100 South African and 20 African cities and major towns that provide in-depth information in user-defined catchment areas. It also makes user friendly by offering a more basic product that sources data from 650 South African and 30 African cities and major towns.

“With AfricaEye, any individual or institution around the world now has access to affordable, industry-tested, reliable, granular household income and retail expenditure data to improve planning and map their market potential and African expansion more accurately,” says Sybrand Strauss, MD of Fernridge Consulting.

The AfricaEye dataset makes use of aerial photography, property research, demographic data, global positioning system (GPS) fieldwork and industry-tested consulting experience and methods.

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