Is Keyholding Better Than In-House Response?
The most common alternative to professional keyholding is asking your own staff to respond to alarm activations and out-of-hours incidents. For most businesses, a careful comparison shows that professional keyholding is significantly better — on safety, consistency, documentation and operational grounds.
The problems with in-house response
Lone working risk. An individual attending a potential intruder alarm alone, at night, at premises that may have been breached, is a lone worker in a foreseeable risk situation. They have no backup, no trained assessment procedure and no clear escalation protocol.
Employer liability. Requiring employees or duty holders to attend alarm activations in potentially dangerous circumstances creates a duty of care issue that is difficult to defend if something goes wrong.
Response quality. An unprepared person arriving at a potential incident will not conduct the same assessment as a trained security officer. Evidence may be disturbed, and the record of what happened will be incomplete or absent.
Disruption cost. The cumulative effect of alarm callouts on management wellbeing, personal time and business focus is real, even if hard to quantify.
What professional keyholding provides instead
A licensed keyholding provider dispatches a trained, SIA-licensed officer when an alarm activates. The officer follows a systematic assessment process, is equipped to handle what they find, and produces a full written incident report after every attendance. Your team is not disturbed unless the situation genuinely requires it.
Related reading
Why businesses need professional keyholding | Who responds to business alarms? | Is keyholding worth it? | Keyholding services UK
Speak to Evergreen Security
Call 0345 88 88 333 or email info@evergreensecurity.co.uk to discuss replacing in-house alarm response with a professional keyholding service.