In this episode, Brad and Joe are joined by Alan Saquella, Corporate Security Executive and Professor College of Business Security and Intelligence at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. Alan is here to discuss his work in security and how he has seen the change in technology affect both the security and health and safety landscapes of businesses. 

Guest-at-a-Glance

💡 Name: Alan Saquella

💡 What he does: Corporate Security Executive and Professor College of Business Security and Intelligence

💡 Company: Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University

💡 Noteworthy: Alan is a Certified Polygraph Examiner and has been called “the human lie detector”

💡 Where to find Alan: LinkedIn

Key Insights

⚡ If your employees don’t feel safe at work, they won’t want to come in and won’t be able to perform at a high level. 

⚡ Most white-collar criminals don’t have criminal records so background checks aren’t the best way to find out if they are the sort of person who can fit into your workplace. 

⚡ Health and safety policies and employee safety go hand in hand. The two evolve together in the technology space. 

This episode of The Front Desk was brought to you by The Little Green Button - The original on-screen panic button software designed to keep staff safe. Reassurance that a helping hand is just a click away.

In this episode, Brad and Smile are joined by Lizzie Benton, founder of Liberty Mind, company culture coach, and podcast host. Lizzie helps organizations to improve their company culture and build their most valuable asset by making work great for people. Listen in to find out the importance of company culture for your employees, how you can improve your company culture, and what mistakes leaders can make when trying to create a great working environment. 

Guest-at-a-Glance

💡 Name: Lizzie Benton

💡 What she does: Founder of Liberty Mind and company culture coach

💡 Company: Liberty Mind

💡 Noteworthy: Lizzie is also the host of Make It Thrive: The Company Culture Podcast

💡 Where to find Lizzie: LinkedIn | Twitter

This episode of The Front Desk was brought to you by The Little Green Button - The original on-screen panic button software designed to keep staff safe. Reassurance that a helping hand is just a click away.

Welcome to the new episode of The Front Desk podcast. Today, you can meet our guest, a mental health advocate, Andy Bishop. Andy is the Founder of ManGang, which he describes as "a safe environment where men can talk openly without a fear of judgment." For Andy, mental health is one of the most vital aspects employers often underestimate, which leads to anxiety, depression, and stress workers feel.

Andy believes that mental health is equally important as physical health and should be treated like that. He suggests that companies should conduct mental health and safety training from time to time to reduce the risk of anxiety and depression in their workers.

Our guest points out the problem faced by the construction industry, a male-dominated field where people are afraid of expressing their feelings and speaking about them because they are expected to behave a certain way. Unfortunately, this leads to further issues, including suicide.

Investing in health awareness campaigns, training, and employees' wellbeing, is key to establishing a healthy work environment. Besides, "companies that invest in their people in this way can expect pretty big returns on investment."

Guest-at-a-Glance

💡 Name: Andy Bishop

💡 What he does: Andy is the Founder of ManGang

💡 Company: ManGang

💡 Noteworthy: Before he founded ManGang, Andy Bishop used to work full-time as a health and safety consultant. Therefore, he is fully aware of the role mental health plays in a person's professional and private life.

💡 Where to find Andy: LinkedIn | Twitter

This episode of The Front Desk was brought to you by The Little Green Button - The original on-screen panic button software designed to keep staff safe. Reassurance that a helping hand is just a click away.

In today's episode of the Front Desk podcast, our hosts, Bradley and Alex, welcome Shaun Bainbridge, security liaison manager, non-clinical risk team, at St Helens and Knowsley Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust to discuss safety in a workplace.

As our guest explains, keeping staff safe and establishing preventive security measures is the number one priority of every organization. Aside from creating projects and adopting policies, managers must develop a culture of communication within their teams. In the last year, the outbreak of COVID-19 was the flywheel for many conversations regarding employees' safety.

During the episode, Shaun shares alarming statistics from the NHS 2019 staff survey. According to the national survey, 28.5% of staff in the NHS experienced harassment, bullying, or abuse from patients or their relatives. Nearly 15% of staff suffered from violent acts, and only 49% reported those incidents. 

Bradley, Alex, and Shaun also take a deeper dive into the role of technology in the area of safety. Shaun believes that "technology is always going to be a leading light in how we move forward." 

Being open to innovation is the key to success. However, as Shaun explains, some things take time, and mistakes are inevitable. "We can all make mistakes every single day. It's about learning from those mistakes and making sure we try our best, so those mistakes don't happen in the future." 

This episode of The Front Desk was brought to you by The Little Green Button - The original on-screen panic button software designed to keep staff safe. Reassurance that a helping hand is just a click away.

In the new episode of The Front Desk podcast, our host Bradley Day introduces us to Smile Frankish and Alex Jay from Little Green Button. Smile is the Customer Success Manager, and Alex is the Managing Director at the company. Aside from working for the same company, what these two have in common is that they used to work in the hospitality industry. 

Their stories reflect the problems employees at bars, cafes, and restaurants face every day. Dealing with drunk and abusive customers is quite challenging, especially if you have zero guidance on how to react to those incidents, what safety measures to apply, and how to act without proper safety tools.

Both Alex and Smile agree that the hospitality industry lacks adequate safety policies to prevent incidents at work. Also, they would like to see the government do something to support employees and prevent criminal behaviour, which already exists.

Alex mentions the statistics, which states that 9 in 10 employees have experienced verbal abuse at work. ''Three in five have been threatened by a customer, while 9% of them have actually been abused." And most of them are afraid to report the assault for a wide variety of reasons.

Smile, Alex, and Bradley believe that employers can rely on many cost-effective tech-based solutions to protect their employees at work. But, will they implement them in the future or keep letting their employees experience physical and verbal abuse at work? Tune in to the new episode of The Front Desk podcast to find out.

This episode of The Front Desk was brought to you by The Little Green Button - The original on-screen panic button software designed to keep staff safe. Reassurance that a helping hand is just a click away.

Not every job has the same level of risk when it comes to dangerous situations. However, for employees who have the potential to face more dangerous circumstances, it’s important to have special training. Thankfully, professionals such as Vince Donovan help individuals overcome safety concerns and work with organizations to mitigate dangerous environments in the workplace.

Vince Donovan is a specialist trainer and keynote speaker in conflict resolution, lone worker personal safety, and safeguarding at Safety Solutions Training. Prior to becoming a trainer, Vince was a police officer.

In today's episode of the Front Desk podcast, Vince shares stories from the field and explains how COVID has changed the ways organizations look at their employees. He also discusses the most common challenges his clients faced during the pandemic and says many lessons have been learned, and it is up to us to decide how we will use those experiences in the future.

This episode of The Front Desk was brought to you by The Little Green Button - The original on-screen panic button software designed to keep staff safe. Reassurance that a helping hand is just a click away.