How do you manage access to your coworking space? Are you currently using key cards or key fobs system to manage access to the space?

Max Scheutz, co-founder of Kisi, looks at the basic metrics of access management and the unspoken problems and overlooked dangers that arise with using such systems.

How Coworking Tenant Turnover Is a Risk to Security

If your former coworking spaces’ customers and tenants still keep their key cards and key fobs after they leave, they still have access into your coworking space.

Why is this a risk to your coworking space’s security? Let’s assume you have 100 people in your coworking space. Your monthly membership fluctuation rate is 15%. That equals 180 sign ups and 180 cancellations each year, which totals 360 key card/ key fob transactions.

Let’s assume one key transaction takes about 10 minutes including distractions and chit chat. So you spend around 3,600 minutes or 60 hours a year just on key management.

That’s a lot of time wasted. You can use these 60 hours for more important things such as increasing your security.

You can use these 60 hours for more important things such as increasing your security.

Let’s assume that every 10th cancellation fails for various reasons – the tenant doesn’t give the key card back, staff changes, or even you simply forgetting about it.

You have around 180 membership cancellations each year, and this means that about 18 people have unauthorized access to your space at the end of each year.

After 4 years, 72 people would have unauthorized access to your office. That’s scary! We are not saying that your former members and tenants would intentionally give unauthorized access to unauthorized members, but mishaps happen and with office and coworking security. It is always better to seek a preventive measure than a reactive measure. It’s like having a health insurance; it is always better to buy your insurance first before you get sick and end up having to pay a hefty sum in medical bills.

In a similar fashion, synchronizing your coworking space software with your access system is a simple step to avoid this – unauthorized access. It creates a peace of mind for both you and your members.