SECURITY ZONING. The idea that employees should be able to use the entire office as their workplace may need to be restricted for security reasons. There may, for example, be teams who are working on confidential projects that should not be accessible or visible to others. In such cases it will be necessary to apply some degree of security zoning in the office, making a distinction between areas that are only accessible to specific teams or persons, areas that are accessible to all employees, and semi-public areas where visitors are also allowed. Ideally the different zones should be embedded in one another, thereby increasing the level of security with each new zone.MUST-HAVESNICE-TO-HAVESPUBLIC ZONE SEMI-PUBLIC ZONE OPERATIONS ZONE (HIGH) SECURITY ZONESECURITY LEVELPublic zone Semi-public zone Operation zone Security zone / This zone is accessibleThis zone is accessible toThe term operationsHigh-security zoneto both staff and visitors.staff and to visitors withzone is security jargon forThis is a zone or space that Typically, it will be the areatemporary access cardsthe regular office floorsis accessible to specific right behind the entrance,(usually via turnstiles withof a building, where theemployees only and is with a waiting area andcard readers). This zoneorganizations staff carry outoften located within the a reception desk whereoften houses the conferencetheir daily work activities.operations zone. Examples visitors can obtain an accessspaces where meetingsOnly staff will have accessinclude spaces for teams pass. Depending on the sizewith visitors take place. Theto these areas, gainingworking on a confidential of the project, there maycompany restaurant may beentrance via doors with cardproject or for staff working also be a coffee point andlocated here as well, allowingreaders. The challenge withwith security-sensitive data. informal work and meetingstaff and visitors to haveoperations zones is to designIn some cases, there may spots in this zone. In somelunch or coffee together. Inthem in such a way that staffbe even be a need for high projects, the area maysome cases, this zone alsocan move around freely,security spaces (e.g. a crisis include a publicly accessiblefeatures co-work areas forwithout too much cardroom) within that zone, cafe and/or an exhibitionexternal partners. swiping. which will often have some area. kind of biometric access control. 70