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Good Security Starts With Good Security Officers
In an economy which is nearing full employment, good security officers are sometimes hard to find. In some parts of the UK, it is becoming increasingly difficult to recruit suitable and reliable people, who have the appropriate skills and want to do what is, let us admit, not always the most attractive job on offer.
Legislation passed in 2002 which requires all security officers to be licensed, will come into force in 2005, adding extra hurdles to the recruitment process as all applicants are subjected to criminal record checks. No one in our industry disputes the importance of licensing, but the licence fee and the bureaucratic difficulties involved, especially for foreign nationals, make it harder for all of us to attract the right people for the job.
At the same time, security is becoming more important than ever, in corporate premises and in public places like shopping centres and events venues. The ability to stop and search suspicious individuals, thoroughly and courteously, could avert a terrorist incident, at worst, or prevent a major theft.
Security officers stand in the front line and carry a tremendous amount of responsibility, for which they are not adequately rewarded. Not long ago, for example, a major robbery took place at one of London’s airports, and it newspaper investigations revealed that the security guards were being paid less than the airport café cleaning staff.
Security officers have always been paid badly and end-users are slow to recognise that you only get what you pay for. But low pay is not the only concern here. Today’s officers also expect, quite rightly, to receive sick pay, holiday benefits, and pension contributions. If we want to encourage good people to make a career for themselves in the security industry, these are requirements that we must be able to satisfy.
Accuracy of pay is another cause for complaint among shift workers, who expect their employers to know the hours that they have worked and pay them accordingly. How many of us would put up with having to argue the contents of our pay packets every month? Security companies who treat their employees with respect and consideration are much more likely to earn their loyalty.
Officer retention rates in many parts of our industry are shamefully low; some customers find a different person guarding their premises every Monday morning, and officer churn is one of the main causes of customer complaint. It is often also the root cause of other performance problems, where officers are not staying in the job long enough to properly understand their duties, their colleagues and the needs of the customer. Providing a professional, reliable service clearly depends on our ability to motivate and retain good officers.
Boredom, it has to be said, is one of the many reasons that security officers leave the industry. Staring at flickering CCTV screens or patrolling empty corridors for hours on end can be mind numbing. There are tedious jobs that have to be done, but it should be possible to put some variety into the working day, by making sure that every team member receives his or her share of social contact - of the smiles and thank-yous that make security work rewarding.
On-going training is another stimulus for professionalism among officers. The opportunity to acquire new skills and take on different responsibilities is a prime factor in turning a job into a career. Officers should be regularly assessed by their line managers and be given the opportunity to discuss their career development, as well as to air grievances and make suggestions. In fact, assessments should be as much about how an individual is enjoying his job as about how well he is performing.
It is clearly in all our interests to work to raise standards of professionalism among officers, and to help them to progress in their careers. Once the implications of licensing become a reality, it will be even more important to work to retain the licensed officers in whom we have invested. It is possible that being ‘licensed to guard’ anywhere in the industry will give some officers greater mobility, while the costs and difficulties of recruiting suitable replacements will undoubtedly increase.
As manpower companies, we are only as good as the manpower we deploy. Companies who have been lax in recognising the importance of keeping their officers happy and well rewarded, stimulated and satisfied, we may find them voting with their feet, as the balance of supply and demand tips further in favour of employees.
Securiplan introduced its Officer Charter in May 2001, setting out 10 promises to its 4,000 security officers. These include a commitment to improve pay rates by negotiation with customers, with wages paid accurately and on time, and a gradual reduction of working hours and improved scheduling to maximise officer welfare. Securiplan has also introduced a programme of continuous training towards recognised qualifications, including bespoke on-site training and a fast-track promotion path. We have a dedicated Help Desk to deal with any queries that officers may have, allowing escalation of any problem that has been overlooked by line managers. Information technology is used to ensure officer safety; the automatic answering of check-calls enables control centre managers to attend swiftly to those officers who have not called in, especially during the night.
Even before Parliament legislated for the licensing of security officers, Securiplan’s Directors realised that the availability of reliable, trained and motivated manpower was going to be key to its successful delivery of security services. Group Managing Director Phillip Ullmann has been involved in several industry initiatives to raise industry standards with respect to officer welfare, including the recent Security Institute “Guidelines for the Procurement and Management of Manned Security Services”.
Proof of the success these policies is Securiplan’s reduction of officer turnover to less than 12%. (This is despite the high-profile deployment of Securiplan officers in supermarkets and convenience stores around the UK, where conditions are tough and officer turnover is notoriously high.) The Directors seeks out customers who share their concerns and agree to treat their security staff with respect – the Co-operative Group, Tesco, Sainsbury, BSkyB, Microsoft and Cable & Wireless are just some examples.
With the increasing importance of security officers, working alongside the police in the daily fight against crime and anti-terrorism, Securiplan puts a high value on each and every one if its employees. Naturally the needs of the customer are paramount, and Securiplan’s operations managers ensure that every detail of a contract is taken care of, through regular meetings, responsive communication and open access to live rosters and management data on the company extranet. The officers are also given on-line access to their own rosters and training records, so that there is transparency between all three partners – company, client and officers.
At Securiplan, we believe that end-users and their personnel can only feel secure when the security officers on their sites feel secure – secure in their abilities, in their jobs and in their future prospects.
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