Sadly, it is a fact of life that not all security companies view their operations in the same way. Many organisations see their Security Officers as numbers, to be deployed in the amounts required to whatever client needs them. It isn’t about quality of service. They wouldn’t ever understand the desire to exceed a customer’s expectations. Success to them is getting anyone available to fulfil the shifts required, getting that box ticked.
Then there are the companies doing things right. Customer relationships are paramount and achieved by recruiting quality security personnel, caring about their welfare, and developing their careers, making them more valuable to the client and employer alike.
Richard Branson famously and rightly said “if you look after your staff, they will look after your customers” and this could not be more true of security professionals. In these companies, there is a fundamental understanding of their client’s needs and expectations, and an ingrained appreciation of the simple but vital role of security, to protect people and property.
To ensure that standards are maintained, a strong and enduring security culture must be in place. This is achieved by paying close attention to every aspect of security operations, from recruitment, to deployment, and staff development.
Thankfully there is a system out there that is the gold standard for quality assurance in these areas of security company operations. GuardPass.
Recruitment
The traditional online recruitment services are too generic, hard to navigate, and notorious for providing pages and pages of inappropriate and unhelpful vacancies when a seemingly straightforward search is performed. There is now another way.
GuardHire is a system that security industry employers can use to post advertisements on the massive new dedicated security jobs board, available to well over 140,000 (and rapidly growing) engaged security professionals via the free GuardPass app. The GuardPass jobs board clearly displays the vital information required to filter any unsuitable jobs out of a search. Area, working hours, pay rate, license requirements, and basic duties are front and centre. What you won’t find are pages of useless “waffle”, or employers hiding poor pay rates behind the popular “competitive salary” statement.
This ease of use and clarity has rapidly made the GuardPass jobs board, the leading source of security industry vacancies. The vast majority of the UK’s top security companies now use GuardPass and have experienced fantastic results. There are some impressive statistics on the GuardPass website, looking at the job applications received via this portal, but in a nutshell, where a security vacancy posted on one of the old generic recruitment websites may take days to generate a first response, and yield just a handful of applicants in total, GuardPass is seeing applications starting to arrive in just minutes, and it provides many many times more responses.
One of the best features of the GuardPass jobs board is that applicants complete their own online professional profile, including experience and relevant qualifications as you’d expect, but they also have the opportunity to record a 20 second introductory video, showcasing their skills and personality.
20 seconds may not sound like long, but it provides a huge amount of useful information for a potential employer, enabling only the most suitable candidates to reach the shortlist.
So, you have efficiently identified a worthy applicant. GuardPass doesn’t stop there.
Vetting
HR departments probably spend more time vetting new employees than any other task. In the security industry full and thorough checks are essential due to the levels of responsibility front line Officers shoulder. Document verification is a complex skill, and confirmation of sometimes quite complicated employment histories, can be a distinct challenge. The results of making a mistake during vetting, can be catastrophic. There are however, professionals out there who specialise in vetting, and provide an efficient, reliable, and expert means of checking new starters.
GuardCheck is the new security industry vetting service from the people behind the UK’s biggest training network, Get Licensed. They have brought their immense industry experience to this cutting edge service, providing a complete candidate vetting solution. Efficient, reliable, and fully compliant with the BS7858 standard giving complete peace of mind for an employer.
Effective candidate selection, and diligent vetting are critical to get right. It is impossible to create an effective security culture if the right people are not in place. Staff loyalty and commitment are also fundamental for success. When increasing a salary is not possible, then helping your staff achieve their career goals is an important tool for solidifying a successful relationship with your employees.
Training and Development
Get Licensed is the largest and most well regarded security industry training network in the UK for very good reason. The quality of the courses that their approved trainers provide are second to none, and are available at 85 locations across the country.
Employers are increasingly arranging and funding Security Officer training, as a means to recruit and retain good people. Using a dedicated employers portal called GuardTrain, it is now easy to access and book these courses. Of course, the mandatory Security Industry Authority licensing training is vitally important, but via GuardTrain there is also a wealth of cost effective, more advanced and focussed courses, valuable for addressing skills or knowledge gaps at specific assignments. These courses make your Security Officers more valuable to your clients, both enhancing their professionalism, and your reputation. Relevant training represents an excellent investment, and possibly most importantly, demonstrates your commitment to your security staff.
GuardPass
The GuardPass services I have outlined here, provide cost effective, simple and peerless solutions to some of the most problematic issues facing security companies. All of these services are designed and provided by experienced security experts that understand the needs of your company. Best of all, the professional and comprehensive solutions provided by GuardPass, clearly display your understanding of the importance of these crucial aspects of security operations, and helps strengthen your corporate security culture.
