The recession has caused its fair share of problems for those of us who happen to be operating in the guarding sector. For starters, it has realised the emergence of far more aggressive buyers. Buyers who are difficult to educate, and refuse to look beyond pounds and pence at the tendering stage. Training isn’t on their radar. If it were, they would pay more for their security officers.
On top of that, the guarding market is rife with weak, unintelligent sales people and, it must be said, business people of the same ilk. The unenlightened buyers will dig down as far as they can to find the lowest price for the job, at which point the aforementioned weak sales people move to the former’s side of the table and do a deal.
Inevitably, when this happens sacrifices will have to be made. The two most common areas for cutbacks are training and operational support. The contractor will sacrifice training on the altar of winning the tender. In turn, the buyer loses confidence in the contractor’s operation because it cannot then deliver the quality of service upon which its tender submission was built.
The security guarding sector is very good at saying what it will do, particularly in all of the nice glossy brochures, but it’s delivery in the real world that really counts.
Perception of high staff churn rates
The guarding market also suffers from the perception that it’s blighted by high rates of staff churn. That perception isn’t far wide of the mark.
There was a brief cessation in 2006 due to the inception of Security Industry Authority (SIA) licensing, but now that the panic’s all passed over we’re back to business as usual. Once again, churn is on the rise.
On the subject of licensing and the Approved Contractor Scheme (ACS), both are helpful but, at the same time, not so. There’s a strong feeling that the ACS is too process driven, while many of us are scratching our heads to try and work out what benefits we derive from being on the Register of Approved Contractors.
In truth, the industry still thinks in the short term. We think about today’s Stakeholder. There’s too much: ‘I want to protect my job and my bonus, and I want to be here next year’-style thinking.
How do we boost training efficiencies?
That’s enough of the wider view. Closer to home in terms of today’s conference, what has to be done to boost training efficiencies?
First of all, a full and proper training needs assessment must be carried out for each individual on the team. That’s fundamental to our offering.
There isn’t nearly enough effort and thought being put into exploring the concept of added value. We need to empower our staff for that concept to be realised. To do that, it’s pretty much a case of setting out individual development plans for people. Then we must justify the need for doing so to the client.
Selling the training matrix
The training matrix in the guarding world consists of three key elements: core training (which is compulsory), optional bespoke training and then the personal development aspects previously mentioned.
Core training at Wilson James encompasses the SIA’s four-day Basic Job Training, one day of induction training on the ways of the company, customer care instruction, education on report writing, Health and Safety awareness and a 48-hour site induction for new staff. There’s also an annual ‘refresher’ element to our training.
The bespoke training includes stop and search procedures, Improvised Explosive Device awareness courses, officer safety (control and restraint), an NVQ in customer service and various elements of technical skills training.
When I talk of personal development plans, I’m referring to life skills training, the Security Practitioner course offered by Skills for Security at Levels 1 and 2, increasing involvement with The Security Institute, ASIS International’s UK chapter and Human Resources skills.
I’m not kidding myself. I know that it’s going to take years to change the attitudes that have existed for so long, but I’m hoping that more and more individuals will join the crusade. It’s all about a collective responsibility. A will to make security guarding the best proposition it can be, not in brochures but in the real world.
Key partners in the crusade
The key bodies that can help us include the SIA, Skills for Security and the British Security Industry Association. Other key influencers on our road to a better sector would include the Facilities Management Association and the British Institute of Facilities Management.
In all honesty, we need the Regulator to be far more brutal towards an industry that doesn’t wish to be brutalised. It’s that same industry that watered down the ACS. And it’s that industry that lobbied for four days’ BJT, and is basically abusing its people.
Far too many companies are spending too much of their time selling on the Corporate Social Responsibility issues because it plays to the masses when, in truth, they ought to be attending to the basics such as the welfare and development of their staff. We need to plot a roadmap for those members of staff, and nurture their talent.
Managers trained for advancement
Do you know what the Holy Grail is as far as I’m concerned? Let me tell you. I’d like to see an industry in which managers are properly trained by guarding companies in the knowledge that those managers may then leave as and when the time is right to progress.
It’s a frightening concept, I know. Those of you who know me also know that I trained as an accountant. I qualified and moved into security. That was the understanding of the profession in which I grew up. The profession of accounting moves forward as a result of its willingness to let go members of its cohort and bring in new blood. It knows it has passed on Best Practice to its students.
Those who practice accountancy work as one for the common good, a common goal. Will that same edict rub off on the security sector in my lifetime? That is the $64,000 question.
To tell you the truth, I really don’t know the answer. I do know that this edict needs to rub off on guarding, and the sooner the better.
*Stuart Lowden is the managing director of Wilson James
