A commitment to training

Are such fears really justified?

By and large, the contract manned guarding industry in the UK recognises the importance of training its staff. It rightly surmises that this is the only surefire way of retaining both staff and contracts alike. Why, then, do things go wrong on occasion?

Promising is an easy business
In the first instance, the contractor's sales team is likely to promise anything in order to win the contract. It's easy to promise something for the future if you are unlikely to be personally responsible for delivering on that promise.

Unfortunately for the contractor, the client is likely to have a long memory and, because the training of the contract security team will most likely be reflected in its performance, he or she will want to ensure that promises are kept.

The cardinal rule, then, is not to make promises that cannot be kept. They will come back to haunt you.

A major differentiator between contract companies is their genuine commitment to staff training. The client needs to be assured that a training structure is in place which can deliver the scale of training promised at the tender stage. More than that, the client will want evidence that the security company has a record of keeping its promises on training.

If you are a client, go and take a look at another assignment being run by the contractor tendering for your business, and talk to the contract staff on duty. They will let you know whether they actually attended a Basic Job Training course, what (if any) continuation training has taken place and whether or not they have been involved in either an NVQ training programme or a City & Guilds distance learning course.

The client is usually none-too-interested in the problems experienced by the contractor when it comes to obtaining new recruits. They will simply want what they've paid for: a trained security officer (and rightly so). However, what they paid for may be the first problem. Quite obviously, the lower the wage rate the more difficult it will be to find the right recruit – or, in certain cases, any recruit at all! A strong argument for ensuring good wage rates.

As the company develops – and certainly while the terms and conditions of employment in the industry are not significantly improved – the demand for staff begins to stretch out way beyond supply. Contractors might begin to resort to short cuts.

They'll send out recruits who have not even completed Basic Job Training with the promise that these 'security officers' will indeed complete the course at a later date. Sadly, that date rarely comes around as the realities of supply and demand begin to bite deep.

It also affects the commitment to specialised courses – as determined in the contract between the two parties – since there will be insufficient relief staff to allow individuals to be withdrawn and take part.

Adhering to the contract
How, then, can the industry make and keep realistic promises with regards to training in this most difficult of sectors? There are several steps that could be taken.

For one, good terms and conditions of employment will reduce staff turnover and, thus, much of the problem. Each individual must complete Basic Job Training at the time he or she joins the company.

We also need to make the terms of specialised training realistic. For example, NVQ Level 2 training on a single manned assignment might be extremely difficult to complete. A four-day first aid course for each member of a multi-manned assignment will also be onerous. It may be more realistic for the supervisory staff to attend the four-day course, and the rank and file to attend a one-day course.

Security companies must also be constantly proactive with their training. That will ensure the retention of officers and staff alike. For example, all supervisory staff should attend an appropriate course as early as possible.

Every officer must undergo a training needs assessment, and progress for all officers should be measured at the same time each year on an ongoing basis. It must also be spelt out in the hourly charge-out rate exactly what sum will be allocated to each area of training – eg basic training, first aid (if appropriate), NVQ (if appropriate), continuation training, customer care (again, if appropriate) and other miscellaneous areas of training.

It's worth concluding on a note of caution. Training is a subject that's bound to appeal to both client and security officer alike. It portrays a message of caring. The contractor is showing all parties that it has a genuine interest in developing its staff for the benefit of the client.

If members of the sales team have done their job then they will have persuaded the client that, in this most important of areas, their company is truly capable of delivering on its promises. If, however, those promises prove to be a false dawn then the fallout could well be immeasurable.