Guard selection and motivation

The security industry's transition from stereotypical images of the night watchman to today's well-trained, disciplined and professional officer has engendered increased confidence – and dependence – from the industrial and commercial sectors alike.

In turn, the private security industry increasingly finds itself at the forefront of public safety and protection, with guards employed at a whole host of different establishments. Power stations, hospitals, schools, military and naval establishments, banks and public transport operations – to name but a few – all make daily use of manned guarding services.

Research has shown that many end users now want – or even expect – security officers to undertake additional roles and responsibilities, the main areas being: reception attendance/looking after visitors, driving cars from A to B, first aid and, very often, fire duties.

It's likely that, in the years ahead, suppliers will need to widen their training programmes still further so that end users benefit from first-class security personnel.

Appointing the right supplier
While the appointment of an unsuitable service supplier in, say, IT operations support can be quickly remedied and a new supplier appointed, such a solution is less desirable when it comes to security provision. In essence, the end user's aim is to latch on to a contract organisation whose skills and professionalism 'on the ground' will further strengthen the stability of the 'host' company, and with whom a close working relationship can be forged.

How, then, does the security manager select and appoint a manned guarding service supplier? What, exactly, should they be looking for? Thankfully, some excellent advice is contained in the new SITO manual 'Guidelines To Assist In The Specification Of Training And Qualifications When Selecting A Manned Guarding Service Supplier'.

Essentially a 'tender template' for managers who contract-in security officers, it's been produced in consultation with (among others) Canary Wharf Management, SmithKline Beecham and NOVA Risk Management.

To begin with, the SITO guide stresses the three basic requirements for setting up a contract with any security guarding supplier. These include: quantifying the requirements through the service specification and special conditions of contract, making the contractor accountable for the service through a comprehensive, unambiguous, subjective (and, wherever possible, quantitative) Service Level Agreement and conducting a regular performance audit.

Questions that will need to be considered when quantifying the requirements will depend on a site's location and circumstances, but there are pointers that will remain salient whatever the scenario. What duties are the security officers required to perform? To what standards must they perform their appointed tasks, and what are the necessary response times for different incidents? What are the limits of a guard's employment (for example, what equipment might a guard use or not use on duty – authorised/unauthorised telephone calls being a good case in point)? In addition, what level of supervision will the officers need, and what duties will their immediate supervisor need to perform? Crucially, what level of training will you require for any security officer to have undertaken before he/she can be deployed on site? What type of on-site and continuation training will be needed?

Performance audits and motivation
Having invested time and effort into selecting and appointing a supplier, it's essential that your working partnership starts as it means to go on, with both parties meeting on a regular basis. Achievements and areas for improvement may then be identified.

In the first working month, the performance audit should be thorough and have a number of objectives. You must check that the contract measures accurately reflect requirements on site, and ensure that security officers are performing as planned.

On no account should you let such meetings pass by such that their frequency is less than on a quarterly basis. Bi-monthly gatherings and appraisals would be acceptable.

A large part of the security officer's task is routine. Naturally, this makes it very difficult to maintain motivation.

The following points might be useful as ways of avoiding low levels of motivation:

• equipment and facilities: the equipment with which security officers are provided should be up-to-date and efficient – poor facilities mean poor self-esteem, so avoid them
• encourage officers to get involved: encouraging officer's to feel like they are part of the organisation they are guarding can generate interest and improve on-site procedures (this can be achieved by managers involving guards in discussions on how to improve general guarding and security procedures, and perhaps tasking one of the officers to suggest answers to given problems)
• bonus incentives: it may be useful if managers have a small cash reserve handy so that they can reward 'heroic deeds' or noteworthy actions.

Properly trained staff, of course, are better motivated and clear in their own minds about their duties and how they might carry them out. If training is ill-defined its key objectives may be overlooked, and thus quality of service to the client may be undermined.

From the outset, the purpose of all training must be defined, so too its content, the method of training and how it's to be measured.