Security's operational quagmire

At The Watchdog we have never doubted that the most difficult job in the contract manned guarding industry is that of the contracts manager – or, as it has come to be known in some companies, the customer services or operations manager.

The 'burn-out' rate of such managers is unacceptably high for the credibility of the industry, and more than one commentator – not without some justification – has labelled the task "a job from Hell".

The role of the contract manager varies from company to company, but it can include the recruitment, training, deployment, development and welfare support of each officer in their particular portfolio of contracts. It will almost certainly involve a degree of responsibility for the preparation (and ultimate approval by the client) of the relevant assignment instructions, and be very much in the front line of customer liaison.

Problems surrounding the contract manager's job emanate from two sources. First, the terms and conditions of employment for security officers which, on far too many occasions, ensure that there will always be a high level of staff turnover. Second, there's the issue of charge-out rates with negligible margins which, in turn, ensures that management support is spread very thinly.

Defining areas of responsibility
It's very easy to understand why contract managers – who probably assume responsibility for 20-30 assignments of varying size, spread over a comparatively wide area – feel that they are the fall guys of the industry. Realistically they are vulnerable from three distinct fronts: namely the client, the senior management of the contractor and, of course, from the security officers for whom they are directly responsible.

Over the past few years we've studied at close quarters the lot of the contract manager. It's not a lifestyle that many of us would envy. The mobile telephone is in continual use from 6.00 am through to 8.00 pm – a conservative estimate – while the individual concerned tries to get to grips with a whole host of problems or emergencies within their area of responsibility.

How has the industry created this situation? Each time a client buys a contract cheaply – one which fails to address basic terms and conditions for the security officers, or permits insufficient margins to be built-in to the price – then the difficulties increase for the contracts manager. Ultimately, it's he or she that will have to try and make the whole thing work. Realistically, they have little chance of doing so, thus it's easy to see why many of them leave the industry exhausted and disillusioned.

How often has the appointment of a site supervisor been one of convenience? An appointment made to satisfy the whim of a client, or to prevent a good security officer from carrying out a threat to leave unless he or she is promoted? The net result is th

Time for a rethink
The first and most important step that needs to be taken to reduce the problem is to persuade the sales team of the contract company to think again. The client seeking the cheapest option must also rethink their actions.

The attitude that any contract will, at the very least, make a contribution to the overheads is flawed (if the price which has to be paid is to stretch even further the operational network, such that contracts which are worth retaining are placed at operational risk).

Second, we need to make full use of all operational management available to us in the field. For example, site supervisors of major multi-man assignments could play a much more effective role in the overall operational management of the contract company. These individuals could release the contracts managers to concentrate on the one or two-man assignments of the contract portfolio.

It's unrealistic to keep sucking in the contracts manager to deal with problems which should be the domain of the site supervisor. Invariably, we are forced to go down this road because supervisors are neither adequately trained for their role nor properly rewarded.

How often has the appointment of a site supervisor been one of convenience? An appointment made to satisfy the whim of a client or to prevent a good security officer from carrying out a threat to leave unless he or she is promoted? The net result is that the industry is flooded with supervisors who have not received any formal training, and who have to rely on direct operational support from contract managers that don't have the time to provide it.