There’s an old saying that suggests money is the root of all evil. Many of those who espouse such sentiment do so because they’ve had their fingers burned – perhaps by a promising business deal that collapsed at the eleventh hour. Or they’ve simply loaned the proverbial pound and duly lost a few friends as a result.

Luckily for them – or not, depending on your point of view – a mountain of spare cash is not something that the majority of security officers will ever have to worry about. Even though it’s great to see the Low Pay Commission’s recommendations for a basic of £4.50 an hour (‘News Update’, p9) being accepted by the Government, that’s still some way off what we should be paying the men and women whom we entrust to keep watch over our offices, airports, retail outlets and museums, etc on a daily and nightly basis.

Most reputable manned security companies would love to pay their officers a whole lot more than they do. After all, a happy and motivated ‘guard on the ground’ is likely to provide clients with the added value service they’ll wish to see post-Government licensing.

Alas, contractor managing directors are pretty much always prevented from upping the financial ante on home soil. The ever-spiralling cost of Public Liability Insurance continues apace, rumours abound that the now officially ‘live’ Security Industry Authority (‘News’, p7) may charge upwards of £150 per licence under the Private Security Industry Act – and with that licence will surely follow the need for additional training. Guess who’ll have to foot the bill for that as well?

Some end users who procure manned security services will no doubt hark back to the tender process, perhaps even glorifying in the fact that they “did a nice cheap deal” with their service provider. “Contractors who suffer in today’s world only have themselves to blame,” they’ll say. “If they accept a guarding assignment on poor terms and conditions just to glean market share over their rivals, they deserve everything that’s coming to them.” Actually, they don’t.

The truth of the matter is that end users must learn to shoulder their share of the monetary responsibility for improved service delivery. Be fairer with your tender rates, and don’t force contractors into selling themselves cheaply.

That is the real root of all evil for many in the industry.

Source

SMT