Why do site managers have issues with their security guards?
Well the answer to that question could be either complicated or straightforward…
There are various components that might contribute to the issues a site manager can have with his security guards including which security guard company he is using, laws and regulations concerning security guards, monetary constraints, the security requirements at the site in question, the site manager’s clients, and the procedures for security guard companies to name just a few.
Being a site manager you may control a few of these issues, while the others you can only put up with. Of these issues, the easiest to control are the processes and procedures you determine for the security guard company. These processes and procedures may alleviate 80 to 90% of these challenges you come across.
Many site managers assume that it is the task of the security guard company to ensure that the level of service that they provide stays at a top level. In truth, a lot of the problems with security guards begin with this erroneous perception.
Although no one would dispute the truth that a company should supply the best service that they are capable of providing, one needs to appreciate that security guard companies are a particularly exclusive kind of company. The majority of companies supply you with a service that’s typically pretty easy to check when the assignment is being well completed. For example, should you employ a landscaper and you see that the grass is haphazardly cut; the landscaper isn’t performing his duty correctly.
However, with several guard companies, the quality of service that they provide is usually not easily visible. Are they employing competent staff? Do they train their security guards adequately? What form of supervision do they offer? Fortunately, on the whole security guard companies do a good job of providing satisfactory service to the majority of their customers. In reality, with the majority of security guard contracts, the quality of service initially meets and now and then exceeds the site manager’s expectations.
Unfortunately, in many of these cases a gradual decline in the level of service seems to occur over time. Several site managers deem this decline in quality is to be expected with all security guard companies, when the truth is that it should not be anticipated.
There are four key reasons that the quality of service offered by a security guard company tends to decline. Typically those reasons are:
1. Lack of feedback;
2. Security Guard and company are not truly held accountable for weak performance;
3. Security Guards are insufficiently trained;
4. Insufficient supervision of the guards.
The simplest to fix of the four is the feedback that is given to the security guard company. Erratic feedback for your security guard company very often means missed chances for improvement in performance.
If you’re a site manager who’s on site daily, the depth of feedback you can offer to your security company might be quite substantial when assessing the security guards you see when you’re present. You can spot whether or not the guard is in uniform, if the guard knows how to do the job, and the guard’s customer service abilities.
The question then becomes, how are the security guards performing after 5pm as well as on the weekends, during the hours that you aren’t there? Are you still receiving the same degree of service? For site managers who’re not on site daily, this subject is all the more significant.
Very often, site managers rely a great deal on the input from their clientele regarding the functioning of security guards during these off hours. The feedback that’s given by a site manager’s customers might be some of the most important feedback that can be given, sometimes even more important or enlightening than the site manager’s. Often times, this feedback is only captured periodically and is usually part of a larger customer survey. But as this feedback is so imperative, both the security company and the site manager ought to establish a formal process to regularly solicit this type of customer feedback.
Like off-site site managers, supervisory personnel aren’t constantly on-site with the security guard, thus soliciting regular customer feedback should be an ongoing part of the service that any security company offers.
Generally, with most security firms there is a field supervisor or other management level employee that randomly checks on the security guards in the course of the guard’s shift. When the field manager is on site they should be speaking with your clients to ascertain if there are any comments or recommendations for improving the service that they’re providing.
All security companies should also create a process to obtain comments or suggestions from you as well as your clients, when things are going properly as well as, more importantly, when they are going poorly. Additionally, those comments and suggestions, as well as all resulting corrections or improvements in service, ought to be put together into a report and tracked. The report should then be provided to the site manager on a monthly basis as part of the inclusive security services.
Using this customer feedback, site managers will have an actionable report that they, as well as the security company. may utilize to make adjustments to personnel or processes to maintain top quality service.
Site managers ought to also consider providing an abbreviated version of the report to their clientele to assure them that their considerations are being heard and addressed. If these processes don’t exist, then the security guard company is missing an opportunity to improve the security services they are offering.
Usually when service quality begins to decline, your clientele detects the change and will certainly supply insight into the circumstances. It happens far too frequently that a security guard begins to show poor performance traits that, if corrected in a well-timed method, should eliminate future hassles.
Your clientele can, and should be, your eyes and ears when it comes to checking your security guards, since the more feedback that is given, the more that you will be able to judge the strengths and weaknesses of the security services that you are getting.
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