Good versus bad security company

Author: CharlesWillis | Posted: 10.02.2012

California is the State with the most licensed security companies in the United States. The main concentration of security companies is in the Los Angeles Metro area. The requirements of getting licensed as a qualified manager of a security provider are one year experience as a guard, passing a fairly simple test while age and criminal records restrictions apply. That means it is fairly easy to open a security company, which opens the market to security companies that are managed by incompetent people with little to no experience in customer service. In turn that makes the an educated choice of hiring a security company more important, because hiring the wrong provider will increase risk and liability for one’s business instead of decreasing it. It will make the life of the business owner more complicated and decrease peace of mind instead of providing it.

Good guidelines of hiring the right security company are looking for certain extremely important factors. What is the company’s retention rate and skill training requirement for security officers? What type of background checks does the conduct? What is the overall security concept of the provider and how are officers held accountable. All these questions should be posed to management representative of the company. One should never hire a company over the phone. In a personal meeting a client can determine the overall professionalism of the contractor and ask the necessary questions. It will also help to ask for a direct contact person for the duration of the contract, because the last thing a client would want to do is calling an 800-number in case of an emergency or if he needs to make changes to his service.

A good security company should offer on the job and classroom training beyond the California required training to its officers. The guards should at a minimum should possess impeccable communication skills, report writing skills, crisis management training and decision making skills. In case of an emergency security guards are relied upon to observe and report and more importantly to make the right decisions in pressure situations.

Security companies in Los Angeles have relatively low employee retention rates, which means a good contractor will differentiate itself by providing guards that have been with the company for a minimum of two years. That will ensure that the officer has undergone the most of the training the company provides and he is able to provide the service to the service standards of the company.

The overall concept of the security company should include devising a security plan for the client. In most case the client devises the plan or uses an antiquated security plan. A professional security consultant with years of experience in the security industry will be able to make the security services more effective and will address the particular risk factors of the client. The security plan should include how security officers are trained and held accountable. The security company should use cut edge electronic equipment and frequent supervisory visits o hold security guard accountable. Additionally, they should be able to provide patrol reports with dates, times and locations to the clients upon request.

Businesses in the market for a security company should follow these simple guidelines, because it will take minimal effort and time, but the benefits of hiring the right security company are enormous. It will provide peace of mind to have the right people in charge of the security of property and human capital. Additionally, the client’s management will be able to focus on their actual business while professionals are handling their security. In case of emergency and crisis clients are assured that the right decisions are made on their behalf.



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