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Basic Training for Guard Duty

Guards are key players in an organizations physical security roster. To groom good ones requires a commitment to both train them and provide them opportunities to grow.

By Daintry Duffy

October 01, 2005 — CSO —

If CSOs and their HR managers were a brutally honest bunch, the ad for a security guard position might read something like this:

Wanted: An experienced security professional with excellent written and verbal communication skills. Leadership qualities are critical and must include integrity, respect, honesty and professionalism. Candidate must be calm and focused during the occasional crisis, and diligent and attentive to the rote tasks that take up most work time. A long-term interest in the security field is a plus, although career growth may be limited. Military or public-safety experience a plus. Candidates should have good credit, a spotless background, a high level of self-motivation and creativity in problem solving. Benefits are unlikely and pay will be low.

The lowliest employees in the security hierarchy, security guards and surveillance personnel, present a major hiring challenge for CSOs. These entry-level positions can be boring and low-paying, and many companies view them as dead-end jobs. In 2003, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that salaries for contract guards (then representing about 53 percent of the total guard employment pool) averaged $19,400 a year. Salaries for private guards employed directly by a company were on average about 25 percent higher than those of their contract counterparts, at $24,141. The combination of low pay and the drudge work inherent with manning a turnstile, patrolling a parking lot or staring at a bank of cameras leads to incredibly high turnover. Mike Phelan, vice president of training for AlliedBarton Security Services, one of the largest providers of security guards for corporate America, touts his companys low annual turnover rate, which clocks in at a whopping 58 percent. Thats progress, Phelan says, when compared with industry rates hes seen cited at 150 percent to 200 percent a year.

Although turnover is high and the work is often less than challenging, the job function is critical to a corporations overall security. On a daily basis, guards and security officers are the eyes and ears that alert the security department to any suspicious activity. They are usually the first responders to any incident onsite, and in an emergency they become the voice of the security department, communicating emergency procedures and shepherding employees to safety.

Good training for entry-level employees is the cornerstone of a successful security staff. Not only does it improve the quality of the service that guards, security officers and surveillance personnel provide, it also acts as a jumping-off point for job growth and further training, and allows management to identify talented employees and promote them through the ranks. Rather than a cul de sac, an entry-level security position can be the beginning of a rewarding career.