Without momentum to bring on as many security officers are possible, to enable them to become better in their roles, you are only as strong as the individual who’s had the weakest amount of training. So heard yesterday’s OSPAs thought leadership webinar, on security officer competence. As ever it was chaired by Prof Martin Gill, pictured, of Perpetuity Research, and as so often with an inter-continental panel – in the United States, Mario Doyle, President & Chief Operating Officer at Doyle Security Services; in Latin America, Kevin Palacios, of the security association International Foundation for Protection Officers (IFPO); and also from IFPO, in the UK, Yolanda Hamblen at the guarding company ISS UK.
Yolanda Hamblen set out what makes up competence – a degree of knowledge; its application; and an individual’s ability. It shows itself in security terms in an officer having their ‘eyes on the ball’, and having signed off (and read) the site security assessment, and taking an interest in the site-specific instructions, and who takes up opportunities for training. To the oft-made comment that if you train someone, they will only leave for another job, she offered: what happens if you don’t train someone, and they stay?!
Kevin Palacios described security officers as ‘forgotten soldiers’ against crime; and far less trained, equipped and less well paid than police; yet everywhere there are far more private security officers than police. A security person trained incompletely, or inadequately, presents a much bigger risk, because that creates an ‘illusion of protection’, he said. Likewise Mario Doyle spoke of security officers as under-valued, because a lot of what they do, every day, to contribute to public safety, isn’t recognised. He pointed to how security is a job, rather than a professional career; that needs to change, in terms of wages, training and benefits.
One of the things the webinar aired, often thought but less often spoken about, is that the security industry needs officers – and in that sense, needs them not to be aspirational, or not aspirational enough to stop being officers in a client’s location. But at the same time, aspiration needs to be harnessed. Yolanda Hamblen said that when she recruits, one of the questions she asks security officers who apply for jobs is ‘do you understand the current UK threat level. She said: “I am shocked sometimes that they don’t know the answer, even if they are in ‘soft target’ locations where they should absolutely know the current threat status.”
The conversation turned to language – in particular, is ‘guard’ a bad word to use? And should the industry speak of ‘manned guarding’? Yolanda Hamblen said that the word guard is ‘very old fashioned’. By contrast, she spoke of how in the UK corporate receptionists are being SIA-trained and badged, so that a building has an extra layer of security posture. But, as she hinted, ‘guard’ is an ingrained word; she spoke of having to correct some documents from ‘guard’ to ‘security officer’.
Another sign of how hard and long it can be to change attitudes to the private security industry was aired by Mario Doyle in the US; hopes that the 9-11 terror attacks of 2001 would cause an advance in security officers’ wages and roles did not happen. Yet in the UK Yolanda Hamblen saw welcome signs – the UK Government proposing to bring in a ‘Protect duty’ whereby ‘publicly accessible locations’ would become legally responsible for the security of people on site (like their health and safety); and the UK regulator the Security Industry Authority in April brought in new, extra training requirements for typically door staff and contract security staff, both those taking training to be badged for the first time, and – an innovation – those renewing their badges. This goes some way to professionalising the security individual working anywhere with a licence, she said.
On the question of whether asking security staff to do other services – whether cleaning, or watering office plants – the panel came down against that as not adding to someone’s skills and making the work more varied, but rather undermining their value and importance, besides taking away from their concentration on security and life safety.
Next Tuesday’s webinar asks how effective is money laundering reporting. Further webinars are planned until at least the end of May. You can sign up to listen for free, and listen to 100-plus past webinars going back to March 2020, at https://theospas.com/thought-leadership-webinars/.
Officer research
Perpetuity has been commissioned by IFPO to carry out research on the role and job complexity of front line security officers; who are asked to take part in a survey.
