The staff training and operational planning so crucial to the level of service delivered by event security companies was the focus of attention when we continued our visit to the head office of crowd management specialists Showsec.
As if to underline the importance of the company’s commitment to career development, the Training Centre occupies a prominent place on the ground floor when you enter Showsec’s headquarters and it is by far the biggest facility within the three storey building. Managing Director Harding stands by the entrance to the centre and whispers to explain what is taking place on the other side of the door at that particular time.
Through the window, we could see Roy Wise, the company’s Training and Development Manager, was perched behind a lectern, while on the white screen over his right shoulder was a slide illustrating the subject he was talking about.
Trying not to interrupt Roy while he was in full flow, we slipped into the room and made our way to the back from where we would observe the lecture.
The management trainees, ten men and a woman, were sitting at three desks arranged in a u-shape facing their trainer. They were mainly wearing blue jeans and t-shirts as if to emphasise that event security is, as a rule, not a jacket and tie affair.
On a table by the door from which we had just entered were the leftovers of lunch – sandwiches, pieces of fruit and soft drinks – which they had just consumed. You normally judge an event security firm by the events they put on, which in this case was part of Showsec’s Management Development Programme, and they were being well looked after.
Roy Wise was speaking conversationally about the crucial need to look out for fire hazards and referring to the disaster at Bradford City’s Valley Parade Stadium in 1985 when a stand caught fire and 56 football supporters perished in the blaze. Now, the internet means you can view a video of the horrifying scenes unfolding on that terrible day.
In one version, the police radio provides the audio. “What you hear is the police talking to each other,” Roy says. The doors at the back of the stand were locked and the house steward was in possession of the key to unlock those doors at half-time.
The police could see that the doors were not opening and were radioing, saying: ‘we have a fire in the stand and we are looking for a steward with the key’.
Due to the audio being so poor, the response from the control room was: “Can you confirm, you have a fight in the stand.” In short, a communication breakdown.
As Roy adds at this point: “All the time you can see the fire blazing. So any doors or any exits, however they are fastened or locked, you need to be absolutely clear you know how to get them open at all times during an event.”
He adds: “Who is responsible for the exits?” It’s a question which must be uppermost in any planning and any raising of awareness.
The management trainees were listening and taking some notes. Roy – one of those people who cannot stay in a hotel without taking snaps which may come in handy for his training slides – shows a photograph of a fire exit blocked with chairs and a table football game.
“Even if you are in a training room like this,” he continues. “Do you know what is outside the fire door? Have you, or somebody else, checked it’s safe in the event of a fire alarm?
“Caterers, or the like, may see the perimeter as a perfect place to leave equipment to allow more customers into the venue, even if it is only temporarily. Objects block the fire exit, but not on purpose, and then they are forgotten about.
“It’s for the managers to check, and double check, each fire exit route,” Roy adds, going on to advise the trainees that they should find an alternative, such as somewhere else that the venue can store those tables rather than just saying something is wrong.
“You will never stop fires or disasters from happening inside venues, because there are a multitude of things,” he concludes. “But a high state of vigilance and awareness of what is around you can go a long way to minimising the possibility of such a thing happening or at least ensuring that any damage is to a structure rather than people if things go wrong.”
Mark Harding then introduces Professional Security and, to break the ice, we remark how interesting it was that the Bradford fire – and the Hillsborough crushing to death of 96 Liverpool fans in 1989 at an FA Cup semi-final in Sheffield – were history to the trainee managers; yet those events were real to older people, who remembered where they were when they heard the news.
Equally the Coconut Grove fire in a Boston (USA) nightclub in 1942 which killed hundreds is history now, but the lesson about fire exits applies; though worldwide some clubs keep forgetting and more lives are lost. As Roy told the management trainees, people with a ticket for a concert do not check fire doors; it’s the event security contractor’s responsibility.
Earlier, with Professional Security, Mark Harding spoke of the social cohesion inside a festival, such as Download in Leicestershire. Around 100,000 gather each summer to enjoy a long weekend of heavy metal; their genre of music. Outsiders might be put off by the black-gothic or peculiar dress of Download attenders and the loud aggressive music. In truth, as Mark enthuses, the concert-goers comply with rules, ‘which they see to their benefit’.
Security is one service the promoters offer; besides catering, and the concert stages; and the online networks that the festival-goers can join. As Mark says, the public can feed back to promoters what services they want, and how good services are. He sums up Download by continuing: “Absolutely, a wonderful crowd to work with, very aware of public safety.”
The crowd is aware of the safety of fellow concert-goers. “They do look out for each other, they do have a good relationship among themselves. Whilst that is unique to Download, I also think it exists in other genres of music. Ultimately, as a security provider we have to look after their public safety, so their safety is paramount to us; but also we want to deliver a product which the client is also content with; and finding that balance by speaking to all parties. It’s difficult to sometimes get across a level of security without intruding on people’s personal enjoyment.”
The same goes for door staff at hotels and night-clubs; and football matches. A search of people on entering may be required; which has to be robust, and not overly intrusive. In a word, proportionate. The Download attender and the football fan, if asked to consent to a search, may react differently – are they eager to get in, are they late, do they resent a search? Is their resentment because they have something illicit?!
Football supporters, Mark says, are much-maligned. As an event security contractor, he has no interest in disrupting fans; but as he hinted, the security demanded at a football game by those in authority can sometimes be disproportionate to the real risk: “But you understand why they are so cautious. In football, we need to claim the game back from a small minority of hooligans.”
In the December 2013 issue, Professional Security reported how event security contractors and police have worked together on a common crime at summer festivals: theft of mobile phones. After each event’s de-brief, security will send a report of crimes. This helps profiling, so that if someone looks unusual, security staff can chat to them, and be further suspicious if the person appears to know little about the festival he has paid to come to.
Event security firms seek to give the law-abiding attenders crime prevention advice. That can be as simple as: ‘don’t leave your wallet or your phone in your back pocket’.
CCTV can help on site. Mark gives an example of one outdoor festival where security witnessed wallets being thrown towards the stage. At first, it was thought to be part of the fever of the event. But why so many, from one part of the crowd? And were the wallets not dirty and trodden-on? As Mark explains: “There was a group of pick-pockets inside.” CCTV and patrolling dealt with that crime. Significantly, Mark adds that everybody has to work together to deter and detect crime, which includes courts sentencing criminals caught at events. Do courts take crimes at festivals seriously enough? – Mark wonders aloud.
But to secure an event, you need the right number of people. Hence, at Leicester Head Office, and in Manchester, the IT booking-in of staff. It was ticking over on the weekday Professional Security visited, and is ramped up in the summer for the big festivals. As with other contract services, the worker will ring in about availability, and at the other end of the line is someone at a desk who can call up the person’s record, which says beside name, training and experience, such details as how far they’re prepared to travel.
Here, as ever, in the service sector, it’s all about relationships. If the booker knows the caller and has a good phone manner, the caller might be persuaded to put themselves out, to work at an event that particularly needs filling at that point. Showsec has, after all, 200,000 shifts a year to fill. But alienate that worker, whether because they feel over-worked or under-worked, or because they are given the sort of jobs they don’t like after they have told the employer their preferences, and you might not retain that worker. In that case, the contractor has to find another person to recruit, which takes time and money.
“That’s why we really do try and look after and engage with the workforce,” Mark says. Likewise, with the online training. Before interview, the job-seeker can go through a module, on industry and Showsec background; and can watch a video of Mark Harding. Maybe, the job-seeker simply learns that the work is not really for them; that saves everyone trouble.
Online, password-protected, a newcomer can read about uniform, kit, rules and responsibilities, some of the company’s clients; and about conflict management and physical intervention, the core of the door supervisor SIA badge training.
Besides compulsory modules such as ingress and egress, customer service, communication, counter-terrorism and manual handling, you can even brush up your skills on minibus driving -it makes sense to drive staff to the bigger events, and younger stewards might not have a car.
As it’s online, it’s not all words; there are photos, and Flash design videos. Want to look up health and safety law? Read 50 key moments in crowd management history, going back to ancient Greece and Rome? You want to know why pop concerts have a pit barrier? Watch Bill Haley and the Comets, albeit in black and white!
The company can test that trainees have taken in what they’ve looked at. The basic training may be tested by questions with true-or false answers; in the management-level courses, it’s more like essays. As it’s all online, there’s nothing to stop the supervisor, say, returning from a job at 11.00pm, not wanting to sleep at once, and having something at the front of his mind about his shift, going online to take some training.
Showsec brought in a graduate without security experience, Ian Cobby, to put the material online, and add updates. That’s another beauty of the internet; whereas with training courses on paper, you have to re-print or insert more paper. Likewise, as an aside, Keith Hackett, the man who set up and manages the company’s Management Development Programme (MDP), came in from outside the industry.
E-briefing of staff started in 2013, mainly for major festivals. As Mark Harding says, while a lot of staff may have worked at events, they don’t know what to expect at a big festival. Where to arrive and report? Where do you eat when not working a shift? Where to sleep at night? What acts are playing and where? What emergency procedures are specific to the venue?
Again, being online, the company can accompany such details with photographs; even aerial ones. “So staff can feel more informed before the event.” Showsec are trying to put such things through the website, so that staff do not get mixed messages.
As the Bradford fire showed, a slightly misleading word cost the authorities time in responding. Time in an emergency may be measured in human life and injury. Significantly, of the four MDP trainees that Professional Security spoke to – two had a security background, while two had started with Showsec as casual stewards – one raised this point.
You can attend a briefing, and for whatever reason – the briefer’s experience, the region – ‘it’s the way things have always been done round here’ – some people may use a word, but understand different things by it. So many things can go wrong at an event, to a crowd; we haven’t even mentioned the weather. If a route’s blocked or someone’s fallen over or something’s caught fire – that is not the time to being enquiring about what something means.
To do a responsible job, to keep event-goers safe, takes training, preparation and good communications; many things. In event security, as in other sectors, the football supporters and the heavy metal fans alike go home cursing or raving about their experience . . . they might have a grumble about a steward that didn’t let them do something, but he was not unhelpful on purpose, he was simply doing his job . . . and how few will think, ‘what a great security operation that was, so great I never noticed it!’.
