David Ward, Managing Director at Ward Security writes his first of a new series of blogs exclusively for Infologue.com. David Writes: “Just as security challenges have evolved in recent years, so has the standard model of security service delivery. For suppliers of security services the change has been one of necessity driven by environmental, technological and economic factors. But that’s not to assume that the security offering has simply followed trends. Indeed, there has been a marked move towards innovation, whereby security companies have developed their offering, bringing to the marketplace highly effective new models that the marketplace perhaps didn’t realise it needed.
“As with all evolving industries the challenge is always to ensure that staff are up to the emerging task in hand and are suitably skilled, motivated and rewarded. Staff on the front line need to be so much more than they typically were in the past. With higher expectations and demands placed on them the requirement is for a general raised standard of capability from staff. So the challenge facing the security industry is; how to attract better qualified staff and how to fund their understandable expectations to receive suitable remuneration?
“The solution can be found within the actual challenge.
“The days when security amounted simply to a burly ‘chap in a cap’ standing in a gatehouse are all but over. Today’s security operative needs to be so much more, they need to be technically adept to manage modern security systems, and increasingly need to act as an ambassador for the organisation being protected.
“The reasons for this fundamental shift can be found in the economic downturn of the last decade which saw many organisations streamline and divest themselves of properties, estates and many key functions. This has left them somewhat thin in many areas, even to the degree to which they are able to interact with visitors, customers and even local community. However, security is increasingly helping to fill that gap and offer customer and community-facing services as part of the security remit. In this respect, security no longer stands alone as a service and delivers added value.
“Ultimately, security solutions need to be truly holistic in the modern age. With technology an increasingly integrated and important part of the security mix, it also allows security itself to become closer integrated with the client organisation. Again, this delivers yet more value for the client. At the same time it places additional expectations, demands and challenges on the people delivering the security, so the skills needed by today’s security operative include the ability to liaise with visitors and client, and the management of this holistic suite of tools and tasks. Aside from making the security operative more valuable, it also makes the job more interesting and varied and ultimately delivers a great deal of job satisfaction.
“The upshot is; that security in 2015 is a much more rewarding and attractive career – more rewarding for staff, and more rewarding for client organisations.
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