A change is afoot in the way claimants fund their employment tribunal claims, writes employment lawyer Paul Housego of Beers LLP who specialise in the outsourced services sector. First some background, as this comes from changes made to litigation some years ago. The Woolf reforms to civil litigation (named after the Judge who organised it all) were sweeping. Litigation was made much less procedural, and was given a greater focus on settlement. Costs used to be a major problem for claimants. If you won, you could get a costs order against the other side – but you had to accept liability for ...

Infologue.com has decided to change the style of its Annual Reviews in keeping with its new format launched in early 2009. We have asked the leaders of the four key security industry bodies, the Security Industry Authority, the British Security Industry Association, the Security Institute and Skills for Security to set out their achievements in 2009. Since our inception in 1997, Infologue.com, has been outspoken on industry issues but decided it was more important that the message during 2009 came directly from the industry stakeholders, normal service will be resumed in 2010! We used our Fea...

In a further feature on Differentiation in the Security Industry, Mike White, Head of Operations and Sales at Charter Security Plc and International Professional Security Association International Council member, shares his thoughts on differentiation in the security industry. Mike writes ….”I was fortunate to be in the audience at The Security Institute members evening in London recently when Bill Muskin (Chairman of the VSG Group) spoke about the need for a new standard to differentiate between security providers now that the Security Industry Authority (SIA) Approved Contractor Scheme c...

There’s no doubt that those who work in procurement face a big problem when it comes to selecting providers of security services – at the moment there’s no real, reliable indicator to help them differentiate between the many companies in the market, writes Bill Muskin (Click to View Personal Profile) who is Chairman of the security company VSG Ltd (Click to View Company Profile). Certainly they can visit prospective suppliers and look at the way they operate or they can contact existing clients of those suppliers and ask for endorsements, but how many busy procurement officers have got t...

In the Part Two of the 2009 – Security Guarding Industry in Review the British Security Industry Association Chairman Stuart Lowden, The Security Institute Chairman Mike Bluestone, and Skills for Security Commercial Director Bob Doyle describe the 2009 achievements and highlights of their respective organisations. BSIA CHAIRMAN STUART LOWDEN - BSIA NO LONGER A BIG BOYS CLUB The British Security Industry Association (BSIA) is no longer a big boys club, writes Stuart Lowden, the Chairman of the BSIA in an exclusive end of year review for Infologue.com. Our strength lies in our diversity as w...

This year, The Shield Guarding Company Ltd won the Security Excellence Awards Best Security Guarding Company. In an exclusive interview Infologue.com Editor, Bobby Logue spoke to the Managing Director of The Shield Guarding Company Ltd, Rob Platais. We have to start with The Shield Guarding Company Ltd (Shield) winning the Security Excellence Awards Guarding Company of the Year. Why did the judges select The Shield Guarding Company, and how did it feel? It was a great night, the whole evening but especially how it ended. We were very happy to win the award. Culturally the company has always ...

Andrew White, the Chief Executive of the NSI, writes exclusively for Infologue.com on the New Contract Quality Marque Scheme launched today.  In an article setting out the workings At NSI, we recognise that raising the standard of security guarding companies’ performance is essential to sustain customer confidence and trust in the services provided. NSI’s renowned Guarding Gold scheme focuses on meeting a high level of established standards.  However, I know that the better performing security guarding companies wish to differentiate themselves further by demonstrating their ability to o...

Quality guarding contractors, and efficient in-house security management teams, will be measuring the day-to-day effectiveness of their guarding teams through a range of different professional processes. These will include, for example, SLA’s, daily occurrence reports, customer feedback questionnaires, regular meetings with operational personnel, and various other performance measurement tools, writes The Security Institute Chairman, Mike Bluestone. All of these combined measures will contribute to understanding just how effective a team really is. But there can be no doubt that another usef...

Customers will pay more for good service, and there is proof of his within our industry says Skills for Security Chief Executive, David Greer. He cites the example of a very well known elder statesman of the security industry made his fortune by charging realistic prices that reflected the investment he made in caring for and developing his employees. He refused to compromise standards to win contracts and if potential customers were not prepared to pay the right price he went off and found others that were. He built the biggest security company in Europe on the principle that quality commands...

Last year at this time Skills for Security were presented the Infologue.com “Building the Future Award. This award is presented annually to the person or organisation that in the view of their peers (Previous winners who are still active in the security industry) has created the most significant footprints towards a vibrant, professional and mutually profitable guarding industry during each year. A commitment of the winner is to produce an essay on building the future of the Industry. Bob Doyle writes the essay on behalf of Skills for Security. Just about managing……….by Bob Doyle I o...