How To Ensure Effective Security Guard Monitoring?

Security guard monitoring is the tracking of security guard’s status and task completion. Such tasks include but are not limited to outstanding or incomplete checkpoints and open reports.

Effective security guard monitoring will ensure that sites are secured as they should be at all times and your team is working as one unit.

In this article, we will discuss two guard activities that you can focus on to ensure effective security guard monitoring and start providing excellent security guard service.

In order to track and measure the activities of your security team and the achievement of tasks, it is vital to measure the number of times patrols were completed by the guards and also the number of patrols that had ended early due to any emergency or were incomplete.

Unfinished Guard Tours

Unfinished guard tours could mean you are failing to maintain contract agreements, which impact client satisfaction. Aside from that, security guards not completing their tours also poses a massive risk to your client as well as your overall operations.

Missed checkpoints will have a negative impact on the success rate of completed patrols. It can also damage the trustworthiness your current, as well as future clients, are looking for in your ability to maintain contract agreements.

With a security guard monitoring system, supervisors can automatically receive data that will quantify and visualize the number of rounds their team has failed to complete. This helps supervisors prevent incomplete tours from happening, which improves the trustworthiness of clients towards your business.

Faulty Reporting

One of the essential parts of running a transparent security operation is incident reporting. That is why supervisors need to make sure the reporting from their team is never improper, inaccurate, or missing information.

Accountability is the key to preventing improper reporting. And providing your security guards with a step-by-step process to fulfill required reports can improve accountability. These reports can contain client-specific SOPs, which will also allow the supervisor to quickly follow up without a loss in client or company time.

Directly accessible standardized reporting on guard’s mobile device will make reporting easy for the guards, which will allow the supervisors to track and measure reporting statuses.

Ensure Optimal Operational Performance

Effective guard monitoring depends on two things: checkpoint completion and reporting. An effective security guard monitoring system can help to visualize guard activities and allows security supervisors to properly track and monitor their guard activities. Tracking and monitoring guard activity help to ensure that you are meeting your contract agreements with your client and also your team is working as a single unit.

The Secrets Of Delegating Security Guard Tasks Effectively – Part 2

As a security manager, delegation is important. Yet, most security managers struggle with effective delegation of security guard tasks and responsibilities than any other skill required in their day-to-day work. While others often hold on to more than needed or simply begin to micromanage. Don’t be one of those security managers. 

Delegating isn’t a straightforward process. It takes time and effort to master the art. To turn into one here are a few more secrets to up your game and learn to delegate better than you ever hoped for.

Establish A Clear Communication Channel

Open communication is and has always been the key to delegating security guard tasks effectively. For that, you’ll need to establish a communication channel ensuring the guard you are delegating to feels confident in asking questions and providing regular updates without feeling micromanaged. Security Guard App’s messenger and reporting module enables doing just that and so much more. 

Allow For Failure While Being Patient

Delegating tasks is not an easy job, meaning that it might not always work. And when it doesn’t, don’t give up. Everything you fail at is rather an opportunity to be better at. And delegation is just a part of that. Hence allow it, not because you or your security guards might fail, because it enables you to experiment and empower the guards you’re assigning the tasks to. 

Security Guard App

Maintain A System Of Check

In addition to monitoring progress, a crucial step in the process of the delegation that’s often forgotten is delivering feedback. Don’t be afraid to do it. Whenever a task isn’t completed as assigned, offer constructive criticism to your security guards. They can use it to make changes the next time a similar task is assigned. On the other hand, ask your team if you provided clear instructions to determine if there’s anything you can do to better delegate in the future.

Recognize Success And Give Credit Where Due

After the delegated security guard tasks are seen through to completion, credit the ones who were behind it. Remember, it’s basic human nature to feel appreciated. Recognizing that success will only further ensure your team of security guards becomes more engaged and helpful in your future endeavors, making you more successful. 

Practice And Get Better

When you initially start delegating security guard tasks, it’s tough. You will end up assigning tasks to the wrong security guard. And your workflow might not be as efficient as you would have thought. The only way to achieve perfection in this process is to listen to your security guards, learn from your mistakes, and not be afraid to make adjustments to improve. Practice will make you perfect.

Download the Security Guard App to make the necessary changes in your security guard operations today. It’s now available on both App Store and Play Store. For more information, please visit securityguard.app

The Secrets Of Delegating Security Guard Tasks Effectively – Part 1

Delegation is one of the most important management skills that allow maintaining a smooth workflow. Doing it effectively, however, is not everyone’s cup of tea. Newly promoted security managers often struggle with it and feel overwhelmed with numerous responsibilities. While even the experienced ones at times fail to trust their security guards to work independently. 

So, whether you’ve just been promoted or have been managing a security guard team for a while, learning how to delegate effectively without micromanaging can make all the difference. Here’s how to start delegating more effectively to cultivate a high-performing security guard team.

Know Exactly What And When To Delegate

It’s true that not all tasks can be delegated. This is why the first step to do it is to decide which tasks and responsibilities can be assigned to which guard on your security guard team. Take a look at the available security guards and ask yourself which one can do it better or you think this could be a teachable moment for any of them. Doing this will show you trust and value your team.

Choose The Right Guard For The Job

One of the keys to effective delegation is also understanding the strengths of everyone on your team. Because that will make delegating tasks easy after you’ve figured out what needs to be delegated. Take the qualification, skill set, experience, as well as schedule of your security guards into consideration and play to their strengths and goals. Once this is sorted and you’ve finalized your plan, start assigning the tasks to them.

Security Guard Team

Delegate Both Responsibility And Authority

Now that you’ve started assigning tasks to your security guards, do not forget to put your full trust in their capabilities to take each task on. The reason being, there is no point in delegating if you’re intending to micromanage your security guard team. If you intend to check on them every half an hour to see if they are doing their job as you would have wanted them to do it, it will not do any good for either of you.

Provide Context For Why You’re Delegating

If you are among those managers delegating tasks to the security guards out of the blue, providing a context for why you are giving them that responsibility can help. You can let them know why you chose them specifically and how you hope to see this help them grow. How the task is delegated to them is an opportunity to take on more responsibility or grow new skills. How motivating would that be?

Simply Define The Desired Outcome Clearly

Another way to delegate effectively lies in making your expectations crystal clear right from the beginning. For that, provide each and every detail of what you’d consider a high-quality output from your team. Then, if they fail to meet those expectations, re-align on what outcomes you were hoping to get out. Further, ensure they understand that you are counting on them to do better next time.

This list will help you get started to but isn’t the end to finding ways to delegate security guard tasks effectively. There are more to explore. Stay tuned to find out soon.

Security Guard Tracking Software For Guard Accountability

Running a security guard company has its challenges, and there are a few that is more important than managing your security guards. While it would have been nice to just hire some individuals and hope that everything would run smoothly, an experienced manager understands that this isn’t usually the case.

Thankfully, security guard tracking software ensures better guard accountability with GPS tracking, reporting, and other key features. This helps you to be more effective in managing your team and deliver better results to your clients.

Ensuring Guard Accountability

Anyone who manages security guards knows that employee accountability is vital for cultivating a quality team that will keep clients happy by delivering top-notch services.

Typically, security guard’s accountability comes down to a couple of things: reporting and timekeeping. Paper reporting for clocking in/out is being phased out in almost all industry and rightly so. While paper reports are relatively easy to fabricate, an electronic check-in system cannot be falsified by an average employee.

However, even if your guards check in properly, it can be difficult to know whether they are actually finishing their patrols as they should. That is where guard patrol monitoring systems can help you. These security guard monitoring systems can track the movements of all your guards at all times, helping you understand whether or not a patrol is being completed properly. Automatic alerts can even send you notifications when a protocol is not being followed by a guard. This allows you to check in and respond to issues effectively and quickly.

Security guard tracking software can also be useful for incident reporting. Advanced technology enables guards to upload videos, take photos, and send notifications to the management instantly an incident is identified. These features allow you to provide support or further instructions when necessary, which helps your guards to take care of the matter in a manner that will make the client happy.

Security guard tracking software provides increased transparency and accountability that gives your top guards the opportunity to show off their work rate while the guards with low work ethic will be motivated to improve their productivity or held accountable. This will also give your clients peace of mind knowing that your team is there for them.

Final Thoughts

The security guard tracking software improves guard accountability, which makes managing a security guard team easier and also increases productivity. You will be able to deliver greater results to your clients, put your company on the road to success, and keep your guards happy by properly implementing this technology in your business.

Why You Need Efficient Security Guard Monitoring System

If you manage a security guard company, you know it isn’t an easy task. From employee duty to timekeeping, there are several factors that can limit your capability to offer great services to your clients. Nowadays, however, you can ensure greater overall performance from your guards and better final results for your customer with an efficient security guard monitoring system. And there are many other ways a security guard management system can help you.

Guard Accountability

One of the most important benefits that a guard patrol monitoring system offers is that it significantly improves the responsiveness of your guards. Digital checkpoints, automated timekeeping, and GPS tracking ensure better performance and efficiency of your guards. This technology can even send notifications if a guard fails to check in inside the given time frame.

This accountability not only helps you keep your guards on track but also comforts your clients because they won’t have to keep a constant check on their guards. A security guard monitoring system will provide you with tough proof to assist your claims that your security guards offer reliable service. This will also make your customer accept the true efforts of your team and feel at peace.

Real-Time Reporting

This is a really useful technique, especially during the time of incidents or mishappenings. Instead of waiting for a long duration, the guards can instantly report a file by uploading photos or videos. They can also instantly inform about the situation through the radio.

This immediate communication will prevent any unnecessary delays and enable quick action to the situation. In many circumstances, this can turn out to be a life savior for your clients.

Safety First

Safety should always be your first concern, and the reporting and tracking features ensure just that for your guards and clients. Your employees will be much safer if reporting and reacting to emergency situations happen on time. Your brand image will also receive a positive impression if you ensure the safety of your employees and customers.

Report Management Capabilities

There are times when a supervisor has to manage and supervise a team of many members. And it is possible that their job location is remote to the manager. That is when having an efficient security guard management system will help you keep a check over all the employees from anywhere and anytime.

Data-driven Decisions

A monitoring system that is properly managed will also help you recognize the underperformers as well as the top performers of your enterprise. So, you will be able to make informed decisions when giving punishments and rewards as and when needed accordingly. It can help to improve your employee’s performance so much that you may start to see the reflection in the amount of your revenue.

Security Guard App is a security guard monitoring software that will help you provide office support, improve your guard’s performance, and create an efficient work environment that allows you to offer greater service to your clients.

How To Retain Your Best Working Security Guards?

Today, the cost of employee turnover is alarmingly high. Why? Retaining the best working security guards has become a critical issue for a lot of security guard companies as they compete for talent in a tight economy. Focusing on it, the companies will not only be able to retain talented and motivated employees who truly want to be part of the company but also someone who’s focused on contributing to the company’s overall success. How? Incorporate employee retention strategies that work.

Employee Retention Strategies:

How can you increase retention rates? Start at the very beginning of the recruitment process.

Hiring For Cultural Fit

Since most of the employee turnover is due to bad hiring decisions, one should go beyond the traditional interview questions and ask questions that are related to your company’s values.

Security guards can develop skills and expertise but hiring them keeping your cultural values in mind can ensure loyal and engaged guards. The new hire will be able to blend with the team quicker, feel comfortable, and contribute faster. 

Identify Guards Who’ll Stay

The process to retain the best working security guards starts with choosing the right candidates that are more likely to stay. How? Look for key indicators on their resume, for instance, longevity at their previous job. That speaks loyalty, perseverance, and engagement.

The problem with job-hoppers is that often they are just be looking for the right place to land. Thus making it really difficult to retain them for any security guard company. 

Provide Clear Paths Of Advancement

Promoting the best working security guards from within not only provides a clear path of advancement but also greater compensation and responsibility. It helps the guards feel that they are a valued and crucial part of the company’s success. 

Since promotion goes hand-in-hand with employee development and education foster the accusation of new skills, technologies, and processes, doing it is said to be among the top benefits of retaining best working security guards.

Incorporate Two-Way Feedback

One of the main reasons why good security guards leave is due to a lack of communication. Many security guard supervisors don’t realize that. They don’t realize the importance of communicating with the best working security guards and making them feel connected.

Regular feedback and suggestions are a good way that can help your security supervisors stay connected with your guards. Thus, increasing their loyalty to your leadership and the security guard company.

Avoid Micromanaging

The best way to manage your best working security guards is to give them clear directions, allow them plenty of space to do what they have to do, and offer regular feedback. 

They may approach their work in a completely different way but that should not matter as long as they get the results. If you want to know what your best working security guards are doing all the time, they will feel they are not trusted and are more likely to leave.

Offer The Right Benefits To Guards

Reliable security guard companies that offer the most benefits to their guards are more likely to keep them. If you want to keep your best working security guards happy, engaged, and healthy, benefits and perks will play a crucial role in that.

From flexible work schedules to generous paid leave policies can go a long way towards helps security guards feel they are valued well beyond what they contribute at the workplace.

Leverage The Latest Technology

Best working security guards must have the necessary means to do their job well. To ensure that you’ll need to keep pace with technological changes and incorporate cutting-edge technologies such as Security Guard App into your security solutions. 

Failing to keep up pace with the trends in the security guard industry, your top-performing guards will move on to employers who provide them with the tools they need to succeed.

Encourage Open Communication

If the guards trust their security guard company is moving in the right direction, they are less likely to leave. To build that kind of trust, open communication is essential throughout the security guard company.

Creating open communication foresters a sense of community and shared purpose among the best working security guards. It helps create a workplace where they can freely express their views and voice their concerns. 

Invest In Security Guard Well-Being

Recently, health has become a top priority for everyone since physical and mental health has been tested amidst the COVID pandemic. Therefore, invest in ensuring the well-being of the guards.

Make sure there are strict safety protocols for security guards to follow. You can also have a comprehensive health plan which takes care of the overall wellness of your guards. It can include meal tracking, fitness tracking activities, etc.

Reward And Recognise Hardwork

What every best working security guard wants is acknowledgment and recognition for their work. Appreciating them for their efforts and achievement goes a long way in making them feel valued. 

However, remember the rewards you given them should speak to their emotional needs and go beyond their monetary compensation. When best-performing security guards feel a sense of belonging, they tend to be more loyal.

Competitive Compensation

Competitive compensation is another way to retain top performers. Not receiving proper compensation can leave your workforce demotivated. Which is why it is also one of the major reasons why best-performing security guards quit. To avoid this, give fair and just appraisal to every deserving guard. 

Apart from salary hikes, it can also be in the form of incentives, bonuses, health benefits, paid time off, etc. Offering competitive compensation shows that you are invested in the growth of your guards as much as you are in your company’s growth.

Provide Quality Management Or Supervision

Have you heard of an old adage that employees don’t leave companies, but their managers? Well, it goes for the best performing security guards of the security guard companies too. 

Frequent guard complaints point to these areas:

  • Lack of availability
  • Lack of clarity about expectations
  • Lack of clarity about roles
  • Lack of feedback about performance
  • Lack of clarity about earning potential

Security Guard Company

Conclusion:

Keeping your best-performing security guards takes serious effort. 

It all starts with making your security guard company talent-worthy. The next step involves keeping your workforce motivated and ensuring their high engagement. Does it seem like a lot of work to do? Well, it is worth putting in some time and effort, because this is the key to better business results.

Do All Types Of Businesses Need Security Guard Service?

Yes, whatever business you have, you need professional security guard service looking after your belongings and property. Your need for having security guard service doesn’t depend on your business type or the products you offer. 

In this article, you will learn about some of the vital areas of business that surely need to hire a security guard company. 

Security for Construction Sites

Typically, a construction site is filled with construction material and other things in bulk. That is why construction companies must have security guard service to prevent stealing and theft from the site. 

Not having a proper security plan can invite crime to the site. Besides theft, an under-construction building can summons the evil elements of the society and can serve as a hiding place for them. That is why you need to have security guard company to protect such sites all the time

Security for Retail

Shoplifters can pretend to be customers and enter the outlet, then seize on any opportunity they get. That is why retail stores require more security. The professional security guard company you hire must ensure that there are no blind spots where shoplifters or criminals can execute their felonious acts. 

The security professionals you hire also needs to have the latest and high-quality security and surveillance instruments in place. Technologies such as modern monitoring systems and high zoom cameras will help to catch criminals and stop crimes. 

Security for Healthcare Facilities

There are many reasons for healthcare facilities to have security professionals. They can protect the facility and help in smoothening the running process by managing conducts inside and outside the facility. They keep the law and order inside the facility and also ensures the security of the parking lot. 

Healthcare facilities also need to have a security system that will keep an eye on who is getting inside and who is getting out. They can also observe the patients, relatives, and attendants all the time and make sure there are no missing patients or any valuable belongings.  

Bankruptcy Asset Protection

When an owner becomes bankrupt, the property and the assets need protection. Hiring a security guard service provider will make sure that no one misuse or capture the building in any way or steal any property. 

The debtor may try to capture, steal or damage the property, so to avoid such incidents security guard is an utmost necessity. 

Security for Oil and Gas Venues

Oil and gas are some of the most valuable businesses as well as sites in the world. These two natural resources are of great value in the world, which can make these kinds of sites the target and victim of higher-level organized crime. 

That is why these facilities need the best protection to prevent any chances of organized crime. For the security of oil and gas facilities, security guards must have the required training to deal with high-profile criminal acts. 

Security is a necessity for any business. That is why it is very important to implement a good security strategy to ensure the safety of your business. 

 

Top 13 Reasons Why Good Security Guards Quit

Every security guard company, irrespective of its size, wants to hold onto its best talent for as long as possible. Retaining good security guards and reducing turnover, after all, is one of the most effective ways for companies to improve their service and decrease their costs. Despite all the efforts made by the company, good security guards leave. Often, they are one of the first to quit and look around for new positions or are poached by the competitor’s headhunters.

Top-performing guards leaving is both costly and disruptive for every security guard company. The process of replacing them brings with it expenses such as paperwork, training, and mistakes of inexperienced guards that cost the company. It also affects the other good security guards in their team and the way they perform. If you are a security guard company that wants its top-performing guards to stay, take a close look at the following factors that play a crucial role in their decision to quit.

Bottom line, if you pay attention to these crucial factors, you will certainly not only retain your top-performing guards but also reduce turnover drastically. It’s way too expensive to recruit a new guard. Why not put a little more focused effort to retain the good security guards you have already nurtured?

Steps to Become A Security Officer

For any company, security officers play a significant role. A human element is required for this position, which will keep this position relevant for years to come. This makes it a safe career choice. Plus, the course to become a security offer is simple. So, anyone with an interest in this job can pursue it. If you want to have a career in security, there are a few steps you need to follow. They are given below:

1: Graduate

You will have to be at least 18 years old in order to work as a security officer in the US. And at least 21 years old if your employer will provide you with weapons. Before hiring, most employers want at least a high school diploma, and for some high-risk facilities, you may also be required to have a bachelor’s degree. As part of your application, you may also need to pass a drug test as well as a background check. So, if you want to pursue a career in security, keep your record clean.

It would be better if you get a bachelor’s or associate’s degree in criminal justice or any other related field, which may give you the knowledge of the skills the employers will want. And if you have further education, you might get an edge over other applicants. However, it is less likely that you will need that much education to get the job you are looking for. Assess your choices and see what you should do to go forward.

2: Applying

There are many careers that require extensive training before you can even start working; the same goes for security work. However, as a security officer, your training will take place mostly after your position is stable. When you meet the qualification mentioned in the previous step, you can send in applications to those companies you want to work with. Thus, will begin your journey to building a career.

3: Training

After you have joined a security company, your training will begin. And your courses will be paid for by either the facility or the company that hires you. The finest companies will train you to complete the tasks most security officers need to complete, such as basic protection skills you will require on the field, writing reports of the activities, and dealing with public relations.

Before you can begin work, you will have to go through the training required by the state where you are going to work. Most states require you to complete a number of hours in training. Some also specify the types of classes you will have to go through. And after the initial phase, some state requires annual training. However, the company you work for should help you keep track of the standards you need t meet in your zone.

4: Dedicate yourself and progress

Once security officers have the training and gain experience, they can pursue a wide variety of fields. You can find security jobs that suit you whether you are an early bird or a night owl, or an introvert or an extrovert, or whether you like to move around or stay in one place.

As you acquire experience in the field, you may get a better position in a similar field, or you can advance into a role you want even more. Often, private investigators, personal guards as well as police officers’ benefit from earlier security job experience. So, if you want to be any of these in the near future, working in the security field could be a step in that path.

Tips To Retain Good Security Guards

When clients hire a dedicated security guard company, they expect high-quality security guard services that are customized to the unique needs of their business. While doing so, they take several factors into consideration, crucial for ensuring the security of their business and personnel. But the real question here is that what are you doing to make your security guard services stand out from the rest? Are you getting the right security guards on your team?

Here are our top tips for every security guard company to start improving their security guard services effectively:

Security Guard Company

Delivering high-quality security guard services is essential. The real task is working on improving security guard services to make them extraordinary. To do just that and more, try Security Guard App an intuitive mobile app that is available on both Android & iOS platforms. If you haven’t downloaded it yet, head to securityguard.app and also to gain more insight.