MANAGING YOUR SECURITYYour guide to selecting the right security company for your business

Abbey Petkar

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Copyright ©2015 Abbey Petkar

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the author(s).

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Introduction

I joined the security industry while I was studying for my post-graduate degree in operational management. I was working for one of the largest security companies in the country at the time, but I was constantly frustrated by the lack of professionalism and transparency which seemed to permeate the entire industry.

It was at that moment that I decided that the industry could, and should, be far better than that. I decided to set up my own security company and prove that achieving success in the security industry could be guaranteed by focusing first and foremost on customer service and professionalism.

I have written a number of articles that have been published in the UK and Europe over the years. These articles cover a wide range of topics that are security related.

Recently I was voted one of the 40 top influencers in the global security industry by IFSEC Global, the list included The MET Police Chief Commissioner, and the Head of Worldwide Security at Microsoft, amongst others.

Today, Magenta security is an award winning company, recently awarded highly commended status in the category of best small to medium size enterprise in the Barclays sponsored business awards. It has been recognised not only by the security industry but also by

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commercial businesses in all sectors throughout the UK and Europe as a leader in environmental initiatives as well as corporate social responsibility.

I started Magenta Security with one security officer and one customer more than 18 years ago. We formed Magenta on the basis that we were going to provide customers the best customer service possible, at the best prices possible, while understanding their exact security needs.

By creating and maintaining a close working relationship from the onset. Magenta has established a substantial portfolio of customers, many of which are long standing. Throughout this time we have not lost a customer through poor service. We value each assignment on its own merits. So, we set up security services based on the customers’ requirements, not on a one size fits all basis. We will spend time understanding our customers’ needs and put together a bespoke service for their particular security requirements.

I have written this guide to give you, the discerning end user, an idea of the kinds of things you should be looking for when you are in the market for security services. As I believe that your satisfaction with the service will correspond directly with how well the company meets the criteria which I set out here.

Abbey Petkar Magenta Security Services Ltd.

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Choosing a security company Security services is an incredibly fast moving industry, and it has changed so much in the last ten years that it is almost unrecognisable from the industry which existed back in the mid-2000s.

One of the biggest issues to hit the security industry since regulation, has been the use of self-employed security staff. Employment agencies are one of the biggest suppliers of these self-employed security officers, as they commonly provide other members of staff on short term contracts, such as warehouse, cleaning and catering staff.

The biggest difference with all the staff listed above is that security staff have to be licensed to

carry out the work that they do and, more often than not, they are on longer term contracts.

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Regulating security officers

In 2006 the Government set up the Security Industry Authority (SIA) to regulate the security industry. This legislation caused a major revolution amongst security companies for one key reason, it mandated that all security officers working in the industry must have a licence in order to work. Getting a security licence involves doing a number of background checks on the applicant, including their criminal history, finances and credit, work history and finally requires them to take a City & Guilds training course.

Once a person has a licence they are free to work as a security officer, although certain categories require additional licences like working as a door supervisor in a club or a pub, or for working on an industrial site which requires CCTV monitoring.

My advice to customers is that you not only check that the security officer concerned has a licence, but also that the company providing the officer is registered with the Security Industry Authority (SIA). Both of which can be done by checking the licence number of the security officer on the SIA website and the company on the Accredited Company Scheme also found on the same web site.

The Accredited Company Scheme (ACS) is provided directly by the SIA, which is a government body. The ACS audit all of its member companies to make sure that they have a legal standing, that they have the appropriate quality control systems in place, that they have the administration support, a control room to back their officers up with, and mobile supervision on the road. Essentially, the ACS is designed to make sure that its member companies are reputable, and committed to continual assessment as well as the improvement of their service offering.

Magenta Security is in the top 5% of companies assessed by the ACS. Companies are scored on their achievements against a set criteria which is upgraded each year.

Although it’s true that often in the marketplace, overall price dominates the services that people opt for, if they really want to have a professional security service, it’s not just getting the security officer’s boots on the ground. It’s about the 24 hour a day back-up that officer gets, the admin support, the management support and most importantly, the control room. That way, should anything happen on the customer’s premises at 2 o’clock in the morning and that officer needs to have back-up and support, it’s there.

There are a number of implicit dangers in opting to hire a security agency which has not registered with the SIA. The first of which, somewhat obviously, is that they are unlikely to have their security officers licensed, which means no quality control and no guarantees of professionalism.

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It is also all too common to see unregistered security agencies hiring officers on a self-employment basis, because they meet the legal requirement to have a licence. Ultimately these officers are not treated well, and are often given a flat rate of pay, not given any holiday or sick pay, in fact, they’re not given any of the benefits of a normal employee.

It’s also very likely that the security company requires them to work for too many hours, sometimes even up to 84 hours a week, which is in direct contravention of the EU Working Time Directive, which limits the officers to an absolute maximum of 48 hours per week. Although, from a legal point of view, security officers can opt out of the Working Time Directive, obviously doing this volume of hours has an extremely negative effect on the morale of the security officer, which in turn affects their quality of work. However, reputable employers such as Magenta Security, make sure that their security officers have a good work / life balance and do not work excessive hours.

This kind of behaviour by unregulated security service providers is a direct step back towards the bad old days of unregulated staff, as opposed to what the industry can and should be about, which is regulated, happy, staff, who have a good work/life balance.

In addition to these problems it’s very important that customers understand that if the security officers are self-employed then they’re just not insured to do the work that they do. As a company we have £10 million worth of liability cover, which is the maximum level, though reputable security companies can have between £2-10 million of cover. Anyone employing a security officer from a company which does not have the proper insurance is taking a massive legal and financial risk.

Ultimately, it is in your best interests to make sure that your security officers are legally employed, because at the end of the day the responsibility reverts to you if anything goes wrong. If you have a self-employed guard on your premises and you get visited by one of the government bodies, it’s you who will be responsible for it. That is why it is so important that any contractor you’re using meets all of the health & safety requirements and Employment Law requirements.

Make no mistake about it, security agencies who employ staff on this basis are breaking employment law by giving a job to ‘self-employed’ security officers who are, in reality, working on a permanent, full time basis.

Who really wants to employ a security company which is comfortable with breaking the law?

The government is currently reviewing legislation regarding the licensing of companies and is fully committed to implementing sweeping changes across the industry within the next

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parliament. . If you are interested in getting any further information about any of these issues, in particular, up-to-date information on the changes in legislation, please feel free to contact us, and we can arrange for more information to be sent out to you.

Financial clarity

A very good indication of a company’s reliability, and something that every customer in the marketplace for security services should be looking at very closely, is whether the security company is operating an open-book policy.

We place huge importance on being fully transparent in what we do. We provide our customers with a complete breakdown, down to the penny, as to where the money goes - how much of it is paid to the officer and how much of it is spent on direct costs.

If you, as the customer, can be confident that the officers concerned are getting the best pay rates available, then you can be confident of their morale and their commitment to professional service. These two factors will be key in assuring your satisfaction.

You should also pay close attention to what kind of financial guarantees a company offers, as this is a good barometer of their commitment to service. No service is perfect and there will always be problems in any business, after all we are only human. However, I believe the real litmus test of good service is in the resolution of a problem. At Magenta, we offer a refund on the profits of any particular month if we fail to deliver the service to which we have been contracted. I take great pride in the fact that in the three years that we’ve been running this scheme, we’ve never yet had to give any money back, because we’ve never needed to.

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Commitment to Customer Service

Attention to customer service should be the touchstone for all managers in practically any industry, and it’s certainly something which we take very seriously. I would strongly advise any discerning buyer to make enquiries into a security company’s customer service ethos and procedures before spending any money with them.

For us, effective customer service starts with understanding the customer. That’s why we start by making a profile of each business with which we work. We put together a comprehensive document called the assignment instructions which includes all of the key features and the requirements of that business. This will be read thoroughly and signed by the customer, the lead security officer as well as by the allocated head office representative. This then serves as the working document for the project.

You’ll want to check that the security company you are considering provides dedicated customer service managers who will deal with your account. There should never be a time that you cannot call up and speak to someone about any concerns that you have, or issue that you need to deal with. It’s very important that security companies know exactly what is going on with their clients. That is why we have weekly meetings to make sure that everyone is aware whether there’s a new building coming online, if there’s additional cover, if there’s been a break-in, or any other issues.

But in addition to that, there should be Service Level Agreements, or SLAs, set up on a regular basis. This is where our customer service managers meet the customers face to face and get them to give a rating as to how we are doing as compared with their expectations. For example, we might ask them to rate the security officer: does his appearance look good, is he always in uniform, is he always on time, does he know the job he’s doing, is he polite and courteous to the staff that he works with, is he polite and courteous to any visitors? There are a whole array of questions and about 25 different areas that we score on. The SLA is also created and customised based on our customer’s requirements, in particular we can alter the frequency of the SLA meetings dependent upon our customer’s needs.

As a company we are totally committed to providing top quality customer service. In fact, we make it a priority to go above and beyond what is required of us by law, whether it’s in our staff training, attention to health and safety regulations or in giving back to the communities in which we work. That’s one of the reasons we were given highly commended status for customer service in the Barclays Bank sponsored business awards.

We are proud of our recognition from the industry and we are always pushing the boundaries of what we do.

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Focus on environmental standards

Back in 2002 Magenta Security decided that it wanted to lead our industry on environmental issues. At that time we were working with some big multi-national companies, who also had an interest in environmental issues but weren’t doing much about it. So we wanted to take the lead and try to force the other companies in our field to raise their standards along with us.

We first put together all the documentation we needed to be audited by the British Standards Institute, the BSI, for the industry standard environmental regulations. At that time nobody in our industry was doing it and there were very few companies outside our industry who were actually involved in it either. This was a great advantage for us since we were able to lead the field, and it gave us the opportunity to educate others while we did it.

We started by running what we called a ‘reduce, reuse and recycle’ programme. So wherever possible we reused the equipment we already had, this immediately reduced the impact we were having on the environment. On top of that we reduced the number of items we had to buy and we recycled what we couldn’t reuse. Reduce, reuse and recycle is a three pronged approach, and it’s a mantra that’s used within the environmental field. The genius of it is, by doing this we were able to drive our costs down as well as reduce the impact that we were having on the environment.

If you’re buying fewer products which are more environmentally friendly, and you’re recycling everything that you can’t reuse then the end result has to be a massive reduction in the amount of energy that’s wasted. This will boost your company’s productivity as well as help the environment, and our company is proof that this approach works.

Our next step was to put a programme together whereby we would recycle all of the paper we used. This had a massive financial implication but also had a massive impact on security as well, because obviously information wasn’t leaking from us. Plus we were actually able to measure the amount of trees we had saved according to the amount of paper we had shredded. However, this wasn’t our only move, we also changed all the electronic equipment within our office space and we started using low energy equipment, low energy printers, low energy computers – and all of that served to dramatically reduce our electrical usage. We were also the first company to use a whole fleet of liquid gas fuelled vehicles, again, reducing the impact on the environment in doing so.

So, we really analysed our whole business from a top-down perspective. It has to be senior managers that lead a programme like this, because once they understand what the objectives are and they can then filter these objectives through their management structure

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and down to the staff right at the bottom of the chain. It is really important that everybody in the organisation understands and is invested in what the business is trying to achieve.

In reality it’s not that complicated, it’s all about putting together a policy and a process whereby you can analyse what you’re spending, what you’re spending it on and how you can reduce that spend, and, in the same vein, reduce the burden you put on the environment. Whether it’s water, electrical, gas or paper, there is money which can be saved with greater efficiency of process and a bit of investment in better equipment. As an example of what can be done, we have reduced our electrical bill alone by more than 50% and that was achieved because we have planned to become a paperless office. So, wherever possible we’ve put in systems that store data for us and less and less paper has been used - virtually everything’s electronic. And it has an impact on the business because it improves the bottom line, but it also has less of a negative impact on the environment, which is good for the wider community.

It really is a dual purpose endeavour: save money, but also the environment. We also offer support services to our customers, potential customers and competitors in the industry. We advise them on how to put together their own environmental processes and policies. We advise them on where they can save natural resources and we don’t charge for this, this is a free service that we offer. If you employ hundreds of people, it makes sense to educate them about the environment that they live in and how they can have an impact on it.

It is this approach to environmental sustainability that has helped us to become the first carbon neutral security company in the whole of Europe, something of which I am immensely proud.

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Corporate responsibility

Corporate social responsibility is very important to us. For me, being in business isn’t about how much profit we make at the end of the year, it is about how much of our profits we are able to invest in other projects. In the past we’ve been committed to projects which build water wells in Africa, we’ve sponsored a school for the blind in India and we’ve run health and safety programmes across hundreds of schools here in the UK, where we’ve provided board games for each individual child about how to be safe on the road.

We’ve also done special training, in collaboration with the Metropolitan Police and the ambulance service, where a number of children have been taken to a training centre. They’ve been taught how to avoid knife crime, escape from a room full of smoke and they’ve been taught basic first aid. If any of those children remember that training in an emergency situation, then it’s an achievement and its money well spent, because it will save someone’s life.

We spend more money on children’s charities than we do on anything else. The reason for that is, in my view, children appreciate what we do for them more, and it stays with them longer. Sometimes people have ulterior motives and you can’t always be sure that the money you’re spending is going to good causes – with children you can see the results. We also sponsor a number of children across poor regions of the world, for all of their training and educational costs.

Every quarter I get a report from each child saying how they’re doing with their education and this is a 10-year plan. We’re taking on the responsibility of educating, housing and feeding them for the next 10 years, right from nursery or primary age, through to when they go to college. And we want to have more children on that project, because we think it’s something really worthwhile to be involved in.

So, again, corporate social responsibility is a long term commitment, we always give a minimum of 10% of our profits to charitable projects – last year we doubled that. I enjoy being in business, but business is not all about pounds and pence, it’s about what you achieve, what you can do for the wider world, and that is more important to me than anything else. That’s why we offer mentoring advice; we’re happy to talk to anybody, be it customers, potential customers, employees, even other businesses.

We also love taking ideas from our staff, and a great example of this can be found right in our local area. One of our managers noticed that there were a whole load of kids hanging around the street corners near his home with nothing to do. He suggested setting up a football team for them and asked for sponsorship. So we bought them shirts and found a space at a local park. It got the kids off the street and in fact, the kids ended up being part

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of a TV programme, which was great for the kids, but great for us too, because they were all wearing our shirts.

It doesn’t matter what you do whether it’s local, national or international, the bottom line is that you set out to do something that is achievable, and to me, that’s the most satisfying thing.

Discovering your security needs

The first thing that needs to be done with any potential customer is to carry out a health & safety risk assessment, it’s free of charge and it gives information about how secure the premises are. It gives tips on what they need to do to improve their security, and it also raises awareness about the services that may be needed to make the premises secure. They may need an alarm system, they may need CCTV, or they may need a static guard due to the value of their stock.

It’s very important to look at the individual requirements of each of the customers and then recommend to them the sort of services that would suit. The most basic security service that we offer is a key-holding service, whereby we can attend their premises when the alarms have been triggered at 2 o’clock in the morning. Our mobile drivers always go out in teams of 2 and we have a 24 hour control room that’s there specifically to support the drivers that go out. When they arrive on site they call our control room to let us know that they are on site. If they have not called back in about 5-10 minutes to let us know everything is okay, we can then put our emergency action plan into place. Individual people attending their own premises are putting themselves at serious risk of injury or worse, because when the alarm goes off at 2 o’clock in the morning and the owner has to go out to those premises, he or she is on their own – no support, no back-up. If they get there and someone’s lying in wait, they could then be severely injured or robbed. As you can see, having a service like ours in place provides peace of mind, and makes sure that if the alarms do go off out of hours, you are not putting yourself at risk.

Now, in addition to that service, there’s another cost effective service which we provide; mobile patrols. What we can do is attend the premises at predetermined hours. For example, we might agree on 3 patrols a night. We would go out to the premises 3 times per night, at random times, to make sure that nobody is watching the premises or trying to break in. Obviously this acts as a powerful deterrent. If anybody is watching the premises or planning to break in and they see our mobile driver patrolling in a liveried vehicle, in full uniform, then they will recognise a serious danger of being caught. This is often enough to stop a robbery in its tracks before it has even begun.

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Another service we provide is CCTV monitoring, we can dial-in to any customer’s CCTV system via the web. We can then do what we call ‘virtual patrols’ of their premises, via their own camera system. Our control room manages the cameras out of hours, enabling them to move the cameras around, in order to view what’s going on.

These are some of the most cost effective services. We also provide more comprehensive services like static security guards who will be on the premises for the full duration of the night and at weekends, or even 24-hours a day. In fact, we can manage any security situation which the value of the goods, or the risk to that site requires.

It is paramount that we understand the customer’s requirements fully. We profile the customer, we profile the security officers who will work for them, and we put together a package that gives them everything that they require. After that we put together an assignment instruction, which gives them full details of what the job entails and what we will do for them. We even involve them in interviewing the staff that are going to be doing the job for them, so our clients have ownership of the whole process.

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ConclusionIf you want to make sure that your business has the security it needs, and you want peace of mind, then it is worth your time and effort to find a security company who will do the job well.

I believe that security services are no different to any other top level service. Security companies should ensure that their staff are carefully selected, well trained and well supported. Security companies should also provide outstanding customer service and should work ceaselessly to accommodate all client’s needs.

On top of this, security companies should give back to their community, both in terms of direct investment, and by doing everything they can to help the environment and reduce their carbon footprint.

I hope that you have found this guide helpful and informative, and that it will help you as you look for the security company that will best suit your needs.

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About Magenta Security Services Ltd. Magenta Security was established to provide high quality, bespoke staffed security services to discerning customers throughout the United Kingdom.

We understand that no two assignments are the same and we pride ourselves on getting to know each of our customers and their security needs. We offer a large variety of internal and external security options including: security officers, mobile services, graffiti removal, electronic security and remote monitoring & security receptionist.

At Magenta Security Services Ltd we pride ourselves on our customer centred approach and our high quality custom designed services. As a market leading security company we pride ourselves on leading improvements in the security industry. We are in the top five percent of security companies in the UK as audited by the Security Industry Authority.

www.magentasecurity.co.uk

MANAGING YOUR SECURITYYour guide to selecting the right security company for your business

Effi cient and professional security services are an increasingly important part of many businesses in the modern world. Whether your business is customer facing and requires security offi cers for a business environment, or you simply have valuable stock which needs to be monitored electronically during the night.

However, for the discerning customer, it is not always easy to tell the legitimate providers of professional security services from the rogue operators who, sadly, still operate in the industry.

In this unique guide, Abbey Petkar, Managing Director of Magenta Security Services Ltd, will give you the insight you need in order to make the best decision when it comes to your business’s ongoing security, and at the same time introduce some of the things which set Magenta Security Services apart from the competition.

Among the topics discussed inside are...

The regulation of security companies

Licensing a security offi cer

Making customer service a priority

Environmental standards

Corporate social responsibility

At Magenta Security Services Ltd we pride ourselves on our customer centred approach and our high quality custom designed services. As a market leading security company we pride ourselves on leading improvements in the security industry. We are in the top fi ve percent of security companies in the UK as audited by the Security Industry Authority.

www.magentasecurity.co.uk