The most profound change to private security may come when the sector – to be exact, its buyers – tap into the ‘gig economy’ the same as they have already done for hailing taxis, and calling for meals, Mark Rowe suggests.
The companies offering platforms in this field will not thank you for calling them the equivalent of Uber, but that is how it may look in practice. If you (personally as someone who works in security all hours, and people generally) have a curry delivered by a taxi driver, who’s signed up to do multiple sorts of ‘gig economy’ work via apps, as a self-employed person, why shouldn’t that person also be on call to answer security alarms on business premises, as a key-holder (if suitably badged by the Security Industry Authority for the ‘licensable activity’) or indeed (again, if suitably vetted and trained) to respond to water leaks?
I’ve queried already this year how realistic Labour are with their proposal to ban zero-hours contracts. Leaving aside the politics of zero-hours, or indeed whether it’s bringing to the market enough qualified, motivated security officers, and taking it with a pinch of salt when security and other contractors employing such labour argue that zero-hours suits workers – when some workers wish for more hours, and more certainty around regular earnings, for juggling bills, not an issue for the salaried – there’s enough truth in the point that the flexibility of work in the ‘gig economy’ suits some. Indeed, it brings into the workforce some who wouldn’t otherwise be economically active at all, and certainly not in private security. Adults with children of school age, who can log in, for example to monitor video surveillance cameras, in school hours, or when the child is asleep.
If ‘gig’ security threatens the economic model of guarding contractors the same as Uber and their like threatened the black cabs of London, is anyone suggesting that the current mobile response is working, if it routinely requires SIA-badged officers to drive 40 miles or for 45 minutes, from one side of the Leeds-Bradford conurbation to the other, or across counties like Devon, or Cumbria? And if the gig model sounds unwelcome to guarding contractors, it doesn’t matter what they want, but rather what customers want; and judging by the apps for ride-hailing, groceries and cooked food, the market is there. Like it or not, site managers are busy people, with other functions to look after, such as safety; for many sites, security is a ‘grudge purchase’, as demanded in the terms of insurance. Or: is guarding even budgeted for, if the need for it has cropped up after a break-in.
In any event, facilities management contractors such as Sodexo are already using such platforms, as Orka and Earnflex. The platforms do the recruiting, vetting and compliance checks, can integrate with a workforce management software (such as Timegate), leaving the contractor to do its specialism. An uncomfortable truth, in banking, retail, the media, any number of fields of business, is that the online world has proven most unwelcome for businesses that are mediocre. As an aside, it leaves regulators like the SIA, and inspectorates, also scrambling to keep up.
More in the March print edition of Professional Security Magazine.
