Peter Whitehead wrote last time about security operatives who commit crimes or act recklessly on client’s premises. This month, he suggests a remedy.
During the 1990s one company reduced employee incidents significantly. One repeating factor that was noticed was that offenders had not realised how easily they could be caught, nor thought about the consequences. But it is severely negative to tell a workforce how easily operative crimes will be discovered, and how dreadful the consequences. Honest operatives could feel insulted, clever ones challenged and all of them threatened! But by explaining previous case histories the important messages could be sent without offence or challenge. In addition to individual contract training, every recruit attended a one day ‘general induction course’ which covered uniform issue, job-application scrutiny, tele-vetting queries (pre-SIA!), the employment contract, health and safety rules, booking on/off, wages calendar, pay queries, expenses etc etc. So a new section on ‘operative-incidents’ was included and given one precious hour.
Some comic situations sandwiched more serious ‘bombshell-messages’. This section was placed after the lunch break because it was so lively that even the most sombulant recruit would wake up. Incidents were described simply as they happened, and they showed the guard perpetrators as so silly and so easily caught that the comical tales were easily remembered. After two or three incidents had been described in comedy, then the first of the shock-wave messages was delivered. Incidents from the last article could easily be placed in the comedy section of such a session, but here are a couple more… all true…
Retail sirens
Many young females all worked together in a fashion shop. Some of them enjoyed competing to ‘sleep with’ new contract guards in the cleaner’s cupboard. The new guard was young and previously unsuccessful with girlfriends, but at this shop he suddenly became desirable to women! Very soon he ‘fell’ to the attentions of a sales assistant, and then another. After a while the store employees became bored with him, but he was now so relaxed among such admirers that he soon did something that caused a sexual harrasment complaint. Within two weeks of starting at the store he was disgraced and replaced. Then the contractor sent another guard to the store; and soon afterwards they had to send another! While this story was told, the recruits were watched closely, and possible defaulters were easily identified by their responses!
An expensive visit
During a quiet Sunday afternoon at a large DIY store, the retail guard sneaked off to the toilets with a good book. Sadly the book could not keep the guard awake, and he drifted off to sleep. When he awoke the place seemed very quiet. He found the staff areas and offices empty, and so went straight to the sales floor, which he found to be as dark and silent as the grave. He ran to the front porch area but found that he was locked in to the store. He could see store staff walking across the car-park to their vehicles, but however loudly he shouted or banged on doors, they could not hear him. He needed to contact them all urgently and so ran to a fire alarm call point and broke the glass. The staff heard the alarm and returned to gaze into the store and see the guard waving his arms and looking very relieved. The guard’s relief did not last long, because the store manager was a bit upset. Then two fire engines arrived, and on discovering how they had been called out, one of the crew explained that a bill for £240 for each machine and crew would have to be sent to the store. While the poor guard and vexed manager were hearing this news the police raced in to the car park, and seconds after that the intruder alarm on the front elevation sounded off, having been held in check by a ‘ten minutes silent’ command. Engineers from both fire and intruder alarm companies had to be called out to reset the systems, and since there had already been two false intruder alarm activations that year the police blacklisted the property until the system was proven to be stabilised. A security company had to be instructed to ‘standby’ and respond to all intruder activations until full response could be covered by police again. None of these events brought happiness to the security contractor’s directors.
The stories can run endlessly on and on, from the night guard who brought a strange lady up into the boardroom to entertain her at the directors’ drinks cabinet, to the guard who collected dropped receipts and had their points added to his own loyalty card. From the guard who constantly told mirthful store staff about his ‘secret’ special services past, to the guard who booked on and off, but who sneaked off site in between. Incidents selected for the induction day would not be forgotten, and employee newsletters always included rare new situations which everybody enjoyed immensely, rather than automatically binning in favour of wage slip scrutinies! Nobody wanted to be featured in such chapters.
Bombshell messages from around the security industry, mostly borrowed from newspaper reports, such as perjury, stealing, arson or using excessive force were too serious for comedy. Setting a fire in order to ‘find it’ and be a hero, or planting store property in a shopper’s bag to gain an arrest (oh yes): such incidents would have been reported in chill horror, so that everyone would remember for a long time. Altogether a brilliant deterrent.
The directors that used such simple and cost effective communications?Exchanged their business for land just before the great property boom. Wise old gentlemen. They say ‘follow the money’, don’t they? I hope that this might give positive ideas to other contractors.
