Mark Hanna, corporate security manager at Nomura bank in the City of London is (with Mike Alexander) organiser of the LISTEN email group. Below, though, he discusses guarding standards, as someone who has been on all sides of the fence; security officer and manager, contract and in-house.
Without wanting to add to the hundreds of articles already written about licensing, which have told us everything we already knew about the process, and what advantages the ‘legality’ will bring, I do feel compelled however, to ask those basic, but important questions that seem to slip through the reality net, as to where we really are now and our industry’s future.<br><br>Now that licensing has been a legal requirement for the contract manned guarding sector for just over eight months, one would expect to have seen a change in the way that not only security operatives conduct themselves in all areas of their operations, but a change in attitude from those companies that supply such services. Or has it all been a money-making exercise for the SIA and associated industry bodies, extracting monies from clients under the false pretence of receiving better quality staff and services?<br><br>Why the scepticism? Working predominantly days, I very rarely get the opportunity to wander through the streets of London in the early hours of a weekday night, but as luck would have it (not sure luck is the right word to use in this case), on a damp and wet Friday morning recently, I wandered past a variety of premises, and like the majority of us that commenced our careers as a security officer, it didn’t take me long to reflect upon my day and night shifts, and some of the ‘scams’ that people always seemed to get away with. Naturally I was keen to see if things had changed since I had done such an activity. Did I find smart, professional and vigilant security operative’s at their workstation? In one out of the 15 office blocks staffed by front of house security officers, I wandered by, yes I did, but what about the rest? What I found was the same standard that we all have been fighting for to change, in the pre-licensing days of mixed dress, sleeping personnel clearly visible from the main doors, and in one case, a half asleep security operative standing leaning with his head against the main glass door! <br><br>If any of those premises that I passed by had been my company’s, I would of been extremely disappointed that I had paid for a licence for that officer, and had not seen a change in the out of hours service provided. If I had been a site-based manager, or a contracts or account manager, I would be embarrassed to say the least. So does anyone care? That is a question that only the service providers can answer to their directors and clients, but clients also need to start taking an active position and strike harshly instead of sitting back and hearing the same excuses time and time again. After all, it’s our heads on the block!<br><br>So what about the future? There are in my mind, three questions:<br><br>1) Has the short term plan to improve the industry worked? Not <br>if my recent experience is anything to go by;<br><br>2) Will the medium term plan to improve our industry work? Let’s hope so, but after eight months so far, there has been very little improvement in my opinion, especially with the little action, or publicised action being taking against those company’s still illegally employing non-licensed staff by the SIA;<br><br>3) Will the long-term commitment of the SIA and contract manned guarding industry one day, jump into being and see us catapulted into a true profession? We can only live in hope.<br><br>Before all those readers that are providers of such services come running in defence of our industry, let me summarise by saying that I have always been an advocate of licensing, more so in-house coming into the equation. However, we are the only ones that can change the perception of our profession. Licensing, legal action or spot checks by the SIA will not change it for us, we have to do it in such areas as out of hours spot checks by mobile support units, interlocking external patrols with neighbours, a local networking system and taking appropriate action against those found to be un-professional whilst holding a professional licence! After being a contractor for over 10 years in this industry before going in-house, I miss the chase and the passion for excellence, that slowly seems to be leaving us, but clients also need to realise that you get what you pay for! Some clients may be content with some of the examples I have given above, but we should still be attacking on both sides of the ‘this is what we have’ and ‘this is what your paying for’ professional services that are out there, let’s just balance ourselves before we fall over in defeat and land at the governing feet of the SIA.
