Many people feel the call of working for themselves, but not so many actually do it. Ian Thomas is someone who has; he spoke to Mark Rowe.
Ian Thomas and Richard Lockley are the MD and ops director of ESST Training. Richard was Training and Development Manager at SITO; Ian had the same job title at Northampton-based guarding contractor VSG. Both started in private security as officers at Firm Security. While Richard before SITO worked for Chubb Security Personnel, Scottish & Newcastle Retail, Greene King and Vinci Park Parking Services, Ian was under the ‘tutorship’ of VSG’s Bill Muskin and Keith Francis. Indeed, what those men achieved did show Ian what you could do for yourself, but the fear remained of launching your own business. Ian recalls it was incredibly scary: "Sat there on day one thinking, what have I done? I had a cracking job in what is an excellent company and if it hadn’t been for that desire, just to push myself a bit further, I would still be there, very happy. And it’s been a roller-coaster ever since; but it has been great fun. I have enjoyed it; I have even enjoyed it when it hasn’t been good and scared of what has been around the corner."
To repeat, Ian began in private security as a £5 an hour relief officer, after leaving the air force, with resettlement leave, and wanting to do something to tide himself ‘until the real job came along’. Richard, similarly, was a security officer while taking a law degree at university (like, as it happens, the minister for skills, David Lammy MP).
ESST are based in a business centre on the outskirts of Northampton, to quote the site owners ‘flexible upmarket office space’. The advantages from ESST’s point of view is that the building entrance has a reception for all tenants, who rings to say the visitor has arrived; and if the training or any company wants to ‘borrow’ more space for a board-room style meeting, say, it can. As Ian shows me round, it dawns on me that besides Ian understandably wanting to put the best foot forward for his business, there is the question of showing training in general as something that does merit new décor and furniture, not tables with coffee stains from students of 20 years before, and dead flies in the windows. When I ask Ian what he foresees, he says: "There will always be a bargain basement sector," that is, buyers and providers of security who only offer the basics. But there is a middle to top end of the market that realises that £1000 spent on a security officer that does not work is useless; £1500 spent on a security officer that does work, is good value. That is, some people do want security officers badged and logoed as their own: "They want security to understand their organisation and mirror their culture, and that doesn’t come without good training and I think that’s why companies such as VSG have been successful." Some companies will stay in their same old mould, "and I can’t see them being successful". I asked about whether it mattered guarding being in-house or contract. While the decision on whether in-house will get SIA licensing will be a key commercial factor, Ian agreed, he added that so far licensing has driven people both ways – that is, not only guard-force managers going in-house to avoid the SIA licence, but others going to contract, to make the contract guard firm responsible for the licensing process. Ian raised the issue of some of the major guarding companies not giving a universal service – some companies, that is, delivering a service in some regions and some sectors as good as any you can see, but down the road the same company may be delivering a poor service. Again, here Ian maintains the Firm and VSG approach of one central office, one standard, one point of contact.
Ian mentions the bleak assessment of the guarding market as spoken by Stuart Lowden of Wilson James at IFSEC in May. Ian has a more positive outlook; to repeat, he sees the ‘basement’ market is there and will stay. But he likens security to the automotive industry. Instead of what could be a grotty purchase 20 years ago, the family car has improved safety standards, extra components fitted as standard. Just as car buyers now expect more, and ask for it, so security buyers might ask: where is the conflict resolution training; why aren’t reception security officers wearing my corporate uniform, not making my company look good? We forget, that is, where we have come from, days when a security officer never went in a classroom. The challenge now for trainers, now that customers expect the SIA licence four day training; what next? Trainers and training departments, Ian suggests, have to come up with new things with a wow factor, things that will make a difference in the workplace. And not just the UK workplace, because Ian has found himself and his company doing training in the Middle East.
