How to Efficiently Manage Your Security Company

Security staffing

8 Aug

Running a security company involves a complex mix of services, staff management, and client relationships. From manned guarding and CCTV monitoring to training and key holding, you juggle diverse offerings, ensure up-to-date staff qualifications, and navigate schedules during holidays and absences. Keeping clients happy also requires exceptional service and clear communication.

This article explores how digital transformation can empower your security company. We'll explore how technology can streamline staff management, optimise scheduling for various post needs, and enhance communication with both staff and clients. Learn how to build efficient security teams, ensure compliance, and ultimately achieve sustainable growth for your business.

Security Guard Management

Operational Costs

Security companies constantly strive to manage costs effectively in a competitive market. Recruiting and training qualified security guards is expensive, and as the company grows, management costs associated with scheduling and payroll also increase significantly. Finding and retaining qualified staff is another hurdle. Security guards often work long hours in demanding environments, and ensuring they possess the necessary certifications and licenses adds another layer of complexity to the hiring process.

Compliance

Security staffing companies operate under a dual layer of regulations: industry-specific requirements and general labour laws. In this respect, a good staff data management platform is essential. This software should allow for document uploads with expiry tracking, ensuring compliance with industry regulations. It's also important to consider the specific needs of different work locations. Certain posts may require specialised training or language skills. Factoring this in when creating staff schedules helps ensure qualified personnel are assigned to each location.

Investing in scheduling software with working-hour tracking capabilities is crucial. This guarantees employees receive proper wages according to their age, experience, and legal working-hour limits as dictated by labour laws.

Security staff companies must prioritise risk management and employee safety. Adequate training and proper insurance coverage for personnel are essential. Conducting thorough risk assessments at each worksite helps identify potential hazards. Providing appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) based on the specific location and work environment further mitigates risk. Regular check calls help manage lone worker risk, but these can become costly as your company scales. Consider implementing digital solutions to automate check-ins.

Offering guard tour reports is a best practice, even a mandatory requirement for some clients. Providing these reports demonstrates transparency and builds client trust, ultimately maintaining a positive reputation for your security staffing company.

Growing Your Client Base

Security companies can expand their client base through effective marketing strategies. Security marketing can involve building brand awareness through online and offline channels, highlighting their unique selling points compared to competitors. Social media engagement, a user-friendly website, and targeted advertising can attract potential customers.

Additionally, offering various security solutions tailored to specific needs and budgets will cater to a wider audience. Finally, exceptional customer service and positive testimonials can lead to referrals and repeat business, fostering long-term growth.

Security Guard Scheduling

So, by this point, you’ve recruited some guards, marketed your business successfully, and gotten some clients. Now you’re scheduling your staff in complete client projects. Maybe you’ve been going for a while, and things are starting to get a bit haphazard with paperwork, or issues are constantly cropping up with your staff’s shifts.

Security guard scheduling is pretty simple in theory, but can cause several challenges for businesses to deal with:

Understaffing: Not having enough guards to cover all required posts creates security gaps and strains existing staff.
Overstaffing: Assigning too many guards to a post wastes resources and unnecessarily increases costs.
Last-minute schedule changes: Client requests or unexpected staff absences, including no-call no-shows, can leave gaps in coverage or cause stressful scrambles to make your new schedule work
Employee dissatisfaction: Unfair or inflexible schedules, long hours, inaccurate time tracking and lack of control over shift selection can lead to low morale and high turnover. Overreliance on overtime to fill gaps can inflate costs and lead to employee burnout.
Compliance disputes: Failing to account for legal working hour limitations, breaks, and training requirements will cause legal issues.
Skillset mismatches: Assigning guards to posts that require specific skills or certifications they lack can compromise security effectiveness.

To schedule your team properly, you need to implement a database and be able to work with it. Some continue to work with a database through paperwork, some through manual spreadsheet work, but in our present digital age, many are turning to scheduling software solutions to manage their staff database. Many systems should also include other features, such as time clocks to ensure you can track security guard time or GPS security guard tracking to limit client disputes on no-shows.

Digital Transformation and Your Security Company

Digital transformation is possible and necessary for your business to thrive and grow; security company success comes down to efficient staff management and reliability. Bringing a brick-and-mortar security company into the digital era doesn’t mean completely changing your line of business - adapting specific areas will be a decisive first step that will bring substantial benefits.

If you haven’t heard about it, digital transformation is using technology to create or improve operations, products, or services. One survey found that up to 38% of businesses have adopted a digital business strategy to improve efficiency, go to market faster, or better meet and exceed customer expectations.

We often hear that security managers have been searching for a solution, a way to ensure they can improve their security guard scheduling, shift allocation, timesheet management and quicker time approvals with clients to ensure swifter payments for their business and employees. With providers like PARiM, you can find workforce management software to alleviate all these challenges without the need to buy additional hardware or IT experts or invest more than you’re willing to spend for a swanky, expensive system. You only need an internet connection, and more efficient security guard management is coming to you.

Choosing the Right Software Provider for You

Today's digital technology offers numerous options for overcoming staff scheduling challenges. However, many apps focus only on certain challenges present in security operations, meaning you need to run different software all at the same time. Aside from being an administrative nightmare that nobody wants, this can ramp up costs before you know it.

A single workforce management software can offer significant benefits, but it's important to consider your specific needs before making a decision. Here are some key factors to consider:

Cost

Traditional workforce management software might charge a per-user fee, limiting your ability to grow and utilise temporary staff. Look for solutions like PARiM with no per-user fees. These scale their pricing with your business, so you only pay for what you use.

Features

Look for features that will give your company a competitive edge or futureproof you to streamline operations. For example:

Does the software offer a branded client portal? This allows clients to easily access information, authorise timesheets, and provide feedback within a familiar environment, which can lead to better retention rates.
Does the system offer GPS tracking for security guard tracking?
Does the system enable guard tour tracking or notifications?
What lone worker safety measures does the platform provide?

Any workforce management software should help you automate tasks like timesheet approvals and error checking, saving your company significant time and improving payroll accuracy. However, ensure the platform will work with the systems or processes you currently have for timesheet approvals, or if it’s different, this will be an easy change to make within your business.

Benefits

Features like guard tour systems can build trust with your clients, while flexible work options can help you attract and retain top talent – both factors that contribute to a positive reputation.

Data & Insights: The software should provide valuable reports on operational efficiency, revenue, and labour costs. These insights can help you make informed decisions about your business.

Ease of Use

Choose a user-friendly platform with intuitive interfaces for administrators and staff. This will ensure smooth adoption and maximise the software's benefits.

If possible, look for a system with mobile apps for both guards and supervisors so that all your staff can enjoy the benefits.

Security

Robust security features are crucial for sensitive employee and client data. Make sure the software you choose offers the necessary data protection measures.

What Makes PARiM Different?

PARiM is more than just workforce management software. It's designed to address common security company challenges, offering a comprehensive and affordable solution. With our platform, you get:

A dedicated client portal: PARiM is the only system with a secure client portal. This portal allows clients to view information, authorise timesheets, and provide feedback—all with their own branding.
Free mobile app for everyone: Our mobile app lets guards clock in/out with their phones, eliminating paper timesheets and manual approvals. Supervisors can also instantly see and approve working hours from their mobile app.
Error-free: Say goodbye to duplicate entries and payroll errors! Everything is automated and verifiable, saving time and ensuring accuracy for invoicing and payroll.
Pay per use: High season needs a lot of temporary workforce in the system who might be idle in low season? No worries, with PARiM you don’t pay per user but per each scheduled hour. This ensures a risk free costing model that helps you grow.

Additional Benefits of PARiM:

We help you manage your security company more efficiently by:

Freeing up management time with streamlined scheduling and communication.
Reducing costs - with no per-user fees, you can add staff as needed and scale your platform as you go.
Build trust with your clients through GPS tracking and guard tour systems.
Recruit and attract top talent with flexible work options, and reduce employee stress wherever possible.
Get valuable data on your operational efficiency, revenue, and labour costs.

Try PARiM for Yourself

The best way to determine whether a software solution is right for your company is to try it out yourself. With our trial program, you and your employees can try our software and app for 14 days.

You can get started alone by signing up here or letting our experts guide you through the process personally by booking a quick, free demo.

Meelik Samel