How to hire and retain security staff

Does it often feel as though as soon as you hire another security guard, yet another one leaves? It can be a never-ending job attempting to hire security guards only for them to move on in a few months. All of this costs time and money, as you well know. So, how can you hire good staff and get them to stay? Take a look at our top tips for hiring and keeping your security staff happy. 

Hiring: 

Job boards Vs Agencies

Ever wonder why your temporary staff from the recruitment agency never seem to stay? That’s because as soon as the security staff are on your books, the agency has lost their worker, who was making them a tidy profit each week. So as soon as you think your three months temporary staff bill will end and you have finally found an honest and reliable worker, all of a sudden, the agency will tell you something terrible has happened to them. In truth, they’ve just moved that staff member on to a different contract, and you have to start again with a new one. It’s a common trick used by many ruthless agencies. 

And even if you have a moral and professional agency, turnover in security is still high, making agency recruitment an expensive way to hire. 

Job boards are cheaper but still a cost as you’ll still have to pay to advertise your jobs. Often the amount of time spent logging on and refreshing jobs and looking to see if anyone has applied can be very time-consuming. 

So what is the best option?

Some of the top job boards include cv-library, indeed and reed. However, these are not security-focused job platforms, which is where the Get Licensed new job board is an industry game-changer. 

In tests, the Get Licensed platform provided significantly more candidates, with results coming back in 12 minutes, while the other results took 5-18 hours to come in. Other benefits include SIA licence checking against the national register, so you don’t have to. There’s also a chat facility, video profiles, and a dedicated account manager. And you won’t have to keep logging in and out as you will be notified when applicants apply to your role. If you are new to the Get Licensed job board, you can post ten jobs for free, so make sure you speak to a talent specialist today to open your account.  

Questions at an interview

Once you’ve found some good candidates from the Get Licensed job board, it’s time for the interview stage. Make sure you ask the right questions to find out as much as possible about the candidate. You can check out some questions in other blogs, but due to the nature of the work, one of the most important questions to ask is the shift pattern a person requires. A night shift is entirely out of the question for some people with family commitments, or if they don’t have a car, they will struggle to get to sites when public transport isn’t running. 

Where they live is also an essential question if you have various sites so that you can logically allocate security guards to the most accessible site for them to get to. Another critical question is whether they prefer to work in a team or on their own; that way, you can allocate people to their preferred roles. You should also ask about their long-term goals and whether they will expect and are looking for promotion. You can then create clear career paths for each individual which should aid you in retaining your best staff. 

Retention:

Career paths

Security work is never going to be the best-paid job. Still, as mentioned, if you can create career paths and enable promotion, you’ll be able to keep your best staff, and they can progress through your company becoming team leaders, trainers, supervisors, and managers. 

Training

Training is another important issue. Poorly trained staff are not only ineffective but often leave. As an employer, you can help your security staff by paying for top-up training when their SIA licence requires renewal. You can also book your staff on some additional Get Licensed training courses. The courses include:  

• Fire Marshall  
• Introduction to Risk Assessment 
• ADHD Awareness
• Mental Health Awareness
• Workplace Health and Safety

All the courses are designed to help your staff be more effective in the workplace. They are all e-learning courses and start from just £25. Staff can also keep their skills up-to-date anytime they like by logging into the Guard Pass app, refreshing their skills, and learning from training. 

Perks

There are only so many perks to security guard work, but you can consider paid breaks, paying for uniforms and even looking into an employee benefits specialist such as Hapi. It provides bespoke discounts and pension packages and is used by some big players such as Randstad, The Royal Mint and Scot Rail. 

Ethos

Make sure you treat the security staff as part of your company. Often the cleaners and security guards are brushed away disrespectfully in corporate society. Remember that everyone is human and worthy of respect, politeness and friendliness. 

With all these tips, you should be well on your way to hiring and retaining excellent staff. Why not post your first job with Get Licensed for free today and see the results for yourself?