Miscellaneous DESC

Kate

The Californian 2019 Q1 – “WE DO WHAT OUT THERE?” HAVE YOU CONDUCTED YOUR POST SURVEYS YET?

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“WE DO WHAT OUT THERE?”

HAVE YOU CONDUCTED YOUR POST SURVEYS YET?

Barry A. Bradley, Esq., Bradley & Gmelich, CALSAGA Network Partner

The best way to defend your business when you are hit with a wage and hour lawsuit (whether by an individual, a class action, or a Private Attorneys General Act [PAGA] claim), is to have conducted a well-tailored post survey.  It is a tool that your account managers should implement to show that your company has gone through the mental and physical assessment of each post and shift to be compliant with the law.

In just a few minutes, a post survey will assist you in helping to determine such things as:

  • Are the officers able to be provided off-duty meal breaks?
  • If not, why not?
  • Are valid on-duty meal period consents and policies in place?
  • Are the officers taking their required rest breaks?
  • Are the rest breaks truly “off duty?”
  • Is there adequate seating in compliance with the Labor Code?
  • Is there heat illness prevention policies and procedures in place?
  • Is there potable water available?
  • In interviewing the officers, are there blind spots about which you weren’t even aware?

These are just a few of the questions that can be answered in a good survey.  Your particular situations will be different, depending upon the type of client you have and the type of security services offered.

If makes it much easier for your attorneys to defend you when we can pull out your completed site surveys to show that you made valid, good faith actions to comply with the law. In short, it makes us happy.  (And we know how you care about your attorney’s happiness – it brings you good karma!)

If you haven’t yet prepared or updated your specific policies to be compliant, or if you need post surveys prepared for your particular line of work, don’t hesitate to contact your counsel to help you. We often “train the trainer” and, in these instances, train the account managers so they know how to do these surveys on their own.

A little effort on your part will not only save you grief, but ultimately a lot of money.

Barry A. Bradley is the Managing Partner of Bradley & Gmelich LLP located in Glendale, California, where he heads up the firm’s Private Security Team and oversees the Employment and Business Teams at the firm.  A former Deputy District Attorney, Barry’s practice concentrates on representing business owners in employment, business and licensing issues, as well as defending litigated cases involving negligent security, employment and business related issues.  The firm acts as general counsel for many security companies in California.  Barry is the Legal Advisor to CALSAGA.

He has been conferred an AV-Preeminent Peer Rating by Martindale Hubbell, the highest rating attainable, and has been named a Southern California Super Lawyer for the past 14 consecutive years in the area of Business Litigation.  Barry is also the recipient of CALSAGA’s Security Professional Lifetime Achievement Award. bbradley@bglawyers.com  818-243-5200.

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Kate

THE CALIFORNIAN 2018 Q4 – SECURITY GUARD VS. SECURITY OFFICER- WHICH SHOULD YOU USE?

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SECURITY GUARD VS. SECURITY OFFICER- WHICH SHOULD YOU USE?

Kwantek Team

So, you have a position opening up in your contract security firm. Now is the time to post the job in various places using your standard job description and other boilerplate materials you use when hiring.

You know you need systems in place for this, so you arm yourself with tools like an applicant tracking software or detailed hiring spreadsheets.

The question now becomes, what should your job title be?

Security Guard or Security Officer?

Many people in the industry will tell you there is no difference in the two.

Some say an Officer is armed and a Guard is not.

Some say the Officer has greater training and/or responsibility.

As we look at today’s hiring and retention landscape, there are two main reasons you should prefer the term “Security Officer” rather than “Security Guard.”

1) “Security Officer” is Searched More Often on Indeed

Thanks to data made publicly available by Indeed, we are able to know exactly how people are searching for security jobs.

In September of 2018, “Security Officer” was searched 725,027 times.

“Security Guard” was only searched 392,036 times, nearly half that of “Officer.”

If you want your job to be seen, the first logical step is to make the title what people search the most.

But it goes deeper than just what the candidate is searching. While it might help you edge out “Guard” in the search results, Indeed is smart enough to show jobs with both titles.

Making sure you get good placement is one thing, but how many people actually click your job?

In September of 2018, jobs titled “Security Officer” received 3,688,632 clicks.

Jobs titled “Security Guard” received only 975,338 clicks.

Not only does “Officer” get nearly twice as many searches as guard, it gets nearly FOUR TIMES as many clicks.

We like to let the data speak for itself. This is one of those cases.

2) Appeal to Your Audience

The first rule of copywriting is to appeal to your audience.

Your audience (your current and prospective employees) wants to feel respected and important.

Put simply, “Officer” has an implication of greater responsibility than “Guard.”

Implications aside, perhaps you actually believe there to be a fundamental difference between the two titles.

Here’s the reality…

A good guard, officer, or watchman is alert and observant.

They are ready and able to defuse a situation with words rather than weapons.

They are helpful to others and they follow rules of the management and client.

All of these responsibilities are those of an officer, and labeling them as such works to enhance their sense of self-worth and pride in their job.

When making this decision, we ask ourselves: what’s the goal?

Is the goal to be “right” in a semantics discussion?

Or is our goal to attract the best and most talent and keep them employed on our teams?

At Kwantek, we much prefer the latter, therefore “Security Officer” is the title we recommend.

If you insist on there being a difference between the two, consider using “Senior Security Officer” and “Security Officer” job titles. The difference could mean greater retention and/or more applicants.

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Kate

THE CALIFORNIAN 2018 Q3 – 5 SMART KPIs FOR YOUR SECURITY OPERATIONS

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5 SMART KPIs FOR YOUR SECURITY OPERATIONS

Mark Folmer, CPP,  TrackTik

This is a no-brainer: Why does a client prefer to work with a security services provider that can measure their own performance?

Because those numbers give your client the peace of mind that comes with knowing their business has been secured in the way agreed to.

So naturally, as an owner or manager of a professional security service solutions provider, you want to have key performance indicators (KPIs) for your business in order to measure performance and efficiency.

 

Choose your KPIs with care

checklistNow KPIs come in a slew of varieties. Today, let’s  focus on those related to your field service operation. So let us assume that the fact-finding questions you ask about your client’s needs, assets, risk profile, etc., lead you to this conclusion: Onsite guards and mobile guard patrols are part of a cost-effective solution to the client’s situation.

Being slightly obsessed (your business or life partner uses other words) with efficiency, you understand the value of adopting a Computer Assisted Dispatch (CAD) solution: It ensures your field security patrols and responses are coordinated as efficiently as possible.

If you are forward thinking, you have linked your CAD solution to a security workforce management platform (that also includes a security guard tour system). Having this software allows you to fully automate your KPIs and also drive up field service business by offering data-supported Service Level Agreements (SLA) to your client.

Since you have taken the time to invest in the best training and equipment for your mobile teams, now you want to know how well they are doing. Consider these five smart KPIs for your field operations:

 

1. Completion Rate

Having spent time with your client analyzing security requirements, your ultimate goal is to achieve 100% of the site visits promised.
That number means that the client is receiving what they want and you can invoice all that has been agreed to.

2. Response Time

Measuring response time is the ultimate efficiency measure. So you want to respond as quickly as possible. It goes without saying that responding within the agreed-to response time is critical.

3. Overtime

You set your staffing levels based on the anticipated volume of calls and service delivery. That said, you want to minimize the unbillable overtime incurred by shared service units in order to be profitable and get a precise view of your productivity.

4. First-Time Fix Rate

By equipping mobile staff with all the information they need to properly access and respond to a site, you are driving first-time fix rates. Limiting the need to send additional or multiple units means you are more efficient.
Providing all the information your staff needs means that they are more accurate, can take appropriate action while onsite and can provide the client with a detailed incident or activity report.

5. Client Satisfaction

Have you ever had a client ask the operations center, “When will the response unit be onsite?” If your system is properly automated, you will be able to answer that question very easily, and support your client’s peace of mind.
Other items that can propel client satisfaction include: accurate invoices, incident reports sent to the right people and reports that accurately and richly provide details of any incident.

 

Stick to SMART KPIs

clockIf you wish to identify other KPIs specific to your business, ensure that the objectives are SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-sensitive). Keep in mind that less is more. Having too many KPIs can be difficult to manage and lead to more confusion.

The items in the list above have focused on client and business owner satisfaction. It is worth mentioning that fair and clear KPIs can also motivate staff. In fact, using KPIs to align staff performance with business success is an alternate way for driving team performance and engagement.

Building your business based on clear and measurable performance indicators will drive client satisfaction, employee performance and build up your business’ reputation.

Mark Folmer, CPP, MsyI
Vice President, Security Industry
mark@tracktik.com
Twitter: @markfolmer

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Kate

THE CALIFORNIAN 2018 Q3 – CHANGE IS HERE

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CHANGE IS HERE

Steve Reinharz, President, Robotic Assistance Devices, Inc.

‘Change’ is one of the most overused words and concepts in most every industry. It gets people’s attention; it clicks and is therefore a powerful word for promoters to use. People generally are fearful of change because it challenges the stability that so many seek.

Change is opportunity and risk. Opportunity of being part of the ‘next big thing’ and risk that if you miss out it could be catastrophic. And although it’s an overused word I’m going to use it here: Our guarding industry is finally being changed by emerging technologies.

Historically we haven’t had much ‘real’ change in guarding because of the nature of guarding itself. Since the ‘sell’ of guarding is a human at a location(s) there has been little ability to innovate. Instead, much of the industry has been trading a similar commodity service and there’s been few opportunities to do anything other than compete on price in a race to the bottom. Naturally there are many exceptions; I’m simply talking about the part of the market with these characteristics.

But finally, for better or for worse, real change is here and we are going to have separation between adopters and resistors. And as always the adopters will prevail. Adopters can be characterized as more forward-thinking, risk-taking and engaged than resistors.

A parallel example is what happened in security integration industry in the late 90s. DVRs and IP based solutions started to emerge. Adopters thrived and resistors struggled. Same thing for many industries that had significant technologies introduced.

For guarding the revolutionizing technology is called ‘robots’. I write it like that because until the technology is perfected and given a real name we’ll call them ‘robots’. Someone once told me that ‘a robot is a robot until it’s called a washing machine’ which illustrates the point that immature technology gets a unique name and industry once it proves itself. But it will get better and it will get better faster.

Today’s rolling robotic solutions are far from perfect and in many cases have questionable usefulness but let this be notice that the technology is rapidly improving and the change is here today. Stationary artificial intelligence solutions are here today and proving themselves incredibly useful. In five years I expect this industry’s service offerings to be considerably more complex, lower cost, higher profit and better performing.

Change will bring opportunity and risk. Early adopters are noticing, learning more and experimenting with these new technologies. They’ll be the winners from this period of significant change that has started.

 

Steve Reinharz is the founder and President of Robotic Assistance Devices (RAD). A proven, seasoned leader in the physical security industry with 20+ years of experience holding various roles in multiple disciplines, Mr. Reinharz has led RAD to create and launch a successful line of artificial intelligence powered solutions specific for the guarding and concierge industries.

Mr. Reinharz’s experience is multi-faceted in that he’s been an end user, created and managed his own security integration firm and held various other industry roles. Mr. Reinharz speaks and works panels at ISC East and West and ASIS.

‘Force-multiplication’ has been the hallmark of Mr. Reinharz’ career. Specifically using technology to improve client security. Mr. Reinharz credits almost two years of work performed with the LAPD as the basis for many of the technological innovations he has launched.

Mr. Reinharz has called Orange County, California home since 1995 but grew up in Montreal and Toronto. He earned a dual-BS  in Political Science and Commercial Studies and currently resides in San Juan Capistrano, CA with his wife and children.

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Kate

THE CALIFORNIAN 2018 Q1 – REGULATION CORNER: CHANGE OF CORPORATE OFFICERS

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REGULATION CORNER: CHANGE OF CORPORATE OFFICERS

David Chandler, President

Did you know?

If you are currently operating your PPO as a Corporation, remember that you MUST notify the Bureau of a change of your corporate officers within 30 days. 7582.19 (a)

All new corporate officers, or new partners in a partnership, must submit a Personal Identification Form as well as a Live Scan (to CA DOJ) prior to any involvement in any operation related to security. The Bureau must approve before you can begin working with the corporation or partnership.  19 (b)

In a General Partnership, if one of the partners leaves (disassociation for any reason) a NEW application must be submitted (due to the change in the general partnership). A new PPO number will be issued pending approval by the Bureau. 7582.23 ©

Please periodically check with the Secretary of State to confirm the information for your organization is the same as the Bureau has on file, including the address of record. Corporations must submit the names of the CEO, CFO and Secretary as well as any other corporate officer who will be active in the business to be licensed. 7582.7 (i)

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