Your company will not survive if it’s not a safe place to be, no matter how impressive the inventory is. For anyone to want to shop or work at your business, your facility needs to make people feel secure and comfortable.
Protecting your facility and those who work with you is so important that it may seem overwhelming at times. You can’t constantly be patrolling the grounds yourself while managing the business, but you can’t trust just anyone to look out for your company with as much care as you would. So, how can you guarantee the safety of your company without personally overseeing security measures every day?
To keep their employees safe and protect their company’s property and reputation, more and more businesses have been hiring professional security guards. Though it’s already a multi-billion dollar industry, the private security sector is projected to keep growing. Why has the private security sector suddenly taken the world by storm? Keep reading to discover the many benefits of security guards and how you can take advantage of this service for your company.
When to Use Security Guards
Most corporations and organizations would benefit from some added security measures, but there are some facilities where having a professional security guard on-site is crucial to maintaining a safe environment and staying in business.
If any of the following descriptions apply to the place you are in charge of, now is the time to consider hiring professional security guards:
- Your business is located in a high-crime area: Facilities located in a high-crime region need a professional security guard to protect them from theft and signal to potential visitors that they’re a safe place within the area.
- You deal with expensive equipment: Businesses with valuable machinery like a construction company need a professional security guard to watch over the items stored on their grounds at night and on the weekends.
- Your employees are extremely busy: It’s a good idea for anywhere fast-paced, such as a hospital, to have a security guard watching for dangerous activity that might go overlooked by employees focused on completing their work duties quickly.
- You sell luxury retail items: Retailers that sell high-end products often rely on security guards to deter thieves, monitor suspicious activity, and keep store lines orderly.
- You offer financial services: Because of the money held at their buildings, banks and other financial institutions need security guards to provide extra surveillance and protection from potential workplace violence.
- You manage an industrial factory: Manufacturing companies tend to be frequent targets of vandalism and theft, but a professional security guard can keep track of who enters the property and verify visitors.
- You serve alcohol: Anywhere that offers alcohol should be prepared to handle a potentially violent outbreak. These establishments should have security guards on hand to break up fights and prevent property damage.
- You oversee a residential community: With a professional security guard on duty, residential community members can relax knowing that trespassing or safety issues will be handled properly. Hotels can benefit from the safe environment created by security guards, too.
What to Consider When Choosing a Security Company
Choosing a security company is a big decision, and you want to be careful to find a service that you know will do a superb job of protecting your organization. To make sure you get the best value of security services possible, consider the following aspects when deciding which security company to hire:
- Focus on security only: Choose a company that provides security services and security services only. A security company shouldn’t be dividing its attention or assets among any other types of services. To get the best service possible, pick a company solely focused on security services.
- Balance your budget: Although there should be no compromise on quality when looking to secure the safety of your facility, do keep in mind the size of both your building and budget. Your needs might not require the most expensive services available, so consider whether there are any extra measures you could go without.
- Perform background checks: Explore the background and experience of a security company before hiring it. Look into how their security guards are trained and whether their level of training is up to your standards. Also, make sure the security company itself is credible and not prone to making mistakes — you want your security guards to be helpful, not a liability.
- Consider performance history: Review the performance history of the company you’re considering. Learn from previous customers’ experiences, so you don’t make their same mistakes.
- Make sure you feel secure: Ultimately, make sure you are using a security service that you can trust. Doing a background check on a company and reading its reviews will help in this process, but listen to your intuition after interacting with representatives of the company and pay attention to whether they make you feel at ease. When in doubt, go with your gut.
Why Should You Use Professional Security Guards?
There are many benefits to using security guards at your facility. If you take the time to find the right company and perform the proper research, you’ll be sure to find a good fit. Here are a few reasons why you should consider security guards:
1. Minimize Loss
Hiring a professional team of security guards deters many types of crime, including assault, vandalism, and theft, which severely damage an organization’s reputation. If your business deals with high-end merchandise, professional security guards are key to deterring crimes that could impact your company’s finances and standing.
Research has shown that the use of security guards leads to 16% fewer victim-generated crimes than areas without security guards, meaning that having security guards protects your business from negative publicity. The mere presence of a security guard team will discourage criminals from targeting your facility and demonstrate that your corporation is safe and trustworthy. But if an incident does occur, security guards will be able to assist the law enforcement agencies in solving the case by providing video surveillance footage and reporting anything suspicious they noticed. This can lead to your items being recovered quicker and can minimize the disruption to your business.
2. Resolve Security Issues
Should a security threat arise, a team of security guards is your first line of defense against the issue. There is no time to second guess or hesitate during an unlawful invasion or crime on your company’s campus. That is when you need a highly skilled, trained security guard to take charge by responding quickly and efficiently.
Professional security guards know how to assess for safety risks, prevent suspects from getting away, interview witnesses, and secure victims. More than anyone else, a security guard is equipped to handle breaches of security and protect your company. Additionally, security guards will be able to assist you in preparing a loss prevention report if necessary.
3. Gain a Sense of Security
The mere presence of a trained security guard team gives people a greater sense of security and protection. Your staff and customers will all feel more cared for if there is a security guard on duty. This means that workers will be able to relax more and perform better on the job without having to worry about their personal safety. Creating this safe environment will boost your employee retention rate and increase the number of customers willing to work with you.
4. Get Help Faster
Instead of waiting for the police to arrive after calling about an emergency, have a security guard on the job to ensure the fastest response possible during a dangerous situation. While the police are driving to the scene, a security guard can monitor the threat and keep it under control. By keeping the incident contained, the damages can be kept to a minimum, and further injuries may be prevented.
5. Improve Peace of Mind
Being entrusted with the safety of others is a big responsibility that can be stressful. There is no way for you to constantly be monitoring the security of your facility while effectively doing your job. By hiring a professional security guard to be in charge of surveillance, you can rest assured that someone is vigilantly watching out for anything of potential concern.
Through a combination of video camera feeds and on-foot rounds, security guards are able to keep an eye out for suspicious activity at all times. With trained professionals on the job, you will be able to trust that your grounds are being well protected, freeing you to focus on other matters.
6. Assist Customers
Security guards must know every inch of a property to adequately guard it, meaning they can be of great help to any customer searching for a certain department or product. At night, security guards can also escort customers who feel uneasy walking through the parking lot alone. In this sense, security guards do double duty and allow you to save on hiring extra workers to do similar tasks.
7. Maintain Order
Security guards can be counted on to maintain order during times of unrest. For example, if there is ever a strike at your company, a security guard would be able to protect your staff or anyone else in danger during the demonstrations. If there is ever a violent outbreak, a security guard would know how to assess the threat and deter crimes. This quick thinking would protect your employees’ lives and minimize further production delays or delivery setbacks.
Professional security guards can also help you maintain order by managing crowds when necessary. During certain special events or times of the year, your business may be more prone to rowdy groups of customers, which could escalate to crowd crushes, mob fights, or riots. A security guard would protect your workplace by keeping these disorderly instances to a minimum and mitigating their effects.
8. Build Your Brand
It may come as a surprise that professional security guards can be an asset to your branding campaign. One way to incorporate security guards into your brand is to outfit them in your company’s uniform. This will keep your brand on customers’ minds and encourage them to associate your brand with positive things, like safety and security.
Keeping everything on brand, including your security guard team, will build your company’s reputation and elevate your brand.
Why Use Professional Security Guards vs. Hiring Internally?
After deciding that your facility would benefit from additional security, you still have to choose whether to use a third-party security company or hire a security guard from within your company. Although hiring internally might seem like a quick and easy solution, the benefits of employing a professional security guard far outweigh appointing a current employee to oversee security.
Here are the top three reasons to use professional security guards:
1. Work With the Best
Hiring a professional security guard is more beneficial than hiring internally because it will give you peace of mind that your facility is protected by a qualified individual. Although you should do your homework on the security service you choose, it is standard practice for security companies to run basic background checks on all their security guards. This means that you can rest assured, knowing you will be enlisting a cleared professional.
If you plan on hiring an armed security guard, the background check for them will be even more extensive and include an FBI background check. Because they are entrusted with weapons, armed guards must have no criminal record and pass fingerprint as well as state of mind tests to be legally allowed to carry a gun. These extra precautions are set in place so that you don’t have to worry about hiring anyone unfit to serve.
2. Get Better Protection for Less
Going through a third-party private company to employ a professional security guard is less expensive and more effective than hiring internally. By choosing to hire a professional security guard from an outside source, you’ll save money you would have had to spend training novice security guards and maintaining their certifications and skills. Keeping your security guards well-equipped can contribute to administrative costs and consume resources.
Aside from the financial advantages of hiring security guards from a reputable company, you will get the added benefit of having an experienced professional protecting your business. Typically, the trained security guards that are available for hire from a private security company come from a rich background of security work. Whether it be years as a professional security guard or previous experience as a military officer, you can be certain that the security guard you hired has the necessary skills to protect your facility.
3. Customize Your Security
Each agency, business, and organization has a unique set of security needs that requires a custom plan of protection. A quality security service company will be able to incorporate their professional security guards into your business place with minimal disruption. By working with you, your team of security guards will be able to come up with several security tactics tailored to your company’s specific needs while addressing any special challenges your facility may pose.
Through collaborating on this custom plan of protection, you will develop a relationship with your security guard team and naturally build up mutual trust.
Contact Inter-Con Security Today
Your company’s security is nothing to be considered lightly. That’s why Inter-Con Security has dedicated itself to the mission of supporting its clients in a way that is completely tailored to their needs.
To accomplish this goal, Inter-Con Security offers expert security, total monitoring, and solutions tailored precisely to your facility’s needs. At Inter-Con Security, we only employ Physical Security professionals who know how to safely handle various equipment in all situations. Our Solution Design Team will work with you to develop the best course of action for your company.
Inter-Con Security has the resources of a top-tier security company while being small enough to accommodate clients’ individualized requests. Our account managers continuously monitor the risks your company may face and provide rapid responses in emergency situations through our global network of offices, command centers, and reserve forces.
If you want to ensure your company is under the best protection possible and give yourself peace of mind, contact Inter-Con Security today.
