RiskUKOctober2017

The Security Institute’s View
a career in the private security industry, from
Levels Two and Three when they join right up to
a professional doctorate. Courses exist across
multiple disciplines within the sector.
Yes, there has been suspected and proven
training malpractice and we do see
enforcement action being taken against the
minority who seek to break the rules, but in
truth training is just one part of a complex,
three-dimensional recruitment and retention
jigsaw puzzle that still challenges even the
brightest of minds. Pay and conditions will
undoubtedly be part of this jigsaw, as indeed
will working practices.
Of course, the private security industry
continues to suffer an ongoing negative image
within the mainstream media. Such an image is
grossly unfair given the immense contribution
made by the industry to the safety and security
of this country and its citizens on a day-to-day
basis. Indeed, there are not many jobs outside
of the military, the medical profession or law
enforcement that have such a profound impact
on people’s lives.
Whether it’s the security officer who helped
apprehend a criminal, one who prevented
unauthorised access to a building, another who
heroically responded to a terrorist attack or one
who reunited a lost child with their parents in a
shopping centre, what security officers do
really matters in the here and now.
For all of the negative publicity that the
industry sadly attracts, there are plenty of
outstanding individuals and companies
operating in our world that make substantial
contributions. Despite it being asked to do
more across a range of sectors in the light of
public sector cuts and a heightened terrorist
threat, including significant involvement in
securing elements of the UK’s Critical National
Infrastructure, the private security industry has
yet to come close to reaching its full potential.
Recruitment and retention
How, then, do we go about attracting more
individuals into the sector when it seems that
the available pool of candidates is shrinking,
and when it appears that evidence suggests
once those individuals are part of the mix we
then struggle to retain them?
What isn’t going to work is anything being
undertaken by one organisation on its own or
one employer in isolation. This is an industrywide
issue that demands a co-ordinated and
industry-wide response. That response needs
to set aside self-interest and, instead, examine
all the factors involved, consider all the
possible solutions – however radical some of
them may be – prioritise what needs to be done
and then draft a series of recommendations
that the private security industry as a whole
can comment on and, hopefully and more
importantly, implement in the real world.
Crucially, the response needs to encompass
everything from training and working
conditions through to regulation and business
profit margins as well as everything in-between.
‘Bonfire of the Quangos’
The fact remains that this industry isn’t good at
coming together as a whole and responding in
a concerted manner to achieve a positive,
lasting outcome but, I would argue, it can be
done. Back in the autumn of 2010, you may well
recall the news being leaked to the BBC that
there would be a number of Government
‘quangos’ abolished as part of a wider plan to
reduce the number and cost of public bodies: a
plan referred to by the mainstream media as
the ‘Bonfire of the Quangos’. The SIA was
selected to be one of them.
In response, the private security industry
joined forces as never before and, in a coordinated
manner, lobbied the Government –
and lobbied hard – with the message that this
would be a retrograde step that would severely
damage the sector by putting the already light
touch regulatory framework at risk. The
outcome was that, late in the evening on 23
March 2011, the House of Lords passed an
amendment to the Public Bodies Bill removing
the SIA from the list of those bodies to be
abolished. The industry as a whole thought that
this was an issue well worth challenging, and
that hunch was proven to be justified.
Recruitment and retention challenges are
now bordering on being a crisis for the industry.
As a matter that appears to be affecting
employers both large and small, local and
national, it’s crying out for a unified response.
Put simply, we need to draw on the
significant lessons learned from our coordinated
response to the ‘Bonfire of the
Quangos’, set aside any differences between
individuals, businesses and associations and
come together in devising a common strategy.
“How do we attract more individuals into the sector when it seems that
the available pool of candidates is shrinking and evidence suggests
once those individuals are part of the mix we struggle to retain them?”
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