The demand for security solutions in Montreal and in other parts of the world has risen greatly over the past several years. If you own a company, chances are that you have security guards protecting it and making sure that only the right people access the building. You could opt to have your own in-house security team, but in many cases, you are better off getting the service from a security firm.
Working with an established security firm gives you the benefit of more experience. The firm is also likely to have trained their staff well, making them more effective. As an in-charge in the security department of such a facility, you may want to find out whether the officers are working as expected or not. There are a number of ways of assessing their effectiveness including:
Using drills
Once in a while, you should simulate a situation where the officers are required to achieve a certain objective. For instance, if the officers are responsible for organizing people exiting the building during a fire, you can start a random fire drill and then use this as a tool to assess their performance. Of course, fire drills are usually meant to assess the preparedness for a fire, but you can also monitor how your officers behave in the situation as well. If they manage to stay calm and to direct people to the correct location, then you can trust that they will perform this task well if a real fire happened. If not, you may need to either have them retrained, or work with a better security company. In addition to fires, you can also simulate drills for other specific events including terrorist threats.
Customer experience
If you have security staff manning the entrance to your building, you can also use customer experience to assess their effectiveness. If you notice that a large number of people complain that the security personnel are mishandling them, you might need to investigate this further. Of course, some friction is normally expected between the security personnel and a few people, particularly individuals who are not cooperative or who are intoxicated. However, if such complaints are numerous over a short period of time, you should consider it a yardstick for the quality of your security personnel.
Security cameras
In addition to deterrence and providing video evidence during a crime, you can also use security cameras to monitor how your staff work. For instance, you may notice some security personnel slacking off or abandoning their posts when they are not supposed to. This can be a huge security risk, and you can use this as evidence that you need a stronger security solution. Of course, if you work with a security firm that has a good reputation and which has been in existence for a long time, this may not be a problem. Their staff are usually well trained and remunerated, so this behavior is less common among them.
Observing security routines
In some cases, you can simply observe how the security personnel are doing their duties. One common job for security guards is scanning and patting down people before they gain access to a building. To do this, they are usually provided with a metal detector or other tools. If you notice that the guards simply let people pass by without checking them, you can note this down as a sign of poor performance. Some may even pretend to use the metal detectors to check people, but in reality, they are switched off. If you or other people notice this behavior among your security personnel, it may be a sign that your security needs are not being met.
