Creating A Professional Workforce: A Look At Office Building Security

Mar 1, 2003 12:00 PM

Creating a security workforce requires thinking of security officers in a different way. So says the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). According to the union, effective security today requires workers who not only patrol buildings and monitor surveillance systems, but workers who are familiar with all of a building's systems for assessing and containing potential threats.

Rather than being seen as employees who command low wages, exhibit high turnover and require minimal training, security officers should be thought of as professional, skilled workers whose skill is widely recognized, who exercise judgment in critical situations, and who invest in their careers. To professionalize the industry's workforce, building owners, contractors, unions and public safety officials should work together to reduce turnover, improve training systems, elevate professional standards, and create occupations that offer careers rather than jobs, the SEIU contends.

In order to make the new system a reality, the SEIU suggests security contractors, building owners, unions and public safety officials should establish a partnership to tackle workforce development for the new security environment. Together, the relevant institutions in the building security industry should do the following:

Perform intensive research of the demands of the new security environment. The partnership should undertake an intensive inventory of the requirements of office building security in the new environment.

Conduct research on the state of the security labor market. Research should evaluate the opportunities as well as the challenges workers face in developing careers in the industry.

Develop skill standards and a skill certification system for security. Using its inventory of building security requirements, the partnership could conduct job task analyses to determine the tasks required of security officers in the new systems. This would provide a framework for developing new training and establishing a skill standard and certification system.

Develop a training curriculum. The proposed partnership could use the building security inventory and the skill standard system to develop training benchmarks and design new training programs.

Develop tools for assessing the current skills gap. Using the skill system, the partnership could develop self-assessment tools that would allow workers in the industry, as well as those wishing to enter it, to identify skill gaps and secure the training they need to advance in their careers.

Generate a funding pool to support research and training. The advantage of the partnership model is that it would leverage resources from each of the individual partners to take advantage of economies of scale in addressing an industry-wide challenge. For more information, visit www.seiu.org

Share Your Story

Every month, we are offering information in each issue about managing guard services and leading in-house staff. Among other things, this page will offer an opportunity for readers to share the management lessons they have learned and to provide other helpful information to their peers in the industry.

To offer suggestions, or to contribute to this page, contact Jennifer Pero at 770-618-0135 or e-mail jpero@primediabusiness.com

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