How to Hire a Security Guard Company

Security guard companies help provide security to commercial and industrial premises. They also help provide security at many temporary locations like conferences, events, concerts, etc. If you are looking to hire a security guard company for your security need, you should follow the following process.

Identify your basic requirements

What do you want security guard companies to do you for? You should have a clear picture of what you want the guards to do at your site. Do you want them to screen every person who walks in and walks out or do you want them to patrol the premises every hour and report any anomalies to the management. Do you need armed guards or unarmed guards and does the requirement vary throughout the day.

Request companies to bid

Companies are always looking for ways to attract new clients; you can announce your requirements via an ad in a newspaper and contact some security firms in your area or consult with a security consultant and ask for references for a security guard company.

Compare the bids you have received

Ask each security company to fill out a bid form and ask them what they are offering. Ask them to provide details of the guards (training provided to the guards, average number of years of experience, etc.), base compensation offered, benefits offered and the turnover rate experienced by the firm. If you see some companies offering very low base wages to their employees, it should be a warning sign as they may not be able to attract talent and place inexperienced guards at your site (which will compromise the safety of your premises). It might also be the case that a security guard company is ignoring expenses like uniform costs, training costs, hiring costs, benefits costs, etc.

Look at the turnover rate

A high turnover indicates that the company will have to spend more on training new employees, it may also become a hassle for you to teach the job specific roles and responsibilities to a new guard every time. A high turnover rate may also be indicative that the employees are not happy with the security guard company’s management and that is why they move to other security guard companies.

Shortlist and negotiate

Once you have reviewed the forms, you should shortlist some companies, ideally two to three companies should be sufficient. Intimate these companies that they have been shortlisted. If one of the shortlisted companies is your preferred company, you should not divulge this information to them as you will lose your negotiation power with them.  Invite companies to send in more details about their bids, send better pricing and higher level of service. After a couple of iterations, you should zero down to one company and call them in for one on one discussion. Working with a security guard company is like hiring a partner to cover for you so that you can focus on your business, so a face to face meeting is necessary. Let them know that you have shortlisted some service providers and it’s only a matter of getting the right pricing and terms of service and you can appoint a company.

Let your preferred security guard company know about your intentions of hiring them. Perform due diligence on them, check their reference and perform background checks on them. Once the results of this due diligence are out, you can sign your contract for security services.

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