Higher Security Guard Wages Won’t Fix Your Problems

Personally, I would love to see a significant increase in security guards wages and not just because it’s hard to feed a family on $7.75 an hour.  But because security officers have a tough and often thankless job which requires some officers to risk their lives on a daily basis.  But at the same time I don’t believe that higher security guard wages are the panacea that some security professionals believe they are.  That’s because there are 3 problems that I see with their line of thinking.

3 Reasons That Higher Security Guard Wages Are Not The Cure

1. You can’t pay someone to be a better employee.  It has been my experience that most people who receive pay raises will not perform their jobs any better than they had prior to the increase.  If there are any improvements they are typically short-lived.  That’s because if you have a security officer who is an under performer, increasing his salary won’t change who he is as a person.  What will change though, is that you will now have an under performer who is just getting paid more.

On the contrary, If you have an officer who is great at her job then she will more than likely always perform at a high level, no matter her pay.  To those types of officers, although pay is still important, they are just naturally driven to do the best jobs that they can.  Giving those types of employees higher pay doesn’t make them better, it rewards them for what they already do.

2. You have the wrong officers working for you.  Higher wages won’t magically make your pool of potential security officers any better, but it will make it bigger.  Admittedly you will have more good candidates, but you will also have more bad candidates too.  Think about all the people who you know who make lots of money, but are just bad at their jobs.  It’s not a wage issue, it’s a “who is the right person for the job” issue.

So rather than focus on higher security guard wages at some future time, focus on developing solutions that allow you to find the most qualified officers for your company.  Tools like the LIFO Report and The Predictive Index are great resources for making hiring decisions.  According to a recent Aberdeen Group study, high-performing companies consistently rank behavioral and skill assessments as valuable tools in identifying high-potential employees. Additionally, 94% of best-in-class organizations leverage behavior assessments, compared to just 65% of all others.  Although LIFO and The Predictive index are great tools for larger companies, smaller companies may find surveys like Kwantek’s Operating Style Assessment more feasible.

3. Higher wages don’t replace training.  No matter how good your security guard wages are, if your officers are not adequately trained the service that they provide will never reach its full potential.  Current training will have to go beyond the typical “X” hours of initial training and “Y” hours of refresher training.  Security officers are operating in a complex and ever-changing world that requires better trained officers.  Consequently, security officers  should be provided with ongoing and continuous training that helps prepare them for the myriad challenges that they face.

Although many security professionals may say that a continuous training program isn’t financially or operationally feasible, I believe that it is.  As outlined in the recent article Smartphones Are Key To The Future Of Security I believe that smartphones will play a huge part in bridging the training gap.  With the increase in the use of smartphones it is easier than ever to create training content, such as videos and quizzes, that officers can access while on the job.  Or for that matter, from anywhere in the world that they have an internet connection.

Related: Give post orders tests over the web for free

Despite a lack of substantive facts, I truly believe that just raising security guard wages is not the answer to the quality issues in the security guard industry.  So when security guard wages begin to rise, make sure that you are also addressing the other 3 obstacles preventing you from providing the best service possible.

Do you believe that low security guard wages are the biggest problem facing the security guard industry?  If so please tell me where I’m missing the boat.   Feel free to leave your comments in the comment box below.

 

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By Courtney Sparkman

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