Post Orders, Key to Success or Just Unnecessary Paper?

So are post orders key to successfully providing security guard service or just unnecessary paperwork that your clients want? Hopefully you already know that your post orders are the foundation for successfully servicing your security guard customers.  If you don’t know, check out this presentation by Brian Taylor on Post Order Design, Development, and Implementation to find out why.

Although the contract between you and your client addresses topics like when and how many officers are needed at the site, it is the site post orders that detail the specific duties that your officers should be performing. For instance, the contract may require that your security officers be responsible for monitoring and operating a magnetometer.  But it is the post orders that will specify which items are considered contraband and what the officer should do when contraband is spotted.

I have always considered site post orders to be the first step toward ensuring client satisfaction.  In fact, for every new security guard contract that I won, I would ask the client to name three things, that if our officers accomplished they would consider the contract successful.  Whatever those three things were, I ensured that they were translated into actionable steps within the site’s post orders.  As a rule, all of your client’s expectations of your security officers should be spelled out clearly and concisely in the post orders allowing no room for unnecessary discretion.

Are You Testing On Your Post Orders?

Development of your post orders is just the first step in ensuring high-quality security guard service.  But having great post orders means nothing if your officers don’t know and understand them.  To get your officers that understanding, a proper site orientation given by a capable supervisor is essential.  Additionally, continuous and ongoing testing of your officers’ understanding of your post orders should become a part of your standard procedures.  I previously wrote an article titled Give Your Guards Post Orders Tests Over The Web for FREE, but I have since found a more suitable resource for testing.

That resource is Onlineexambuilder.com.  Onlineexambuilder.com allows you to quickly build and deploy online exams that your officers can take from anywhere.  If you have computers or smart devices at your clients’ sites or a field supervisor with a smart device, you should definitely look into this resource.  If you are on a tight budget there is even a FREE plan that you can sign up for.  But to get the most out of this resource you should probably opt for the Smart Owl plan at $20/month.  With Onlineexambuilder.com you can:

  • Manage your users
  • Choose an exam type
  • Customize the exam
  • Access real-time reporting
  • View insights and statistics
  • Embed exams on your company website

To see an example of what the exam looks like, I took about 15 minutes to design the following exam.

With a little creativity the possibilities with Onlineexambuilder.com are endless. I wish I would have had this resource when I was selling security guard services!

How Often Do You Update Your Post Orders?

Because post orders are so important, they should be considered a living document that is routinely updated and accessible by all of your security officers.  As a policy you should be reviewing and updating your post orders at least annually.  If you aren’t updating your post orders regularly, it’s probably because it is an onerous task to review, update, and distribute any changes.  I once had a customer tell me that he had to change one page of his post orders for four sites.  After he made the change, he printed out four pages and gave them to a field supervisor to deliver.  That process, including delivery, took more than FOUR hours.  After hearing that story, we developed a Post Order feature for our Security Guard Reporting Software that allows our customers to upload any changes in their post orders to OfficerReports.com and distribute them to their officers instantaneously. Cool right?

So are post orders key to your success or more unnecessary paperwork?  The answer is that they are definitely keys to your success if you combine them with regular testing and frequent updates.

Do you regularly test your officers on their post orders?  Are all of your sites’ post orders up-to-date?  If not, what prevents you from doing so?  Please feel free to leave a comment below.

 

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By Courtney Sparkman

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