Securitas: quality in security
Securitas Area Director Chris King outlines its values and offering to the private and public sectors in Northern Ireland.
With 378 officers on the ground and a turnover of just over £5 million, Securitas already has a strong established presence in Northern Ireland. Our two main delivery operations cover retail and mixed commercial business. Our business model delivers specialised approaches designed to meet a sector’s security needs where there is a density of that sector’s operations.
Securitas’ three fundamental values are integrity, vigilance and helpfulness, which underpin our employees’ relationships with customers, colleagues and the wider community.
Integrity means having a very open working environment and a culture of honesty, where success is rewarded and where we try to remove the fear of failure. Whilst always accountable for meeting targets, people have relative freedom to operate their part of the business in the way that they wish. We want to be a trusted advisor to our customers so that they can rely on us as a security specialist.
Vigilance includes the training and awareness of officers. Customers are also encouraged to raise the profile of security in their business i.e. above and beyond a service which is required for insurance purposes. Security adds value to a business and brings about a tangible return on their investment.
Helpfulness focuses on creating a good working environment for employees. Staff are trained to never delegate a task to somebody else where it is their responsibility. Customers and employees are seen as individuals and staff actively look to solve problems.
Our innovative Secure Manager programme aims to provide an efficient service which goes further than a standard patrol monitoring device. Secure Manager works through a handheld PDA which records everything that an officer is doing during the day. Where a theft is prevented, the value of the item can be recorded immediately, thus demonstrating a return on the investment to the customer.
An online portal shows as much or as little information as the customer wishes to see about Securitas’ work on their behalf.
The real growth area for security in the UK is in first generation outsourcing from the private and public sectors. One example is our police support agenda in South West England where, for example, trained Securitas officers would guard a scene of crime. This service costs a third of that needed for police guarding, and frees police officers up for their core duties.
Other specialised services are helping the maritime and logistics, aviation and retail sectors realise the economic benefits of security and gain a tangible return on investment. We do find that licensing is confusing for customers as in-house teams have no legal requirement for licensing, in comparison to outsourced services.
Last year, Securitas acquired Reliance Security and Chubb Security’s UK arm. This year, having come through that harmonisation and integration process, we will be going out into the market to add more value to a new customer base. We look forward to working with new clients in Northern Ireland.
Case study: Retail security for M&S
Securitas has won IFSEC Guarding Service Delivery to Customer Award for the last two consecutive years. The 2011 award recognised the SecureRetail solution developed with Marks and Spencer plc for the retail market. With the use of a handheld device, security officers can capture stock levels on the shop floor and compare this data to the number of items passing through the store’s point of sale system. Securitas attributes its success in 2010 to the targeted recruitment and specialist training of its covert store detectives combined with the innovative use of the Over-C guard reporting system.
David Wells
Securitas Security Services (UK) Ltd
Office: 028 9032 7251
12a Clarendon Road
Clarendon Dock, Belfast, BT1 3BG
Email: david.wells@securitas.uk.com
Web: www.securitas.com
