I feel for those recruiting
The past six to seven months have been a trying time for everyone especially those who have a business. The government has tried to help but a number of business have struggled. There seems to be an abundance of staff ready to employ. But are they really ready, I think not!
Due to the increase in our work within Security we have looked to recruit and employ between 30 and 50 extra staff and it’s been painful, excruciatingly painful.
We place an advert that explains in graphic detail what we are looking for, a professionally licensed security officer with at least 3 years’ experience in their chosen field of expertise, “Security” Our advert along with our recruitment policy and outline specification of what we require at the initial interview stage is provided along with the process of recruitment, you would think this would be sufficient, it’s not.
Applicants attend:
· Late
· Poorly turned out
· Without the documentation specified
· Painfully clueless of basic Security knowledge
It seems the Security Industry in general accepts lateness as the norm, its not and it won’t be accepted at 1SC, being late for an interview tells us what you’re going to be like when employed, “Late”.
Turning up for an interview covered in last nights kebab wearing flip flops is also not acceptable, at least have a wash!! Again, this tells us when your employed by us you will look like a vagrant, not a good look.
We state in great detail what we require in terms of documentation, its no use turning up with 1 out of 5 documents and hoping for the best, trust me it won’t be accepted, this tells us you don’t listen.
The reason behind the 3-year experience rule is that we expect all applicants to have some depth of knowledge of the job they suggest and tell us they have been performing for 3,4,5,6,7,8, 9 and sometimes 10 years, this tells us you have stood on a back door, thumb up ones bottom doing nothing, this is not security.
It’s been our disappointment to find that most persons applying for our positions can’t or don’t read the advert and supporting documents supplied to assist and direct applicants, a poor start. Its also been our disappointment to find out that most applicants understand little to nothing about security albeit they all hold SIA licenses, what a joke. When we probe deeper into an applicant’s background of employment, we discover that less than 1% have ever received any training in Security and it’s also our belief that the same percentage of staff have never attended the so-called licensing course, how could they? Applicants might have an SIA licences issued by the SIA but quite frankly the majority (90%) are less than capable of understanding a Security Officer role, never mind performing it. Its up to all of us in our Industry to raise the standards of all stakeholders including our clients. If a client accepts below standards, we don’t have to follow their poor example, do we?