The most important job of a security provider is managing his security guard team. And it can be tricky and time-consuming to manage security guard hours, especially when you want to avoid overtime expenses or make sure that the suitable guards are assigned to the right shifts.
However, properly assigning guards doesn’t bring an end to the challenges; rather, it raises a few more. Now, you have to worry about whether your guards are showing up on time and efficiently conducting a patrol or not.
The proper security management platform can go a long way in defeating these challenges. It can help improve the guard’s shift efficiency both before and during shifts. The appropriate use of such a tool can make the difference in whether or not you are able to make a profit and retain clients. Here’s a glimpse at how the technology of today can make a difference.
Shift Scheduling
For any security provider, getting the right guards to the right shift is a key element to success. Yet, due to inequalities and inefficiencies in overtime scheduling, companies often find themselves paying costly overtime expenses and struggling to retain guards. While they may be able to fill their shifts, their way of doing so damages the company’s bottom line.
Plus, it can be an intensely time-consuming process to coordinate client shift requirements, guard time off requests, and other concerns related to scheduling. Each week, it often takes several hours for the back-office staff to complete guard assignments.
It doesn’t have to be like that. Advanced scheduling tools can provide a more streamlined approach to this critical part of security service. Rather than storing guard and client data in separate files or programs, all information is merged in one easy to use platform. With a system like that at your disposal, your back office staff will be able to see which shifts require filling and which guards are available to take shifts. Different scheduling tasks such as notifying scheduling changes to a guard can also be fully automated.
In addition, these programs allow you to utilize customized settings to organize guard schedules better as well as eliminate or reduce overtime scheduling. This will improve the efficiency of your back-office staff, which will result in greater productivity and the company will also save money.
Shift Monitoring
An efficient scheduling system won’t do much if your guards aren’t fulfilling their responsibilities adequately when they are on their shift. However, that is a worry of the past. The security guard management system of today also enables guard monitoring during shifts. These systems make use of GPS tracking, geofence, and electronic checkpoints to automatically record your guard’s position. Because of this, the risk of receiving inaccurate check-in reports is none. Besides that, these systems can show real-time location data, allowing the office staff to be aware of what guards are doing while on shift.
This increases accountability and ensures that the guards perform their duties as expected. And when an issue arises, a live dashboard and push notification alert the back-office staff instantly. Integration of smartphones also streamlines the incident reporting process, which is another important factor in improving shift efficiency. Reports can be customized to ensure that all the required information is received while also offering the opportunity to upload images and videos.
This eliminates the chances of error and allows office staff as well as the client to respond quickly when additional instructions are required, which improves the ability to mitigate security threats.
Improve Efficiency
When it comes to managing the hours of security guards, every measure you take to improve efficiency before and during shifts will go a long way towards the success of your company. Reducing operating expenses and improving performance will also enable you to deliver greater results to your clients and make it much easier to grow your business.
