I believe that for those companies that still schedule manually, automation could certainly make a positive difference in the life of the scheduler but not necessarily the guards.
It is my opinion that the bigger issue driving turnover in the security industry is a lack of adequate site-specific training. Guards may get, at most, 40 hours of OTJ On-The-Job training (often less) delivered by their peers and/or supervisors and are then expected to acknowledge that they’ve read and understand the Post Orders and related documents and are then told to perform in their new roles as best they can.
Is it any wonder that the new security guard can get lost and easily confused with no clear direction in this sink-or-swim environment? This confusion will often lead to frustration and the guard may put up with it for a while (or until he/she is written up for failing to follow procedures) but ultimately the guard will start looking for more suitable work. Once found, the guard quits and the process begins anew with the scheduler having to fill the empty slots with guards working costly overtime.
It amazes me that the clients – often major corporations – will put up with this rampant turn-over. The client is often told that turn-over is endemic to the private security industry and that nothing can be done about it other than throwing more freshly-minted, low wage security guards into the hopper. Surely the clients must understand that this turn-over presents a security threat in and of itself.
Original article: www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-security-guards-quit-jeff-greek
