Let’s start this blog with appreciation for our personnel department, because they never get to take a break. Every day, a dozen or more CVs will pass through their desks as they go through the rigorous process of choosing who we bring into the Magenta team. The only legal requirement for someone to work as a security guard is to have an SIA license, but we go much further than that to make sure our clients always get the right security guard for the job.
Our vetting process takes a week or more. We check their written and verbal communication skills, their ability to record and recall accurate details, their job history, security experience, qualifications and so on. We also need to make sure that the SIA license they provide actually belongs to them. It would shock you to find out how often bogus SIA licenses are presented to us.
For simple sites, any of our thoroughly vetted security guards is more than capable of providing active protection and an effective deterrent. But we also have numerous clients with more specific security requirements, such as working with children, monitoring public spaces or guarding high risk M.O.D. facilities or high profile individuals.
If we don’t have someone ready to go who ticks all the boxes, we’ll train however many guards our client needs until the guards themselves, along with the service we provide, are a perfect, bespoke match for their requirements. Some training is done in house, some provided by the client (such as training to use their communication equipment or other systems) while most is provided by trusted external bodies who provide NVQs and other certified qualifications.
Who do you want protecting your business, your staff and your customers? A security guard who’s underpaid, overworked and exhausted, or a security guard who sees a future in their work, has a wage that can support their family and has enough time spare to have a happy, healthy life?
To be honest, if you’d prefer the former, you’re not the right client for us. Our security guards are amongst the best treated in the country, all fully employed by Magenta and paid above minimum wage with 28 days of holiday a year. Those are 28 full work days too, so if they usually work 12 hour shifts at £8 an hour, that’s exactly what we’ll pay them when they take time off. And if they want to use those holidays for travelling, we’ve secured exclusive deals for our staff with holiday providers both in the UK and abroad.
We also make sure they have a healthy work life balance, so we try to keep the sites they work within an hour from their home and provide support for our guards if they need to balance work with education or family obligations or in times of personal crisis. This genuine care for their wellbeing is why over a third of our guards have been working with us for over five years.
If you’d like to talk to us about how security guard services could protect your business call now on 0800 772 3786.
