Industry

There are many scheduling programs on the market today. They all do about the same thing. A basic scheduling program allows the manager to define work assignments (aka “slots”) and fill them with employees. This function gets more complicated with contract security companies. That’s because there are multiple sites with varying time slots and a variable number of employees needed to fill them. Some sites will even have different tasks… Read More »Detail at Your Fingertips

Running a security company, or any business, involves a multitude of tasks for the office staff. You are most likely the only office staff in the first two years after start-up. Your time will be stretched very thin. The quicker you can complete one task the more time you have for other jobs. Here is an example for you. One regional company used a full-time administrator just to do scheduling… Read More »Save time and money with effective scheduling tools

Security officer work schedules are a difficult task at best. Employees have got to be dispatched to multiple sites with multiple contract requirements. Security patrols within sites make it even more complicated. Client A is 168 hours per week (Hpw) on a regular schedule. Client B starts at 108 hpw but guards leave when the warehouse shuts down. That could be earlier than scheduled or later than expected. The all… Read More »Complicated security officer scheduling needs simple software

There’s nothing worse than slaving over a shift schedule for hours and being told there’s a mistake right after you post it. Sometimes the reasons are obvious: Mistakes in totaling the hours; forgetting the new guy; or, letting your attention slip for a minute. Others come out of nowhere: The time change’s effect on hours worked; Client A’s complaint six months ago not to send Guard B to his site… Read More »Get security officer scheduling right the first time

You say you dread two tasks each week: putting together the security guard’s schedule and totaling up the hours for payroll. Both tasks take you hours and there is always at least one mistake. Odds are you are still doing both tasks manually. The term “manually” doesn’t always mean you are using pencil and paper to accomplish these tasks. You may think you are “in” with the modern business world.… Read More »Time to move away from manual security guard scheduling

Landing a big contract at a large site is every security salesperson’s dream. Contracts known as 108’s (1 guard, 2 shifts, 7 days a week), 168’s (1 guard, 3 shifts, 7 days a week, and 236’s (2 guards, 3 shifts, 7 days a week) are fairly common. They are the bread and butter jobs that provide the bulk of a company’s book of business. Nailing the big one with 3000… Read More »Security guard shift patterns

Most contract security positions do not involve a lot of physical work. The bulk of the job is simply to observe and report. Having said this, there are a number of ways employees can waste your time and that of the client’s. The one thing you don’t want to happen is for the client to get the idea he is paying for nothing. This is what leads clients to replace… Read More »Ways for security companies to fully utilize their security guard’s time