Time to get personal. Let’s face it, when it comes to hiring a residential security team, you want to ensure you hire someone you can fully trust without hesitation. After all, you are asking someone to look after your most valuable asset. Your family.
Would you let just anyone into your home to be near your loved ones?
The decision to hire the right residential security team will depend on your needs or concerns.
So what are the steps you need to take before embarking on what can be quite a complex project if you don’t get the fundamentals right from the start?
Here we dive in to explore the details you must consider during this process to ensure you have the right team in place;
Assess and define your requirement
Stakeholders input is essential. It is important to gather input from all relevant stakeholders to ensure that the team meets their needs and expectations. Key stakeholder include the family members, loved ones and any other key members of staff who fully understand the operation around the property and the family for example PAs, EAs, Housemanagers, Head Housekeepers etc. . This will help in the process of evaluating the various candidates.
You must also identify the main concerns and perceived risks. How quick will the residential security team will respond to calls? What is their training and qualifications in handling different types of incidents? And whether the team members are respectful, friendly and courteous when interacting with the neighbours and other residents on the estate.
It is recommended to include all the above points and have a proper initial brief in place so you can have all your questions ready and you tick all the boxes. A good provider will probably ask you questions about things you hadn’t thought about. This is of course their specialist subject.
Begin to look for potential providers
So now you have your ideal profile for a residential security team together with a brief. How do you go about looking for potential candidates?
The most straight forward way, is simply to ask trusted friends and advisors if they can recommend anyone. Is there a team of ‘Go to guys’ that they can recommend?
An online search will present a number of companies who offer their services. It may be wise to select one or two potential supplier from those that appear in the search to add to the names of companies recommended to you. With your checklist in place you can start running your due diligence. Check the providers you like the look of.
In the next paragraph we will elaborate on this.
Create a list of 5 – 10 potential providers and start to vet them.
Here we recommend you look for who the providers are and the profile of people they have in their team.
What kind of information do they share on their website? and what is their staff retention rate? Ask for testimonials and references. We appreciate that clients of most companies would like to remain anonymous . But if the company can demonstrate good testimonials from real customers, for example on Google Reviews, it’s a good sign you are looking at experienced and credible provider. Time to advance your search. Follow these steps;
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- Read their Reviews i.e. Google, Trustpilot et al
- Examine company history
- Examine Key staff profiles on LinkedIn etc.
- Look for evidence of good history, credibility etc.
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Once this part is completed, it’s time to create a short list of candidates. Prepare your list of questions and remember what is important to you and your family. This might differ between different families and as we mention previously in our blogs as well as on our security reviews; one size doesn’t fit all. “One size fits one!”
Create a short list of two or three ‘best fit’ providers.
So now you have your candidates. Bear in mind, this could turn into a long-term business relationship, so whilst we understand your’s or your client’s need to protect their privacy, it is important to provide as much information as possible as to your special requirements;
Open initial discussions
Give them a general outline of your brief
Ask for examples of their processes / procedures / SOPs etc.
Check that they have fit for purpose business insurance i.e. Employers liability, Public liability & Professional Indemnity
Once the above process is completed, you are ready to;
Choose the bidder that you prefer to work with.
Whilst cost is important, buy the service first and the price second.
Create a contract and a very specific plan with processes and timelines to ensure that objectives are met.
Follow these simple steps and the result will be a robust, fit for purpose security plan to protect the property and the residents provided by a good, professional, credible and reliable company.
Its important that at this stage you make the right decision so that once installed and operating, your residential security team and plan ‘just works’.
Give us a call
For any additional information, give us a call at Sec Tech UK, we will do everything to make sure you and your family are protected to the highest standards.
