Dear Reader,
In my personal experience of heading a security services company now for over a decade, I have found people find it difficult to choose the right security services company. In this mail, I will share with you my views on how to find the one that is suitable for you.
The single most important question that you should ask is

“What is minimum level of statutory compliances you are prepared to live with?”

Some of the compliances include ESI, PF, Bonus, Leave compensation and over-time. You are likely to have 3 options, and characteristics associated with each of the options are listed below.

1. You need compliances both in letter and spirit
   You are not particularly concerned about costs but more keen to do what is “right” and are prepared the to pay the cost associated. Your guards would be definitely doing 8 hours of duty.
2. You require compliances in letter but not in spirit
   You are concerned about costs as well as compliances (at-least on paper). Your guards typically would be doing 12 hours of duty.
3. You are not particularly concerned about compliances
   You are not worried about compliances or they may not be directly applicable on you e.g. your residence. Your guards would almost for sure doing 12-hour duty.

Answer to the above question would broadly decide the cost you are likely to incur, as compliances can comprise up to 40% of the total costs incurred by the security company.

So, the cost you pay is less dependent upon quality of services or profit margin of the security services provider but more on degree of compliances you wish to adhere to.

Kindly note I am not passing any ethical or legal judgment for any of the options.

Once you have identified your option related to compliances, three most important characteristics of company you should look for are

1. Process orientation
   This industry requires large number of processes to run operations smoothly e.g. when guard gets changed without a proper process you would feel like a training organization.
2. Pays guards on time
   If guards are not paid on time, it leads to heavy attrition which would for obvious reasons effect quality of service delivered to you.
3. Hires and Trains right
   It hires guard right in terms of height, literacy level and police verification besides trains its guard for general security knowledge and ones related to your unique requirements. This is difficult to check as security services companies mostly over-commit what they do or can deliver.

So do check if your requirement for compliances is matching with the compliances provided by the company so as to ensure you are not under complied or over paying for compliances you do not need besides checking for the other 3 important characteristics mentioned above.

I hope the above information helps and if you need any help in selecting one feel free to ask me.

Regards,

Ravi Kapur