Cash for questions

“The survey continues to demonstrate an industry culture steeped in long hours, particularly for supervisory and site-based positions. Indeed, there has been no discernible decrease in hours during the two years the survey has been conducted. In the main, private sector guarding contractors don’t seem to be pre-empting the requirements of European regulations, and it’s unlikely that the industry will move forward before it’s legally required to do so. It must be said that, for the most part, clients are seemingly satisfied with the current arrangements.”

A quote from Ian Whitmore, managing director of c2c Recruitment, whose company has just finished compiling the second of its annual salary surveys alongside the BSIA concentrating on remuneration and working conditions for supervisory and management staff employed in the manned security sector. Whitmore’s comments do not make for altogether pleasant reading. High contracted hours are a major barrier to attracting good quality candidates from other sectors – candidates that will be in huge demand in the wake of Security Industry Authority (SIA) licensing, which begins this month.

“For site-based roles, some of our clients may well be offering a very competitive package, but as soon as you begin to discuss contracted hours the candidates will withdraw their initial interest,” opines Whitmore.

While in other service industries it’s fair to say that managers regularly work in excess of 40 hours per week, such hours are rarely contracted and certainly don’t involve fixed hours or times per day. “It’s also common,” continues Whitmore, “to find that a lot of the candidates who’ve left the security sector quote the hours as a major contributory factor.”

According to the survey, salaries within the guarding sector have increased by around 3% across the past 12 months, which is broadly in line with those rises reported by IDS for the private sector as a whole. Salaries for site-based positions, meanwhile, are growing at a higher rate (reflecting the fact that many security operatives are directly paid for by the client, and thus not viewed as an overhead in relation to multi-site ‘portfolio’ managers).

Having been directly involved in recruiting management level employees for many companies within the guarding sector, Whitmore is concerned that the whole issue of licensing could be seen by many to be the panacea for the industry. The theory is that SIA licensing will change external perceptions of the industry, making it more professional and thus there’ll be an immediate attraction there for better staff from other sectors.

“That will only happen if the industry combines the benefits of licensing with a fundamental review of staff terms and conditions, and offers job packages that are truly competitive with those provided by other sectors,” suggests Whitmore.

Tellingly, Whitmore goes on to state: “If the industry doesn’t do this, then I’m afraid it will continually find itself trying desperately to fish in the same pond for an ever-diminishing pool of good management prospects. To be perfectly honest, we find ourselves talking to more people leaving the industry than joining it.” A pretty parlous state of affairs.

One wonders how many times the message needs to be broadcast before it begins to sink in. Long hours are Dickensian. The pay levels for security operatives are simply not good enough. How is it that company executives expect their multi-million pound buildings – not to mention the high tech contents therein – to be adequately protected by officers working upwards of 70 hours per week and being paid as little as £4.50 per hour for their trouble?

Life doesn’t work like that. It’s high time that buyers and suppliers of security services stopped paying lip service to the problem and jointly agreed to do something about it.

Background to the survey

Building on the first survey (‘On the money?’, SMT, August 2003, pp34-37), in the main the responding companies were again the larger BSIA member contractors. The majority of respondents enjoy revenues in excess of 20 million per annum. Three participating companies have revenues of less than £2 million, three boast revenues of between £2 million and £10 million, a further three show revenues between £10 million and £50 million and eight break that latter barrier. As was the case in 2003, four of the top five players in the industry contributed their data.

Of those 17 companies that submitted information for scrutiny (only one organisation less than last time around), 11 of these contractors have now contributed to both surveys. “Hopefully, that’s based on the relevance of the information gained in the inaugural study,” suggests Ian Whitmore.

Speaking about the survey, Whitmore explains that sufficient data was indeed available in most surveyed areas to render meaningful information, although Northern Ireland wasn’t included due to the smaller number of participants operational in the province. “It’s also likely that wage rates in the province are rather more dictated by the local labour market than pure security industry comparisons,” says Whitmore.

How is it that so many company executives expect their multi-million pound buildings to be adequately protected by officers working upwards of 70 hours per week and being paid as little as £4.50 per hour for their trouble?

There was also insufficient information available on general managers to publish results without the risk of identifying individuals. “We’ve considered year-on-year comparisons in a number of areas,” outlines Whitmore, “but some of the results are affected by having a small number of different participating companies. Where these exist, they’ve been noted within the individual job and geographic results.”

Mobile and site supervisors

In the manned security industry, supervisors are basically responsible for visiting client sites, maintaining appropriate staffing levels at those sites and ensuring complete adherence to assignment instructions and Service Level Agreements. It’s the supervisor’s job to respond – as and when necessary – to incidents and issues raised by clients as quickly and efficiently as possible.

In both the first and current c2c/BSIA survey, contractual hours for mobile supervisors range from 40 to 60 hours per week. In 2004, 87% of survey respondents outlined contractual hours in excess of 55 in comparison with 55% last time around. That’s not good news. All companies pay hourly rate up to contracted hours, with the majority paying single time above contracted hours. There has been little change here between the two surveys.

Mobile supervisors continue to be paid – predominantly – on an hourly rate basis (as evidenced in figure 1). Maximum rates in London are £10.24, the minimum level being £6.50. While there are some differences in the hourly rates for all regions between 2003 and 2004, there continues to be a very similar geographic correlation. Minimum and maximum salaries tend to be affected by a smattering of atypical individual results.

The current survey suggests some light on the horizon in terms of bonus payments, with four companies reporting bonuses for mobile supervisors. Where this was quantified, the payments ranged from a fixed amount of £250 to 5% of basic salary.

For their part, site supervisors are tasked with managing a group of officers on a given customer’s site(s). They have responsibility for all contractual requirements, including manning levels. In general, they’ll report directly to an operations or on-site manager.

Contractual hours for site supervisors range from 45 to 60 hours per week in this year’s survey. Again, a worrying 73% of respondents work contractual hours in excess of 55, compared with 60% in the previous survey results. 30% of companies quizzed do pay overtime for any hours worked above and beyond those contracted.

Hourly pay rates are dominant for this breed of manager. As was found to be the case in 2003, there was a large diversity of rates between the minimum and maximum rates (a straight indication of the difference in importance and size of contract to which these individuals are assigned). Maximum pay rates are significantly higher in London (figure 2), while there remains a significant gulf in the top hourly rates when compared with the minimum. In the South East, for example, that difference equates to £5.50 per hour.

Only one of the companies surveyed pays a fixed annual bonus (of £250) to the site supervisors on its books.

Site managers: what’s the deal?

Once again, the c2c Recruitment salary survey breaks down the site managers’ function into those who manage up to 20 security officers on a single client site, and those who administer the management function to 20 officers or more through a team of shift managers/supervisors on either single or multiple locations for a lone customer.

Contractual hours for site managers in charge of less than 20 officers ranged from 45 to 60. While the level of companies with contractual hours of less than 45 per week has reduced year-on-year (from 36% in 2003 to zero this time), the percentage of managers working over 55 hours also fell (from 55% to 27%). Commonly, over 55% of site managers in this category work contractual hours between 45 and 60 hours per week.

For site managers tasked with the welfare and roles of 20 employees or more, almost 80% of companies reported that contractual hours worked are between 45 and 50 per week

Crucially, 90% of those companies surveyed now pay their site managers on an annual salaried basis (a rise of 10% on the 2003 results). Again, while the salaries in London are higher than for other geographic regions, the difference is less clear here than it is for the supervisor category. This has been reflected in both years’ analyses. On a positive note, more respondents to the 2004 survey actively included site managers in their bonus structure, with over 30% paying some form of bonus. Bonus payments ranged from £250 to £5,000 per annum.

For site managers tasked with the welfare and roles of 20 employees or more, almost 80% of companies reported that contractual hours worked are between 45 and 50 per week (see figure 3). Only 22% suggested their supervisors worked over 55 hours on a regular basis. Once again, 33% of companies offer some form of bonus scheme, while over 90% pay their site managers on an annual salaried basis. In 2004, the level of salary in London compared with other areas of the country shows a marked difference (exhibiting a 24% differential over other areas of the South East).

The change in respondents year-on-year has caused some difference in average salaries for this category, but speaking in general terms the average for each year is a good indication as to the salaries paid to this group. The most important factor in determining the salary rate does seem to be the size and complexity of the contract, as well (of course) as the client’s propensity to pay (figure 4).

Operations managers (external)

An operations manager (external) is responsible for overseeing a number of client contracts, the delivery of agreed service levels to each customer and – dependent upon the responding organisation – the recruitment, training and rostering of staff as well as the profitability of contracts (encompassing the negotiation of contract rates and rate reviews).

Contractual hours are certainly less than those of supervisory and site-based staff, reflecting more closely the contractual hours pattern experienced by many other industries (figure 5).

All operations managers working for the companies surveyed are paid by way of annual salary. Some geographic regions show a slightly lower salary level for 2004 (the North and Scotland exhibiting the lowest salaries). Like other categories, the South West region pay rates aren’t massively different to those of the South East unless you’re considering the maximum rates.

In all, 41% of the guarding contractors surveyed pay a bonus to their operations managers, which can range from 5% of salary up to a fixed sum of £6,000. Over 70% of companies paid a bonus in 2003, so some are obviously tightening their economic belts.

Regional security managers

Regional managers are usually responsible for a large revenue or customer base managed through a number of operational managers. Typically, they’ll assume full responsibility for the day-to-day operation of the region, and for the service deliver to customers. Predominantly, they’ll also be in charge of profit levels generated from contracts.

Last year, there were no significant geographical differences in salary levels for regional managers. In 2004, London and the South East/South are well ahead of other areas for both average and maximum rates, with the London maximum 50% above that posted in most other areas (figure 6).

Undoubtedly a clear reflection of the difficulty inherent in recruiting and retaining senior staff in the South.