BSIA members applaud CPNI project on guardforce motivation
The British Security Industry Association (BSIA) welcomes the publication of updated guidance by the Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure (CPNI) designed to help security managers improve and maintain staff motivation.
Drawing on lessons learnt from a number of pilot schemes across the UK and the success of the original piece of work, the interactive guide ‘Motivation within the Security Sector’ provides a set of dedicated tools and practical advice on how to assess motivation within the guard force. It includes a refined questionnaire survey tool with a robust industry benchmark (800 staff), an Excel analysis spreadsheet that enables organisations to undertake their own data analysis and more honed, practical advice on how to counter issues that affect motivation.
The guidance is available to any security company interested in gaining an enhanced perspective on their security personnel’s motivation, and can be downloaded from the CPNI’s website: http://www.cpni.gov.uk/advice/Personnel-security1/Guard-force-motivation/
The BSIA has supported this initiative throughout. Many members have been involved by providing case studies or by pioneering motivation projects based on the advice.
BSIA Project Director for 2012, David Evans, commented: “Throughout the development of this project, the BSIA and its members have been very supportive. All our members take great pride in the quality of staff they employ, and recognise the clear benefits associated with gaining an impartial view on the level of motivation within their own security guardforce.
“Motivation is key to ensuring staff retention as well as the delivery of the highest standards of service, so being able to assess it and identify possible room for improvement will benefit private security companies greatly” adds David.
BSIA members MITIE Total Security Management (TMS), OCS Group UK Ltd and VSG are just a few of the companies that have piloted the project. Their experiences undertaking a motivation project based on the CPNI guidance highlight the considerable benefits to both business and staff.
Terry Cheese, Training and Performance Specialist working for MITIE Total Security Management, said he used the guidance and tools from CPNI many times over the last 12 months with different clients. He commented: “On every occasion the results have enabled me to design and deliver training material in an engaging and effective way. The officers themselves who I have spoken to really appreciate that we are bothering to find out how they feel and are very pleased to see improvements being made as a result.”
Phil Budgen, Aviation Security Advisor for OCS, said of how the project has helped his company: “The CPNI tool has proved invaluable at identifying what our staff believe are our strengths, with results from the questionnaires already reinforcing our ongoing initiatives to reward success, share good practice and provide a consistent management response to poor performance. We are working closely with airport police to deliver briefings to our staff. This enhances their role as part of the airport security machine and provides more ‘eyes and ears’ on the ground for the airport police.”
VSG piloted the piece of work on their contract at a major financial institution in Canary Wharf. A representative from the company said that as a business they found that the survey was perfect in giving an action plan for improvement. “The survey output showed that whilst our staff were in general highly motivated, there were some issues to address. The guidance enabled us to generate and implement an action plan, and a subsequent motivation survey of our staff in 2012 clearly showed where the plan had led to improvements” the VSG representative concluded.
A video of David Evans, Project Director for 2012 at the BSIA, explaining the role of the guide can be found on the BSIA’s YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCu308SEgnQ
Security companies interested in downloading the guidance can do so from the CPNI website: http://www.cpni.gov.uk/advice/Personnel-security1/Guard-force-motivation/
For more information on the BSIA or its Security Guarding section, visit www.bsia.co.uk/security-guarding
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Editors Notes
The British Security Industry Association is the trade association covering all aspects of the professional security industry in the UK. Its members provide over 70% of UK security products and services and adhere to strict quality standards. For more information see www.bsia.co.uk, email info@bsia.co.uk or telephone 0845 389 3889.
Press contacts: Amanda Beesley on 0845 389 0755
Alessia Vinerba on 0207 566 0641
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