You can not treat your security officers, (in-house or contract) like other employees that make the same wages. It should be just that simple - but we all know it's not.
I'm not saying that every employee on the same pay scale as security officers is not treated fairly, but rather - security officers hold an awful lot of your critical resources in their hands, so we should act accordingly.
When your other employees are underpaid, mismanaged and othewise negelected you run into productivity and turnover issues. With your security officers - productivity and turnover are the least of your concerns.
Because security is viewed in most settings as a necessary evil, and prone to expensive bouts of knee-jerk reactions, security officers often get by on minimum salaries and non-existent management, little enrichment and hardly any sustained training. These officers make about as much as the guys who change your oil - and we expect them shoulder the same amount of critical responsibility as your IT staff.
A report released this week and reported in USA Today talks about how the low morale of airport screeners could harm security.
Airport screeners make more money and have better professional development opportunities than the vast majority of corporate and municipal security officers. It's not a good comparison on all levels, but I use this point to illustrate how the morale and overall well-being of your security staff can present much more risk than any other department.
Security officers are the ones you'll count on to handle emergencies - get your employees into safe areas and make split second decisions that can save or doom your operation. The better they are treated and supported - the more secure (and safe) you'll be. So, as you're throwing cutting edge human resourses techinques at your staff to boost performance - push some of that love over to your security officers. You'll be glad you did.
