What to expect when becoming a security guard
Security guarding can be an incredibly rewarding career. You get to spend your time protecting innocent people from harm and are in one of the few jobs where you can truly say that no two days are ever the exact same.
Security guards are the unsung heroes of the security industry, and remain integral in a world dominated by every changing security technologies such as biometric keypads and auto-tracking CCTV.
These individuals play an incredibly important role in safeguarding against all sorts of different threats in all sorts of different environments and if you are thinking of pursuing this as a career you are clearly someone who thrives under this pressure and responsibility.
In this blog, we will look at some of the most common responsibilities of a modern security guard, giving you a better idea of what to expect once you have obtained your SIA licence, the qualification required to provide security guarding services in the UK.
Responsibilities of a security guard
Physical security
The mains tasks of security guards have remained the same for many decades now. When you imagine a security guard, you think of someone in uniform, patrolling a site looking for suspicious activity and intercepting intruders. This is a big part of the day-to-day role as a security guard who will usually be designated a set mobile patrol route that they will tread on a set basis. The sight of security guards on these patrols is enough to send most criminals scuttling for cover and will provide those on site with the sense of safety that they deserve.
Keyholding
An alarm response keyholding service involves attending a site on occasion rather than being stationed there at all times.
If you are on alarm response duty as a security officer you will likely be stationed at a central location and be deployed to any number of different sites if a problem is detected there. Once on site you will be tasked with investigating the root cause of the alarm activation and securing the site before locking up and returning to base.
You may also be asked to perform non-security related services as part of a keyholding service such as allowing out-of-hours site access to contractors or opening and closing the site. That said, a security guard can never switch off and you will be responsible for checking the site for any security threats before granting anyone access and checking the identification of those attempting to enter.
Monitoring technologies
Great security guards don’t shy away from modern security technologies but instead embrace it and utilise it to optimise the services that they are able to provide.
Security guards will monitor and reset alarm systems, observe CCTV to detect threats in real time and manage remote access control technologies such as fingerprint or facial recognition scanners.
Customer service
Security guarding is a public facing role where, depending on where it is that you are deployed, you will need to communicate with customers, staff, and members of the public on an everyday basis.
For this reason, becoming a security guard is not something you should do if you are not a people person and don’t enjoy a good chat every now and again.
Writing reports
Yes, we know. Even though being a security guard is an active job in the main without too much sitting around, there is still plenty of paperwork to be done. After a patrol or in the event of a security breach you will need to provide a report detailing exactly what happened, the action that was taken, and what action should be taken by your clients ton ensure that something similar isn’t able to happen again. Don’t worry though, you don’t need to be a professional writer to become a security guard. These reports will soon become second nature to you and you will receive plenty of training in how to produce them before entering the field.