Industrial Security Operations Book Two: The Security Officers Handbook

By Roan Morrison

Industrial Security Operations Book Two

The Security Officers Handbook

With ISO Book Two, you're no ordinary security officer! Become an elite senior security officer - with ISO Book Two, you'll gain the knowledge and skills you need to lead your team and serve as a trusted adviser to clients. Get up to speed on the latest international standards with this essential handbook - protect yourself and those around you with confidence!

• Language: English
• Publisher: RMor Training and Security Limited
• Release date: May 10, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223886754

Roan Morrison

Roan Morrison is a security professional with over Thirty-two years of experience in the field of security and training. He was born and raised in rural Jamaica. He served in the Jamaica Constabulary Force in several different positions including administrator and trainer. Roan first entered the field of writing in 2001 when he authored and published the Jamaican Firearm User's Guide. He then went on to write other small locally published works. His books covers a variety of topics, both fiction and non-fiction and provides good reading materials for readers of all ages.

Book preview

SECTION 1

Roles and functions of security officers

A security officer is considered to be a privately employed law enforcement official whose duties are confined to the requirements of his company and his client.

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The duties of security officers have evolved so much over the past generation that it is difficult to compare the modern security officer to his immediate predecessor. In many jurisdictions, the trained security officer is still referred to as Security Guard but the term is mostly interchangeable.

Generally speaking, security officers duties still revolves around its original core functions and can still be classified under the broad heading of; protecting people, places and property from potential threats.

The security officers job description will vary from location to location and from assignment to assignment.

The main focuses are;

Protection of people and property.

Prevention of crime.

Preservation of law and good order (Peace).

A vigilant security force deters criminals who are intent on committing theft, vandalism, sabotage, cyber attacks, physical violence or terrorism. Without the proactive work of security officers, law enforcement would be overwhelmed, as it reacts to crimes that otherwise would likely have been prevented.

Duties of a Security Officer

Although being a security officer can be exciting at times, the typical security officer's job description emphasizes the importance of consistency and routine. For example, security officer’s duties include manning access points, locking doors, watching surveillance footage for hours, patrolling a quiet area and monitoring alarms. Security officers look for signs of suspicious activity in the shadows, listen for unusual sounds in a locked building and write daily reports.

If an incident occurs, such as an attempted break in or an attempted larceny, security officers can make a citizens arrest and summon police. In more serious situations, they will call the police or request back up from a response unit. Preparing for court and providing witness testimony in court may also be required of them.

Maintaining Public Safety

In at least half of the world’s countries, private security workers outnumber police officers. According to studies carried out, more than 40 countries including the United States, China, Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom; have more officers privately hired to protect certain people, places and things than police officers whose duty it is to protect the public in general.

Today, people everywhere are coping with a global increase in domestic crimes, terror attacks, violent protests, school shootings, cyber attacks and other unlawful acts, so it’s not hard to see why citizens may find relief in taking responsibility for their own security.

This trend is only expected to accelerate over time despite the efforts of the state security forces. The global market for private security services is projected to be worth over $280 Billion by 2025; the market is currently estimated at $240 billion.

About 1.1 million people work as security officers in the United States, according to a report of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, as of May 2017. Society directly benefits from the presence of security officers in private residences and frequented public spaces. Some examples of places that rely on security protection include airports, concert venues, casinos, correctional facilities, schools, college campuses, hotels, retail stores, apartments and gated communities. The role of security officers directly ties into their function as watchdog of the public order. If a fire or major environmental disaster occurs, security officers work closely alongside police officers and fire fighters to secure the scene and maintain law and good order.

Preventing Criminal Acts

Vigilance and highly developed powers of observation are required to be an effective security officer. Security personnel may be highly visible in a uniform, or they may work in plainclothes as the specific assignment will dictate. Officers with the required technical skills may work with cybersecurity, guarding the network against spam, hackers and malware. Their goal is always to reduce opportunity for criminals with malicious motives to strike.

Public Safety

Working with the public is also part of security officer's duties. Many jobs entail greeting people and identifying visitors, escorting people, giving directions, and redirecting individuals who are present in unauthorized areas. Excellent communication and interpersonal skills are essential in order to effectively listen, understand and answer questions in a polite, friendly and professional manner. On a school or college campus, security officer's duties can include giving presentations to students on personal safety and protecting their personal belongings from theft.

The duties of the security are many and varied and as time goes by; they continue to assume more and more duties which were formerly assumed to be police duties.

LEADERSHIP

What Is Leadership?

Leaders are people who do the right thing; managers are people who do things right.– Professor Warren G. Bennis

The word leadership can bring to mind a variety of images. For example:

A political leader, pursuing a passionate, personal cause.

An explorer, cutting a path through the jungle for the rest of his group to follow.

An executive, developing her company's strategy to beat the competition.

Leaders help themselves and others to do the right things. They set direction, build an inspiring vision, and create something new. Leadership is about mapping out where you need to go to succeed as a team or an organization; and it is dynamic, exciting, and inspiring.

Yet, while leaders set the direction, they must also use management skills to guide their people to the right destination, in a smooth and efficient way.

Leadership means different things to different people around the world, and different things in different situations. For example, it could relate to community leadership, religious leadership, political leadership, and leadership of campaigning groups.

Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.– Dwight D. Eisenhower

Leadership: a Definition

According to the idea of transformational leadership, an effective leader is a person who does the following:

Creates an inspiring vision of the future.

Motivates and inspires people to engage with that vision.

Manages delivery of the vision.

Coaches and builds a team, so that it is more effective at achieving the vision.

Leadership brings together the skills needed to do these things. We'll look at each element in more detail.

1. Creating an Inspiring Vision of the Future

In business, a vision is a realistic, convincing and attractive depiction of where you want to be in the future. Vision provides direction, sets priorities, and provides a marker, so that you can tell that you've achieved what you wanted to achieve.

To create a vision, leaders focus on an organization's strengths by using tools such as a Swot Analysis to analyze their current situation. They think about how their industry is likely to evolve over a given period, and how their competitors are likely to behave.

They look at how they can successfully innovate, and shape their businesses and their strategies to succeed in future marketplaces. They test their visions with appropriate market research, and by assessing key risks.

Therefore, leadership should be proactive, problem solving, forward thinking, and not being satisfied with leaving things as they are.

Once they have developed their visions, leaders must make them compelling and convincing. A compelling vision is one that people can see, feel, understand, and embrace. Effective leaders provide a rich picture of what the future will look like when their visions have been realized. They tell inspiring tales , and their explanations are easy to understand and assimilate.

Here, leadership combines the analytical side of vision creation with the passion of shared values, creating something that's really meaningful to the people being led.

2. Motivating and Inspiring People

A compelling vision provides the foundation for leadership. But it's leaders' ability to motivate and inspire people that helps them deliver that vision.

For example, when you start a new project, you will probably have lots of enthusiasm for it, so it's often easy to win support for it at the beginning. However, it can be difficult to find ways to keep your vision inspiring after losing that initial enthusiasm, especially if there are radical changes in the methods or objectives of the organization.

Leaders recognize this, and they work hard throughout the project to connect their vision with the needs, goals and aspirations of the organization.

This is also done through expectancy theory when leaders link together two or more expectations based on the common goal:

The expectation that hard work leads to good results.

The expectation that good results lead to attractive rewards or incentives.

This motivates people to work hard to achieve success, because they expect to enjoy rewards , both intrinsic and extrinsic, as a result.

Other approaches include restating the vision in terms of the benefits it will bring to the team's customers, and taking frequent opportunities to communicate the vision in an attractive and engaging way.

What's particularly helpful here is when leaders are expert in a particular field. People admire and believe in these leaders because they are expert in what they do. They have reputation and credibility, and they've earned the right to ask people to follow them. This makes it much easier for these leaders to motivate and inspire the people they lead.

Leaders can also motivate and influence people through their natural charisma and appeal, and through other sources of power, such as the power to pay bonuses or assign tasks to people. However, good leaders don't rely too much on these types of power to motivate and inspire others.

3. Managing Delivery of the Vision

Leaders must ensure that the work needed to deliver the vision is properly managed; either by themselves, or by a dedicated manager or team of managers to whom the leader delegates this responsibility, and they need to ensure that their vision is delivered successfully.

To do this, team members need performance goals that are linked to the team's overall vision. Leaders also need to make sure they effectively manage change. This helps to ensure that the changes needed to deliver the vision are implemented gradually and thoroughly, with the support of the people affected.

4. Coaching and Building a Team to Achieve the Vision

Individual and team development are important activities carried out by transformational leaders. To develop a team, leaders must first understand team dynamics. A leader will then ensure that team members are at the necessary skill level and have the abilities to perform their functions and achieve the vision. They do this by giving and receiving feedback regularly, and by conducting team building and team training.

Leadership also includes looking for leadership potential in others. By developing leadership skills within your team, you create an environment to ensure continued success in the long term. And that's a true measure of great leadership.

Leaders vs Managers

The words leader and leadership are often used incorrectly to describe people who are actually managing. These individuals may be highly skilled, good at their jobs, and valuable to their organizations, but that just makes them excellent managers, not leaders.

So, be careful how you use the terms, and don't assume that people with leader in their job titles, people who describe themselves as leaders, or even groups called leadership teams are actually creating and delivering transformational change.

A particular danger in these situations is that people or organizations that are being managed by such an individual or group think they're being led; but they're not. There may actually be no leadership at all, with no one setting a vision and no one being inspired. This can cause serious problems in the long term.

Five Different Types of Leadership Styles

Different types of leadership styles exist in the work environment. Advantages and disadvantages exist within each leadership style. The culture and goals of an organization can determine which leadership style fits the organization best. Some companies offer several leadership styles within the same organization, dependent upon the individual tasks to complete and departmental goals.

Laissez-Faire

A laissez-faire leader lacks direct supervision of employees and fails to provide regular feedback to those under his supervision. Highly experienced and trained employees requiring little supervision usually fall under the laissez-faire leadership style. However, not all employees possess those characteristics. This leadership style hinders the production of employees in need of supervision. The laissez-faire style produces no leadership or supervision efforts from managers, which can lead to poor production, lack of control and increasing costs.

Autocratic

The autocratic leadership style allows managers to make decisions alone without the input of others. Managers possess total authority and impose their will on employees.

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There is no effective communication and no one challenges the decisions of autocratic leaders. Countries such as Cuba and North Korea operate under the autocratic leadership style. This leadership style, however: benefits employees who require close supervision. Creative employees who thrive in group functions detest this style of leadership.

Participative/Democratic

Often called the democratic leadership style, participative leadership values the input of team members and peers, but the responsibility of making the final decision rests with the leader. Participative leadership boosts employee morale because employees make contributions to the decision-making process. It causes them to feel as if their opinions matter.

When a company needs to make changes within the organization, the participative leadership style helps employees accept changes easily because they play a role in the process. This style meets challenges when companies need to make a decision in a short period.

Transactional

Managers using the transactional leadership style receive certain tasks to perform and provide rewards or punishments to team members based on performance results. Managers and team members set predetermined goals together, and employees agree to follow the direction and leadership of the manager to accomplish those goals. The manager possesses power to review results and train or correct employees when team members fail to meet goals. Employees receive rewards, such as bonuses, when they accomplish these goals.

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Transformational

Transformational leadership style depends on high levels of communication from management to meet goals. Leaders motivate employees and enhance productivity and efficiency through communication and high visibility. This style of leadership requires the involvement of management to meet the organizations goals and objectives. Leaders focus on the big picture within an organization and delegate smaller tasks to the team to accomplish goals.

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First line supervisors

First line supervisor is the first entry level position in any organizational management pyramid. The first line supervisor responsibilities comprise performing the supervisory tasks and ensure that the subordinates perform their allotted specific duties that will assist in accomplishing the expected goals while complying with the rules, policies, and procedures of the organization.

Key Responsibilities of a First Line Supervisor

A first line supervisor does not have the authority to hire staff members, transfer, recall, or suspend them in case of indiscipline, resolve their grievances, reward, promote, and discipline the employees. Their roles are for delegating and supervising the work of the employees, thus helping in achieving the goals and objectives of the organization.

In short, the general responsibilities of first line supervisors are to plan, direct, and supervise the work of the subordinates by guiding and instructing them appropriately to ensure efficient and quality output of work by complying with the health, safety, and legal regulations. He may help to implement changes in the working procedures and make recommendations for promotion of the staff members.

Essential Skills

The most essential skills and abilities that play a pivotal role in ensuring success as a first line supervisor are as follows:

Exceptional supervisory skills with an ability to guide and lead the team

Ability to communicate effectively, good interpersonal communication skills and an ability to understand people's grievances

To address and resolve the issues, so that they do not hinder the quality and productivity of the work, to remain calm in pressure situations and should be able to accept criticism by exercising control on emotions

Should be updated with current policies and procedures of the organization

Should possess excellent administration, organization, and time management skills

Should be able to delegate work according to priority, complete it in a timely manner, train and develop the staff members, and demonstrate excellent planning skills

Educational Background

To make an entry as a first line supervisor, you need to complete some formal training from a technical school or should at least have completed graduation in human resource management, business management, public administration, or in any other relevant field. Those with prior work experience in a similar profile would be able to get the job more easily.

Work Hours

The weekly routine of a first line supervisor expects him to work for forty to forty five hours per week. However, depending on the work load, he may need to work overtime in the evenings or continue his work even at nights. He may sometimes be called to work on weekends or on public holidays as well.

Career Prospects

The employment opportunities for first line supervisors have declined in the recent years mostly due to the automation of various processes. However, those who carry out their responsibilities efficiently have definitely got chances for advancement to higher positions.

Thus, if you are aiming to become a production supervisor or move into some senior management positions, a successful and demonstrated work experience in handling the first line supervisor responsibilities will surely prove to be a stepping stone for taking your career to new heights.

Group dynamics

Types of Groups: Formal and Informal

What is a group?

A group is a collection of individuals who interact with each other such that one person’s actions have an impact on the others. In organizations, most work is done within groups.

How groups function has important implications for organizational productivity. Groups where people get along, feel the desire to contribute to the team, and are capable of coordinating their efforts may have high performance levels, whereas teams characterized by extreme levels of conflict or hostility may demoralize members of the workforce.

In organizations, you may encounter different types of groups. Informal work groups are made up of two or more individuals who are associated with one another in ways not prescribed by the formal organization. For example, a few people in the company who get together to play domino on the weekend would be considered an informal group.

A formal work group is made up of managers, subordinates, or both with close associations among group members that influence the behavior of individuals in the group.

Stages of Group Development

Just as an individual moves through developmental stages such as childhood, adolescence, and adulthood, so does a group, although in a much shorter period of time. According to this theory, in order to successfully facilitate