The future of traditional on-site guarding: labor costs and quality
Updated: May 12, 2022
On-site guarding cost will increase significantly in the coming years (in some US states it means a double cost) and will become a real pain for business owners. Companies have already been looking for affordable solutions which can substitute or replace on-site guarding.
Factors that increase the costs of on-site guarding
Security concerns and threats are increasing worldwide. More criminal events take place and on-site guards have to face this challenge. Their action highly depends on how qualified, trained and authorized(!) they are. Only the best staff at the highest cost gives you real protection. Low-cost on-site guarding means the guards are not able to defend your premises and even themselves.
Due to the increased risk levels less and less people are willing to work as an on-site guard. This raises HR and security problems, see next section. In an extreme condition it is going to be almost impossible to hire new guards which means a lower level of security and higher possibility for a breach.
The same reason is behind the serious HR issues. Employee turnaround is very high and this means higher HR costs for you. (And turnaround means not only a financial but a security problem as well: instead of a stable and well known team you have a bunch of people who are not related to your business at all).
If the whole operation is outsourced, the contractors face the very same HR problems and they immediately build their overhead costs in the pricing structure. You pay the HR issues of the contractor!
According to the Federal Law the minimum hourly wage is to be increased up to USD 15 by 2024 at latest. This has a significant impact on low paying jobs like security guards, on-site guards and general security staff. Whether you have your own security team or you outsource this activity, costs are going to be much higher soon.
Economy faces difficulties worldwide. This has a negative impact on financial figures of small businesses and enterprises as well. In such situations companies tend to cut costs of non-productive activities like security, admin staff, etc.
In a higher percentage than you would imagine, guards cooperate with intruders, are part of their team, or simply do harm as a one-man-show (small thefts, etc).
Do you face at least one of the problems listed above?
If YES, you should consider looking for a new technology for your security goals.
What is a better alternative to on-site (human) guarding?
Swissguard’s preventive and proactive solution is not only cheaper than on-site guarding, but gives a much higher level of security. It also eliminates risks of human error at on-site actions.
Swissguard’s preventive off-site guarding solution is a game-changer in the security world. Our service is based on well-positioned cameras which are connected to a Watch Centre where camera feeds are being watched 7/24, by highly trained Watch Officers.
Once risk of crime or other suspicious event is detected, the issue is quickly analyzed by our experienced Supervisors and local law enforcement takes proper action within minutes.
Result: the event is prevented before it can happen (Instead of watching your losses on CCTV recording after the crime took place).
