Employee management in any industry can be a precarious feat, but when it comes to the integration of security systems it becomes a matter of company integrity and success. The last thing a prospective client wants to see while addressing their security concerns is an unorganized and unprofessional work staff.
Your employee’s behavior can affect the client’s perception of your company, and the work quality will determine the possibility of future contracts with them. Staying on top of this key element for your company may sound like a colossal task, but if you follow the list of employee management ideas you’ll find it to be a matter of setting and enforcing some simple guidelines.
Bonus Content: Download our free PDF “The State of Security 2015”
Seven Essentials Steps to Effective Employee Management
Success for security integrators means maintaining a focused staff that cares about your company’s integrity. To improve the management of your staff here are the 7 tips we found to be useful:
Create Career Paths
Acknowledge each employee for their strengths. Clearly communicate the advancement opportunities available to them. Whether it be the next step for an entry-level employee or offering the appropriate training to help advance a more seasoned staff member, both are essential for their career paths. Showing a vested interest will create career fulfillment and job satisfaction. Employees should understand and have attainable goals.
Employee Handbooks
Handbooks are a must for ensuring fairness in the workplace and avoiding claims of favoritism. They are an ideal way for security integrators to reliably reinforce the work policy and simultaneously adapt to the specifics of working in a specific region, or with different clientele. Handbooks should cover everything from how much time-off an employee is due, to state and federal standards in the security industry.
Utilize the Internet
LinkedIn is a particularly useful website for industry networking with a comprehensive user interface for checking qualifications. They are a business oriented social networking servive. Searching online is a great way to find potential employees that will fit your needs.
Evaluations
Evaluations can be critical as employees tend to develop or acclimate in different ways. You want to give new hires enough time to grasp and retain your policies and procedures, but you want to evaluate them soon enough to decipher if they are a good fit for your company. After the initial evaluation (typically at the 90 day mark) be sure to schedule follow-ups on a consistent basis. Scheduling performance and salary based evaluations at different times can help ease the nerves of some employees.
CEDIA Certification
This offers industry standard credentials that can strengthen your company image and reinforce employee morale and loyalty. The Custom Electronic Design & Installation Association, is the leading global authority in the home technology industry. They offer varying levels of certification as well as training courses and an annual expo that can serve to inspire your staff.
Loyalty Incentives
Incentives are an effective way of building career employees and attracting dedicated prospects. A popular idea among successful security systems companies is providing loans to employees for CEDIA training courses. You could offer exemption from the loan if your employee remains with the company for an extended period of time.
Personality Management
We all want to hire the perfect employee. It’s imporatnt for co-workers to get along especially if you are in a small environment. Use your instincts and hire based on personality as well as skill set. Problem individuals can be hard to spot even on personality tests, but will stand out in their interactions with co-workers. Try different pairings during jobs to optimize your staff’s workflow. Look for self-motivated individuals to be team leaders and extremely organized workers to be in charge of inventory and customer accounts.
Conclusion
Like any other task, employee management is about listening. Pay attention to their needs and the company’s needs. By following these essential concepts your staff will grow into industry professionals with respect for their workplace, co-workers and clients.
A security systems company is only as good as its workforce. Enthusiastic and organized employees will build excellent client relationships, take pride in their work and help to drive your company forward.
