Hiring Security Officers Some buildings and businesses are just now determining that they need security personnel and want to have their own people on staff (versus outsourcing to a security agency). Most of these questions are also important to consider even if you are hiring an agency— you want the same sort of confidence the answers should provide. How do you get started? Consider what sort of situations your security people will have to deal with? Will there be lots of contact with tenants or customers, or very little? Is the danger of violent crime a major concern, or protecting property? How do you evaluate the people who apply and assess their abilities to cope with a criminal situation, or a disaster, or a tenant that's locked him or her self out of their office? In short, how can you make sure your security people will be an asset and not a liability. Top answer is "training." Evaluate what sort of training the prospective security officer has had and see how it applies to your needs. Ask yourself, and the applicant, many questions. Technique - ask about techniques used to train your officers. The three most common training techniques are: - Observation - Experimentation - Experience. The best kind of training uses all three. Hands-on experience - spend some extra time asking about this. Does training include real-life role playing and drills? Is there active "practice," and do they spend significant amounts of time looking at exactly your circumstance. Flexibility - the training credentials may seem first class, but how diverse has the training been. Fundamentals are terrific, but if the officers know only how to body guard high officials but not how to respond to dead batteries, your facility might have a problem. Providing security for a classified building is much different than that needed for a hospital, for a university, and for an office building with many businesses. Make sure the folks you put on the job understand those differences. If you're working with an agency, discuss your particular needs and see how they respond. Making the right decisions on security officers can make a huge difference in tenant and employee satisfaction...It might be literally a life-or-death decision.