Question

4. Many private security companies perform tasks similar to public law enforcement. Because of this, many security companies’ human resources departments seek applicants with similar backgrounds and experience that public law enforcement also desires. In a 500-word response, identify the skills and experience human resource managers in private security would seek in their applicants. Provide and explain two qualities of private security that would make the job more attractive to applicants than the public law enforcement. Provide and explain to issues or challenges human resource managers might face in applicants selecting private security over public law enforcement.

Answer 1

It is very natural for private security companies to look at profiles from public law enforcement and map their needs to the backgrounds and experience of prospectives from public law enforcements, as basic nature of the job may remain the same.

In this regard, human resource managers would need to look at specific skills and experiences that come with such candidates. In terms of experience candidates from public law enforcement would typically be having a split between field and desk roles as they would be transferred and promoted over time in a larger organization. Depending on the nature of the security role this split would be important to look at, as private roles may be more field oriented with their leaner organizations yet may need the individual to take care of his/her own desk work rather than leave it to an administrative staff. The HR managers should be also looking for specific experiences in dealing with and overcoming specific situations that may be encountered during the operations as a private security advisor - cases involving similar circumstances and the ways in which they are dealt with. The candidate should also be a self-starter to a large extent as a private security company may not always provide detailed instructions on how to go about a certain circumstance, which may be usually available as detailed process steps in public law enforcement. An attention to detail and alertness to the surroundings is an important quality needed in such an individual, as is the ability to take quick decsions in case of exigencies which will be commonly encountered during the job.

The job of a security professional in a private firm may be more attractive to those looking for greater challenges without being encumbered by the bureaucratic processes of public law enforcement. This part of the job will be attractive in a private security firm over public law enforcement. The ability to work with greater independence may actually make the individual more effective in solving specific issues. Private security professionals may also have a better work-life balance as the degree of complexity the cases they encounter may be lower than public law enforcement.

HR managers may face challenges in transitioning people culturally from public law enforcement where the broad objectives would be more generic, whereas in private security processes may be undefined, or ambiguous at best. There may also be less restrictions on the employees in terms of checks and balances (so that law enforcers do not abuse power given to them) - this should not result in a change of behaviour that results in lower accountability to any untoward incidents on the job.