1) Increase in Competition. With more and more companies competing for market share and doing so with enhanced technology,it is imperative to have a workforce that is almost exclusively focused on improving a company’s core business offering. For example, a computer chip company probably won’t improve its position in the computer chip market due to the efforts of its in-house security officers. Top managers are deciding to utilize reputable contract security firms to be their security experts so they can focus their personnel on being computer chip experts.
2) Increased Cost/Liability. Payroll taxes and fringe benefits have skyrocketed to a national average of 48%. As our society becomes more and more litigious, the risk of liability from in-house personnel-related issues is steadily increasing. Areas of risk to consider include: Workers Compensation, unemployment, discrimination, sexual harassment and general liability. Lawsuits are costly and time-consuming. Due to this ever-increasing expense and risk of greater hidden cost, companies are choosing to protect themselves by outsourcing functions like security.
Many Directors of Security fear that switching to a contract provider will mean they are of decreased value to their company, and could potentially lose their jobs. However, a shift to a contract security can have the opposite effect. Security Directors who outsource their security program often find they no longer have to spend long hours dealing with day-to-day minutiae of managing security officers and instead they are able to offer their skills in the more prominent and visible areas of security consulting and analysis. This increases their value to the company while decreasing their headaches, as they can defer security personnel functions to the contract security firms management team.
The other cause for hesitation by some companies to switch to contract security is the perception of a lack of quality security companies. While finding a reputable firm in the massive sea of the security industry can be a challenge, there are some companies who operate on a very high level. These are companies that conduct background checks and have a rigorous process for personnel selection. Quality companies also offer competitive benefits and wages and benchmark-setting training and employee development programs. In addition, switching to contract security does not mean losing your well-established security force, contact companies will usually retain as much of the existing staff as you desire.
Cost) In most cases, the cost of security program is comparable to a company’s in-house budget. However the additional protection provide, combined with the elimination of other hidden cost actually serves to reduce a company’s long term expense. Additional cost can include overtime wages, uniforms, recruiting and background checking expenses, training, administration personnel for payroll services and depreciation of equipment.
Contract Security Vs In-House
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