Security has been an essential service throughout the pandemic. The Government recognised as much by designating security officers as key workers as early as March.
Though part of our core function is to be agile and adapt quickly to new situations, the pandemic truly put that to the test! We’re fortunate that both ourselves and our parent company Churchill were ahead of the curve in planning for and reacting to Covid-19.
Churchill quickly assembled a Covid taskforce that addressed everything from PPE requirements through to health and hygiene advice. We were able to disseminate the advice throughout Amulet, and ensure that the security officers who needed PPE were able to get it.
We have full training on how to use PPE and anything that gets used must be signed out. This ensures that nothing is wasted or used incorrectly. We also planned for the mandatory wearing of face masks before the Government made its official announcement. We secured and distributed full plastic visors to all officers.
All of this set up our officers to carry out their roles. At first, during the height of the lockdown, a lot of our officers were guarding empty offices, workplaces and retail outlets. The work from home order happened virtually overnight, so a lot of workplaces had valuable equipment unsecured.
We’ve been investing in technology to complement our on-site officers, and this has been a big help during the pandemic. Remote monitoring was embraced by a lot of our clients who may have usually preferred to have an officer on site.
This allowed us to be more strategic with where we sent our officers. We planned for staff shortages and were clear with all of our staff that their personal safety came first, but very few of our officers took time off. In fact, their commitment to the job has been incredible.
As offices have started to reopen, some of our officers have taken on new roles, such as front of house temperature checks and helping to enforce social distancing. It isn’t always easy as a lot of people are understandably on edge. Our officers have repeatedly shown calmness and strong communication to make the new protocols as seamless as possible for all involved.
The pandemic has offered us a chance to step up in our client partnerships and truly demonstrate our expertise. Some clients are extremely risk-averse and want extra assurances; others have needed help understanding the ever-changing HSE guidance. We have educated and encouraged each one of our clients every step of the way.
On top of everything, we are of course still brand ambassadors for our clients and so have ensured that our level of service has not dropped below our high standards.
The entire security industry has responded magnificently to the pandemic and we’re proud to have been a part of that response.
