When it comes to your business, safety should always be one of the top priorities. Failing to properly protect your business can cost you serious money and time, not to mention the potential damage to company morale.
Even the reputation of your business is at stake. With thousands of businesses falling victim to crime, whether it’s theft, vandalism, or worse, year after year, choosing the right security company is a significant concern.
In this article, we’ll be weighing up the pros and cons of outsourcing your security service needs, versus hiring an in-house team to keep your property and your business safe.
Outsourced Security Services
Pros:
Choosing to hire an outsourced security team is definitely the cheapest option. When forming an in-house team, it’s necessary to select, train, and supervise the security guards, all of which fall under company expenses.
Not to mention managing pensions, salaries, benefits, and logistical costs such as uniforms and equipment. In comparison, with an outsourced security service, you are paying only for the service, and all of this is taken care of by the agency from which you hire the guards.
Furthermore, using an external company to manage your security needs, means having access to their knowledge, experience, and technology. Their level of expertise will naturally be higher, considering their function as an organization is to deal only with security management.
Reaching the same standard with an in-house team can be challenging and less cost-effective considering the costlier salaries of higher-skilled staff. As well as this, an external company will not only offer their industry expertise, they will also offer support for the validity of the contract.
Having this additional back up, at no additional cost, is definitely something to consider.
Cons:
The greatest concern when choosing to outsource your business security requirements is the potential risk. This is particularly prevalent when it comes to sensitive information and intellectual property. To this end, thorough research is definitely necessary into any company you are considering hiring.
Another issue is the staff rotation. It may be, that when working with an external agency, different guards are sent to your property. New guards won’t necessarily understand the role and what it entails at your particular property as well us the usual guards. Therefore, having a high turnover can result in some inconsistencies.
In-House Security Services
Pros:
When opting for in-house security services, the biggest pro definitely controls. Choosing to outsource your security services, means handing over a lot of trust to an external organization. Comparatively, creating, training, and managing your own team means tailoring the operation exactly to your needs and expectations.
Furthermore, hiring your own guards can mean a more reliable and more loyal team as a result of the direct relationship between them and your business. You will have a more consistent workforce, with a stronger connection to your business, who it can be easier to trust on the job.
Cons:
Financially, an in-house security service will be far more costly. Factoring in uniforms, equipment, salaries, background checks, holidays, etc., when compared to an external company, the costs of hiring your own team quickly add up.
As well as this, if there is an issue with an absent member of staff, then this is easily managed by an outsourced service who simply sends in another member of their team.
This is not necessarily so easily managed with an in-house service, where your business is responsible for filling that position. The same issue stands when a member of staff leaves the post, with an external company another guard is simply sent in, whereas with your own team you are responsible for filling that position.
