Quality officers help ensure a professional team

Verizon has a long history with Securitas. The telecommunications giant began using Securitas in 1992 to provide contract security services at a handful of sites on the eastern seaboard. Today, Securitas officers provide service at approximately 250 locations nationwide – about 80% of Verizon’s guarded sites – and cover facilities oversees as well.

“The primary service Securitas provides is well-qualified, professional personnel,” says Verizon’s Chief Security Officer Mike Mason.   “We always emphasize the importance of quality service because the officers are always invaluable.  No matter where they are standing, behind each officer are operations vital to this company.”  Securitas officers are both the first line of defense and the first contact for a visitor, and Verizon requires these officers to possess a number of specific skills and attributes.  “We look for people who are alert, friendly and approachable; we look for people who understand the nature of their job and – hopefully – have a high level of enthusiasm for executing their duties. Our Securitas officers are professional, friendly and smart.”

Duties vary based on each facility’s function and security need, but, as Mason puts it, “every job is important – what they are helping to protect is vital to our business and the business of our clients.”  Officers receive supplement training based on each facility’s particular requirements.  “All sorts of things need to be absorbed for each officer to be effective at their post,” notes Mason. 

Regardless of location, Verizon depends on Securitas officers to provide vigilance from both external threats and internal complacency.  “Employees might go out for a smoke and prop a door open,” says Mason.  “It is important that this never becomes a pattern.”  Mason also details a site visit where he himself was stopped by a Securitas officer.  “When I got to our facility, the officer had that look on his face, like ‘who are you.’  I had no expectations that he would know me and the fact that he was out there impressed me.”

Verzion measures its guard service by a number of metrics including internal and external feedback as well as post inspections – regular yet random undercover reviews of security procedures performed by both Verizon and Securitas staff.  Verizon has been particularly impressed with both the thoroughness of the individual Securitas inspectors as well as the efficiency of the company’s post inspector network.  “Security is not a revenue generator,” adds Mason.  “It is something we do with a lot of care and consideration and if we weren’t getting the security we expect to get, Securitas would not be our provider.”

But perhaps the most important metric is the way contracted security holds up in a crisis.  Mason cites a fast breaking event in which Securitas responded quickly to both provide additional personnel and create a heightened security profile for this particular facility.  In the end, violence was avoided and Mason was pleased.  “They could not have been better partners.”

Securitas’ national account services also rank highly in Verizon’s estimation, and they credit the particularly efficient and proactive management structure for its ability to provide consistent, quality service at each facility.  “In my mind, they have a really engaged executive staff,” says Mason.   “I talked to many of their senior managers and was impressed by the enthusiasm from the group.   They are people who care about their jobs and care about how they perform.  When we have a problem, we get a response, and that matters.”

“I consider Securitas to be our partner in providing a safe and secure environment for Verizon employees.  There is no artificial divide with ‘them’ on one side and ‘us’ on the other.  It is a genuine partnership in every sense of the word.”

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