The top ten qualities of a good security guard

The 24^th July – we observe International Security Officer Day, and pause to recognise the important and often unsung role Security Officers play in keeping our communities safe. We’ve taken this opportunity to ponder the question of what makes a good security guard.

At FIRST Security, we are very clear on what makes a good security guard; we live and breathe the pursuit of security excellence. But recently we thought it might be worthwhile to understand what others are saying on the subject.

To this end, we asked the internet “what are the qualities that a good security guard should possess? We conducted a Google search of the phrase ‘good security guard’. It produced about 482,000,000 results.

Of these, we looked at the first ten reasonable-looking matches we came across. These included ‘Top 5’, ‘Top 10’ and ‘Top 20’ lists from a mix of security company, training provider and magazine websites.

From the many lists published online, we compiled a list of the most mentioned good security guard qualities. And quite frankly, some of the results left us a little stunned!

And the results are…

From most to least mentions, the qualities that featured most prominently among these lists were (with the number of mentions in brackets):

Physical fitness/strength (10)
Alertness/vigilance/mind on the job (10)
Communication skills (10)
Honesty/integrity (8)
Judgement (6)
Leading and teamwork (5)
Attitude/motivation (5)
Training (5)
Punctuality/Preparedness (3)
Customer service (2)
Values/respects life (2)
Experience (1)
Low profile (1)
Professionalism (1)

What do you think?

Last year, FIRST Security celebrated its 21^st anniversary as a provider of security guarding and patrolling services. We’ve spent over two decades focusing on recruiting Security Officers with ‘the right stuff’ and developing them to be the best they can be.

Knowing what we now – and then seeing the answers our internet search threw up – leads us to the conclusion that (i) the internet certainly doesn’t have all the answers, and (ii) security providers like us have a role to play in providing greater awareness of what characteristics good security guards possess.

In particular, we were surprised that ‘Physical fitness/strength’ featured in all 10 lists that we surveyed, ranking above ‘honesty/integrity’, ‘leading and teamwork’, ‘customer service’ and many other qualities. Sure, fitness and strength play a role, but the role of today’s Security Officer is predominantly in surveillance and conflict de-escalation, and these require a more complex set of attributes.

‘Judgement’, or being able to reason and to exercise good judgement, was mentioned by only six out of the ten lists we surveyed. We think that’s a little strange. Exercising good judgement – including the ability to de-escalate a situation – is a key quality that a security officer needs to put into practice regularly, and thus it should be further up the list.

‘Training’ (5) and ‘experience’ (1) ranked poorly relative to many of the other qualities, yet these are things our customers tell us that they need – well trained and experienced security officers. Perhaps many of the lists saw training and experience as enablers of good guard qualities rather than as qualities in themselves.

‘Punctuality/preparedness’ (3) had us stunned! Surely, turning up for duty on time and well prepared is a basic quality of a good security officer. Reliability is a foundation requirement for providing security. Any unexpected rostering gaps leaves the security team scrambling and the customer exposed.

Lastly, we felt ‘Customer service’ (2) and professionalism (1) were way too low down in the list. Understanding customer needs and delivering to them is integral to providing fit-for-purpose security.

What do you think?

Whether you’re a security officer, security manager, a consumer of security services or just interested in the topic, we’d like to hear from you. What makes for a good security officer? And while we’re at it, what makes for an exceptional security officer? We’ve definitely got our own opinions on the topic, but we’d be interested in your comments.

Lastly, a big shout-out to all Security Officers across New Zealand. You play a crucial role in keeping our venues, businesses, neighbourhoods and streets safe, and on the occasion of International Security Officers Day 2021, we say thank you!