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Integrity is the foundation

Successful offsite CCTV surveillance companies recognise that even the most advanced technology is only as good as the people who monitor, control and make the decisions in the control room.

Hiring security personnel quickly can probably be easy, but it could cost more than it is worth in the end. Finding people who could potentially thrive in a secure offsite control room environment is a different and much more complex exercise.

Luckily, there is sufficient industry experience to prove that the best controllers are grown internally by careful selection and by focusing on specific skill sets and positive, well-communicated company values.

Good advice for the security industry comes from Warren Buffet, who famously said, “If you’re looking to hire new people, look for three qualities – integrity, intelligence and energy. If you don’t have the first, the other two will kill you.”

Polygraph testing of employees is a contentious option and probably not the best way to find employees with integrity. It simply looks for potential dishonesty and ignores the fact that the trait of integrity is different to mere honesty.

Pre-employment integrity testing

A valuable alternative is pre-employment integrity testing. It was developed in the US when lie detectors were prohibited and has been popular in other countries for more than three decades. In South Africa, the demand for pre-employment integrity testing for employees has grown.

An integrity test is a reliable and non-confrontational method to test the ethics of potential employees. As it involves background investigations, qualification and education verification, police clearance and credit checks, it not only provides a much clearer picture of the personality and personal values of the potential employee, it also measures the suitability of the candidate for the position.

When a potential employee knows that their integrity is tested and validated, it becomes a positive experience that creates a greater awareness of expected values and behaviours within the company. It also establishes a platform for transparency, accountability and fairness that can reduce staff turnover, improve productivity and create a culture where all staff feel safe and valued.

Integrity and education

Once you have established that you have the right talent, extensive and ongoing internal training will ensure that controllers are as skilled and reliable as the technology is advanced. Crime awareness and detection are critical success factors and we place tremendous value on in-situ control room training to ensure a common understanding of requirements and behaviours and to build a team with a common purpose: successful outcomes, reduced crime and an improved company reputation.

While AI Surveillance is a leader in the South African security industry, offering cutting-edge technology, we are relentless when it comes to staff training. We know that our people have to make many difficult decisions under pressure every day with the knowledge that each decision could have potentially life changing results.

Outsourcing your CCTV monitoring service is the smart choice

If you’re thinking of establishing an in-house security team as an effective cost cutting exercise, don’t. Rob Nichol, CEO of AI Surveillance, provides four reasons why:

1. CCTV monitoring services are most robust when driven by offsite surveillance specialists with the required infrastructure, expertise and state-of-the-art technology.

2. Substantial in-house resources are needed to guarantee the safety and security of people and assets. They are often limited by shrinking budgets, resulting in a service that does not operate optimally. In contrast, professional offsite surveillance monitoring services seamlessly integrate into an existing structure to lower costs and business risk.

3. Clients from the strategic security partnerships they can develop with service providers who draw on their industry experience and in-depth industry knowledge to create custom solutions that shape future security strategies and offer an improved service.

4. A specialist offsite CCTV monitoring company works in partnership with SAPS and various armed response companies and communicates on a daily basis to share information and intelligence. The result is two-fold: a closer, better informed and trust-based relationship that may be more difficult to achieve with less frequent interactions, and crucially, the prevention and reduction of crime.

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