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Aligning management philosophy, supervisory direction and operational delivery

What is the most critical factor in the success of CCTV control rooms?

The most successful operations that I have been exposed to in the CCTV environment have not necessarily been the most technologically sophisticated, or the most expensive, or the largest control rooms. They all share a common quality.

There is alignment between management philosophy, supervisory direction, and operational delivery. Each of these links forms a critical part in directing the nature of CCTV surveillance, the operational priorities, and the way of looking for issues on screen.

Ideally, surveillance forms part of an executive management strategy, but this focus is usually delegated to the risk or security director or manager. In cases where executive management is on board, the whole surveillance function feels empowered and appreciated and the impact of even an occasional visit cannot be overemphasised.

It should be a mandatory part of the job description of senior management to have regular visits and discussions in their control rooms to give them a context on what is being done and see whether they think they are getting value for money. I have found in some consulting projects that executives who decided on cost cutting of security functions when they were simple figures on paper had very different ideas when they had an understanding of what control rooms were delivering for them – or alternatively energised a control room into aligning itself with executive priorities if this was not already being done. Similarly, I have seen an operator’s explanation of the body language of people involved in an incident turn around the perspective of a senior operations manager of a major national site.

In practical terms, most surveillance is driven by the security management function responsible for coming up with the protection strategy. This strategy needs to be built into the surveillance process and reviewed against it on an ongoing basis. Deliverables and reporting also need to be generated in line with this strategy. Having come up with these arrangements, many managers then designate responsibility for this to supervisors of control rooms. This is probably one of the potentially weakest links in the alignment process.

Many of these supervisors have experience in security (particularly physical security), but have had no formal training in CCTV application. As a result, their engagement with operators is limited by the nature of this relationship. As someone who gives extensive specialist training in CCTV surveillance and body language to operators to assist in incident detection, I find that the operators who are now extremely insightful go back into a work situation where their perspectives and new focus are not understood by their supervisors. This is one of the main causes of failure in performance – operators being more knowledgeable and trained than the people who are supposed to be managing them.

This creates resistance from the supervisor who becomes more directive but in ways that are not aligned in effective delivery. Yet I have also found how previous training I have done has revolutionised the supervisor perspectives and energised the relationship with operators, coming from a position of proven expertise. Where the management team from manager, supervisor, specialists and operators are all involved in the training, huge benefits accrue from the common understanding and approach within the operation. As importantly, supervisors know how to get the most out of their people, and where to push them in terms of performance and delivery. Ongoing feedback from supervisors to maintain performance standards creates an environment of continuous improvement and alignment with company needs.

Casinos are a good example of how this process is aligned throughout the functions, even from the executive management function. However, one of the best surveillance operations I ever saw was one with fairly outdated equipment, a VCR recording facility, and small 9-inch black and white screens. What made it successful though, was the production process had been structured so as to allow the clear identification of loss at any point, and surveillance has the responsibility for identifying exactly which part of the process the loss may have occurred. Nobody went home until the shortfall was accounted for, and it was a team effort from management to operator to identify the cause. Creating an effective surveillance culture, effective focus, and ongoing performance management are beneficial outcomes of surveillance alignment and these conditions are the critical element in successful service delivery.

Dr Craig Donald is a human factors specialist in security and CCTV. He is a director of Leaderware which provides instruments for the selection of CCTV operators, X-ray screeners and other security personnel in major operations around the world. He also runs CCTV Surveillance Skills and Body Language, and Advanced Surveillance Body Language courses for CCTV operators, supervisors and managers internationally, and consults on CCTV management. He can be contacted on +27 (0)11 787 7811 or [email protected]

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