Heads of security, security managers, control room and CCTV supervisors, corporate front of house and in-house officers, for organisations that would rather hold the capability than contract it out.
Some organisations take the view that the security function sits too close to the business to be placed entirely with a contractor. They want the manager on their own payroll, the control room staffed by people who know the estate, and a front of house presence that reflects the organisation rather than whoever won the last tender.
We recruit into that model. The appointment is made by you, on your contract and your terms, and the individual joins your establishment rather than being supplied to it. That is what makes the knowledge stay with the organisation when a contract is retendered.
We are equally instructed where a business is bringing a function in-house for the first time and needs the first appointment to be right, because the person who builds the team determines what the team becomes.
Requirements across the corporate line run from a single front of house appointment to the head of a security function.
Corporate security is largely a business role performed by somebody with a security background. The manager spends more time on budgets, contracts, access policy and briefing directors than on anything resembling a confrontation.
We therefore screen for the commercial side as hard as for the operational one. An officer who is excellent on a door may be entirely unsuited to presenting a case for capital expenditure to a finance committee. Appointing on operational credentials alone is a common and expensive error.
Where the role carries responsibility for the control room, be explicit about the systems in use and whether the client expects familiarity or a willingness to learn. The two produce very different shortlists.
Protective security is no longer confined to a reception desk and a barrier, and in many organisations the role has broadened faster than the hiring for it.
Businesses now carry risk across their premises, their executive population, their events and their supply chain. The individuals holding that line are very often the first control that functions once another has already failed.
Where security reports close to the board rather than through facilities, it is expected to speak the language of risk, insurance and continuity. That changes the candidate profile considerably.
The reception desk is the first point at which an unauthorised person is met, and it is often staffed as an administrative post rather than a security one. Treating it as a security appointment rather than an administrative one is among the least expensive improvements available to most organisations.
An in-house appointment on your own terms gives you a person who accrues knowledge of the estate and stays. A supplied post gives you a rota. Both have their place, but only one builds institutional memory.
Tell us the position, where it sits in your structure, and what you need the appointment to achieve in its first year. We will tell you what the market will bear and whether the brief is realistic.
Every enquiry is read and answered personally.