Morale matters – just ask junior doctors…

“Take care of your employees and they’ll take care of your business”
Sir Richard Branson

Hallelujah! Finally, we have a reprieve.
Junior doctors in England have suspended industrial action while they try to hammer out a deal with the new Health Secretary.
No more strikes – at least for now. Of course, the previous 11 rounds of strikes are continuing to have a huge impact, with more than seven million patients currently on waiting lists for treatment. I’m a huge fan of the NHS, but morale is clearly at rock bottom if junior doctors are prepared to take such drastic measures. For me, this raises a burning question: what must be going on in the health sector to make them so unhappy?

Pay is clearly a significant issue, but I suspect the strikes are also a symptom of the wider cultural ailments within the health service. It’s a realisation that’s led me to reflect on the culture within my own sector and just how different it is to the NHS’s current condition. In all honesty, security officers could easily follow the same path as junior doctors, train drivers, baggage
handlers, and copious other workers who’ve chosen to strike over recent years. After all, they aren’t typically paid the most generous salaries. I’ve even heard reports of some customers failing to provide security guards with access to basic amenities like a toilet and running water.

Shocking! Let’s not forget that these people are risking their safety to protect people and premises – and in most cases, for the minimum wage. It’s also a licensed industry and guards must undergo rigorous training to do the job effectively – it’s not a case of a quick chat, here’s your uniform and off you go!  As I write this, Advantage One is currently undergoing a three-day voluntary ACS audit. Verified by independent auditors, the process assesses the business, assessing 78 achievement indicators. These indicators include diverse topics such as training, policies and company management. They also look at factors beyond performance such as pay, working conditions and employee welfare (maybe NHS bosses could learn something here!).

The audit encompasses far more than just ‘Pass or Fail’ criteria. Every company is given a score which indicates how well they have performed during their audit. I’m pleased to say last year’s score of 120 puts us in the top 10% of all security companies in the UK, and we hope to do even better this year! I believe that employee welfare, training and staff morale are areas where we excel.  Assessors frequently comment on how our guards are always motivated to come to work, even though they can probably earn more money in an alternative sector. I guess we must be doing something right!  So, what’s the secret? I think it’s pretty simple. We make every effort to ensure our officers feel valued…

Whether it’s conducting weekly welfare checks for  new starters, sending birthday cards, or dishing out Christmas presents and hampers, we prioritise employees’ wellbeing and recognise their contributions. In my experience, these small gestures can have a big impact on worker morale and motivation. Maybe that’s why our top 20 employees by length of service have combined experience of 250 years between them; that’s a quarter of a Millennium! Pretty impressive for an industry with a notoriously high turnover rate… With the threat of strikes still looming, perhaps it’s time for all industries to reflect on how they treat their workers. How they make them feel. How they can boost morale.

As Richard Branson famously said, “Take care of your
employees and they’ll take care of your business.”

James Haigh
Managing Director
Advantage One Security