Staff training at the core of every contract

With the onset of new contracts and the needs of our clients, over the last three months, we have trained 85 of our own staff giving them skills in five important disciplines. This is the fulfilment of our philosophy of encouraging our staff through comprehensive and specialist training.

At the beginning of 2017, GSTS underwent a change of governance together with a full rebrand. We brought together proven industry professionals, each of whom had a passion to see fundamental changes in how the industry delivers its services and treats its staff and clients. As the months went on, we discussed in detail the changes we wished to make. We became more and more convinced that the industry had neglected some very simple requirements.

Firstly, many companies had totally neglected their obligations to train and develop their staff, which meant that most front-line officers, were vastly under-trained and demotivated. Secondly, in a rush for growth, the ‘nationals’ had lost touch with their operational obligations and were not giving clients a return on what was often significant cost. We became the first and only security company in the UK  (to date), to employ a dedicated Employee Assistance Manager.

We detailed and published our philosophy, aims and values based on our military and blue light heritage. We determined that there would be value in empowering our staff through ‘real’ classroom training as opposed to the reliance on on-line self-teaching. We came to the realisation that focussing on the needs of our staff would make better officers for our clients and increase productivity, giving a quantifiable return on investment.

We set out to do exactly what we said, and to show everyone that we were committed to make fundamental changes and prove the differences we could make. We were extremely conscious that it was very easy to talk a good job, and then not deliver. When key clients listened and gave us opportunity, we put in all our efforts and resources, everything we had. We began to win new contracts month on month.

Our tender documents were described as ‘refreshingly honest’ by one procurement manager, and we found that our commitment to real training gave us a winning advantage. In mid-2017, following a strategic review of our service provision, we introduced our Triple ‘A’ Service, ASSURE, ASPIRE and ASSIST to provide our clients with a range of sophisticated solutions which reflect the changing context, challenges and reality of the security and risk management sector.