Sometimes it’s a challenge to have a good security guard incident report. While reporting is a super basic requirement for physical security, bad reporting risks your company’s reputation.
The good news is that your company doesn’t have to depend on bad reports anymore. Security guard incident reports are changing. Although some companies still use paper or simple online reports, chances are you’re not getting the information you need.
Digital reporting gives you access to data and analytics – something paper or simple online reports can never do. Here’s why things are changing and why it’s important to train your officers to write good reports.
Security Guard Incident Reports
Understanding and documenting the facts is good reporting. Facts are difficult to capture if your security guards don’t know how to clearly write them.
Reporting bias is real. To overcome the bias, officers must feel good about reporting the things they see.
You can figure out what your reports need by looking at your SOPs and contract guidelines. As long as your reports have good details, you can justify your officers’ actions and keep up with your contract requirements.
For the reports that need special requirements, start organizing them. When your reports are organize, your officers will know which ones need special attention and which ones don’t.
Standardize Your Reports
To have better reporting standards, start by knowing reporting basics, finding the easiest way to repeat, and creating a template.
Know Reporting Basics
Just think about what your reports do. Are they for a client, internal use, or a mandated regulation? Remember, keep this in mind whenever your officers fill out reports:
- Are incidents time stamped?
- Do you need evidence like photos, audio, GPS location, and notes?
- Does your report need a special layout?
- Do you need follow ups?
- Will this report repeat more than once?
Find Repeatable Elements
Even though reports repeat more than once, they should also be adaptable. When reports are adaptable, they don’t change too much. This means that officers can use one report at many different places.
Whenever you want to make a report standardized, you have to make a template. Chances are, if your report has a template, your officers can figure out the most important things quickly.
A report template will tell your officers what a report needs and will help them support your SOPs and contracts requirements.
Make a Report Template
If you think all report templates are the same, there’s more to it. Not every security guard incident report software is the same.
A comprehensive reporting template means that it’s really easily to make changes. If you have details that you have to add, like for a regulation or requirement, you can.
When transitioning from paper to digital reporting, here are 6 things you can look for:
- Multiple field options to recreate hardcopy forms
- Drag and drop plus voice to text for ease of use
- Media attachment support, like time-stamped photos, audio, video, GPS location, and notes
- Notifications and automatic alerts to stakeholders
- Officer authentication and supervisor follow-up
- Reporting analytics to track status
Train Your Guards
To be a successful physical security guard company, you have to start putting your officer training front and center. Remember, because officers are on the front-lines, they are the first to respond to an incident. That’s why your guards have to feel cool-headed and sure of oneself whenever they fill out reports.
Improving Soft Skills
Although soft skills aren’t as popular, they’re important. Security officers can improve their soft skills, like good listening and writing, with your help.
You can help improve your officer’s soft skills by making sure they know what a good report looks like. You can start by training your officers to have good tactical communication, basic observation, and good writing skills.
Here are a few things to consider.
- Will guards interact with the public?
- Are they trained to report critical incidents?
- Are guards trained on de-escalation techniques?
- Are guards prepared to uphold health guidelines and any related security guard incident reports?
Reporting — The Right Way
You risk your company’s reputation if your officers don’t know about good security guard incident reporting. Losing your client’s confidence or having legal liabilities isn’t worth the risk.
Make sure your officers can clearly write their reports and understand your SOPs. Plus, make sure you have the right level of reporting software, since some are basic, while others are more comprehensive.
Transition your security guard incident reporting process today. Whether you’re starting off with paper reports or something else, take advantage of what digital security guard incident reports offer.
Request a demo to see for yourself.
