Stop Buying Security by the Hour – You're Not Buying the Same Service

I run a security company, and we still price a lot of our work by the hour.

For construction projects, temporary security and ad-hoc deployments, it makes sense. Clients need to know what an officer costs per hour, and we need a straightforward way of charging for the service.

So I'm not suggesting we stop using hourly rates.

I'm suggesting we stop using the hourly rate as the main way of judging the security service.

I've spent years looking at security tenders, pricing contracts, managing officers and dealing with the reality of what happens after a contract has been won.

One company quotes £19.50 per hour.

Another quotes £20.50.

Another quotes £21.50.

It's incredibly easy to put those three figures into a spreadsheet and think you're comparing the same product at three different prices.

You're not.

£19.50 for a security officer and £21.50 for a security officer does not automatically mean somebody is charging £2 more for the same thing.

The officer standing at the gate may look similar.

What sits behind that officer can be completely different.

What does a security guard hourly rate actually include?

A professional security guard hourly rate should represent considerably more than the wage of the person standing on site.

Behind that officer should be recruitment, vetting, training, supervision, management, operational support, uniform, insurance, technology, welfare arrangements, holiday and employment costs, contingency planning and access to replacement personnel when something goes wrong.

That's the first thing I'd encourage buyers to understand.

You're not just buying the officer. You're buying the organisation behind the officer.

And, in my experience, you don't really discover the quality of that organisation while everything is going well.

You discover it when something goes wrong.

The real test of a security company happens when the plan fails

Security contracts look relatively straightforward on paper.

Officer required: 19:00–07:00.

Monday–Sunday.

Hourly rate: £X.

Then reality happens.

At 17:30, the officer due to start at 19:00 phones in sick.

Someone doesn't turn up.

There's a break-in at 02:00.

An officer encounters an aggressive intruder.

A fire starts.

A building becomes insecure.

The police attend.

The client suddenly needs additional officers.

Or something happens that wasn't covered perfectly by the assignment instructions.

Who are you getting then?

That's one of the biggest things I've learned from running security operations.

When everything is normal, lots of security companies can look very similar.

A crisis exposes the difference very quickly.

Who actually manages your security contract?

If I were appointing a security provider, this would be one of my first questions.

Not:

“Who is my account manager?”

I'd want to know:

“Who actually runs my security operation?”

What's their background?

How much operational experience do they have?

Are they hands-on?

Do they visit sites?

Do they understand the environment they're protecting?

Do they know the officers?

Can they make decisions without passing everything through three levels of management?

And most importantly:

Who answers the phone at 3am when I've got a serious problem?

I've spent a significant part of my working life in policing and private security. That inevitably influences how I think a security company should operate.

I like managers who understand what's happening on the ground.

I want our management team to know our sites, know our staff and be capable of getting involved when something isn't right.

For me, management isn't something that sits above the security service.

Management is part of the security service.

And it costs money to provide properly.

What experience sits behind the officer?

This is another area I don't think gets enough attention when security companies are compared.

Imagine you're paying for one security officer overnight.

You're obviously buying that officer's capability.

But you're also potentially buying access to decades of experience sitting behind them.

If something unusual happens, can the officer escalate it to somebody who has actually dealt with serious incidents before?

Does the management team understand incident response?

Can they advise the officer?

Can they communicate confidently with the client?

Can they liaise effectively when police, fire or other agencies become involved?

Can they make sensible decisions under pressure?

That's difficult to express in an hourly-rate box on a tender spreadsheet.

But when something serious happens, it can become considerably more important than whether the original rate was £1 cheaper.

An SIA licence doesn't make every security officer the same

This is another misconception I'd challenge.

Two officers holding the same category of SIA licence aren't necessarily interchangeable.

The licence is an important baseline.

But there's a huge difference between being licensed and being the right person for a particular assignment.

Someone can be excellent working front of house in a corporate environment but completely unsuited to spending 12 hours alone on a construction project.

Another officer might be excellent at construction security but not particularly suited to a highly customer-facing public-realm role.

I think one of the responsibilities of a security provider is understanding its people well enough to know where they will perform best.

That's why recruitment and deployment matter.

It shouldn't simply be:

“Who's available tonight?”

What training does your security company provide after the SIA qualification?

This is a question I'd encourage more clients to ask.

Getting an SIA licence shouldn't be the end of an officer's training.

What happens afterwards?

At Blue Light Security Solutions, we use an online training and staff platform containing hundreds of training courses and modules alongside our policies, operational guidance and briefings.

We can allocate training to individuals or groups depending on their role and assignment and monitor completion centrally.

That means training can continue throughout someone's employment rather than ending when they receive their licence.

Does that have a cost?

Of course it does.

So does proper induction.

So does refresher training.

So does management oversight.

But those are some of the things sitting behind our hourly rate.

How do security companies monitor guards working overnight?

This is something we've invested in because it's an area of traditional guarding I've never particularly liked.

An officer signs in at 19:00.

They sign out at 07:00.

A timesheet says 12 hours were worked.

But what actually happened during those 12 hours?

At Blue Light, we use patrol and lone-worker technology that allows us to schedule patrols, specific site tasks and officer welfare checks throughout a shift.

Where appropriate, NFC checkpoints can verify that officers have physically attended designated locations.

More importantly, if an expected welfare check or activity is missed, our team can be alerted so we can establish what's happened.

That might identify a performance issue.

It might also identify an officer who is unwell, has suffered an accident or is dealing with an incident.

I don't see this technology as a replacement for management.

It gives our managers better information with which to manage.

I've written separately about this because I think every buyer of overnight guarding should ask their provider:

“How do you know what my security officer is doing at 3am?”

That should internally link to The Security Officer Is Asleep – But Who Has Actually Failed?

What happens if your security guard doesn't turn up?

This is where the cheapest quote can suddenly become irrelevant.

Anyone can put a name on a rota.

What happens when that person doesn't arrive?

If somebody calls in sick shortly before their shift, does the provider have trained replacement staff?

Is there an operational manager available?

How quickly can the company react?

Will somebody from management cover temporarily if necessary?

How does the client get kept informed?

I've always believed seniority shouldn't prevent somebody getting operationally involved when the situation requires it.

If something needs sorting, sort it.

A client paying for security shouldn't have to understand the provider's internal management structure before somebody takes responsibility for their problem.

That's part of what they're paying us for.

Why is one security company more expensive than another?

Sometimes there is a perfectly legitimate answer:

Because it provides more behind the officer.

But equally, a higher price doesn't automatically mean a better security service.

I've never believed that either.

A company can charge £2 more an hour and provide absolutely nothing meaningful in return.

That's why I wouldn't advise a client to automatically choose the most expensive provider any more than I'd advise them to automatically choose the cheapest.

I'd ask what the difference actually buys.

If Company A is £19.50 and Company B is £21.50, ask Company B:

“What am I getting for the extra £2?”

That's a completely reasonable commercial question.

If they can't explain it, perhaps there isn't sufficient value there.

But if the answer is better management, experienced operational support, stronger training, patrol verification, lone-worker monitoring, better resilience and greater accountability, then you're no longer comparing identical products.

Now you can make a proper commercial decision.

Why cheap security can become expensive

Security is unusual because you're purchasing something you hope you'll never properly need.

Most nights nothing significant happens.

The gate stays shut.

Nobody breaks in.

There's no fire.

Nobody gets hurt.

The temptation is therefore to judge the service primarily on cost.

But the value of the security operation becomes much clearer on the night when something does happen.

Poor security can lead to theft, damage, disruption, complaints, management time, project delays and potentially the need to replace the security provider completely.

Suddenly, saving £1 per hour doesn't look quite as important.

That doesn't justify inflated pricing.

It just means price and value aren't the same thing.

What should you ask before choosing a security company?

If I were buying security for my own site, I'd want answers to these questions before making my decision:

Who is actually managing my contract?

What operational experience does that management team have?

Who do I speak to outside normal office hours?

How do you select officers for my particular site?

What training do officers receive after obtaining their SIA licence?

How are officers supervised?

How do you verify patrols?

How do you monitor lone workers?

What happens when an officer doesn't turn up?

What happens when an officer isn't performing?

What happens if I need additional security tonight?

Who takes responsibility during a serious incident?

And:

What evidence can you provide that the security service I'm paying for was actually delivered?

Then compare the rates.

Now you're comparing security providers rather than simply comparing numbers.

Are all security companies basically providing the same service?

No.

And I think that's probably the most important point of this entire article.

Security guarding can look like a commodity because the visible product is usually one person in a uniform.

But behind that person can be completely different levels of experience, management, training, technology, supervision and resilience.

I've seen enough of this industry from both the operational and management sides to know that the difference often doesn't become apparent until something goes wrong.

That's precisely when you need the company behind the officer.

So yes, Blue Light Security Solutions still quotes hourly rates.

That's the commercial reality of our industry and, particularly for project and ad-hoc work, it makes perfect sense.

But when somebody asks me:

“What's your hourly rate for a security guard?”

I'd always prefer the conversation to go a little further.

What are you protecting?

What's happening on the site?

What are the risks?

What problems have you experienced previously?

What do you expect the officer to do?

What happens outside normal hours?

And what do you expect from us when something goes wrong?

Because then we can talk about what you actually need.

The hourly rate is simply how the service is charged.

It isn't a description of the service you're buying.

Need a security provider that offers more than an officer on a rota?

If you're reviewing your current security arrangements or comparing security quotations, we're happy to talk through what's actually sitting behind our hourly rate.

At Blue Light Security Solutions, that includes operational management, officer training, patrol verification, lone-worker monitoring and a management team that remains actively involved in service delivery.

Don't just ask us for an hourly rate.

Ask us how we'd manage your security.

Blue Light Security Solutions Ltd
0800 999 1829
office@bluelightgroup.uk