Monday, a hundred new applications
You advertise for night guards for a new contract. The job boards deliver applications all weekend. Some hold a current licence. Many do not, or hold a different type than the role needs. Some live two hours away with no car. Some want days only. A few are excellent and have applied to three other guarding companies this week.
The operations assistant opens each CV, looks for the licence, guesses at location, and emails the promising ones asking for availability. Replies trickle in over days. By the time interviews are arranged, two of the best candidates have taken jobs elsewhere. Meanwhile the new contract starts in three weeks.
Why guard recruitment is so slow
Guarding roles have a few hard requirements, a licence of the right type, the ability to reach the site at night, availability for the shift pattern, that CVs do not show clearly. Everything else is judgement at interview. But the hard requirements are checked by hand, one CV at a time, which is where the time goes.
- Job boards send everyone who clicks apply.
- CVs do not state licence type and expiry in a consistent way.
- Travel to night sites is not clear from an address.
- Availability is asked for by email, one applicant at a time.
- Interview scheduling is back and forth by phone and email.
What slow recruitment costs
Good candidates are lost to faster competitors. New contracts start short-staffed, pushing existing guards into overtime and cover. The office spends days on sifting. And applicants who hear nothing think badly of your company, which matters in a sector where guards talk to each other.
Your selection criteria, and making sure they are fair and lawful, are for your company and its advisers. We build the process that applies them.
An application flow that sorts and books
- Your job adverts link to a short application on your website, which asks the questions you set: licence type and expiry, licence number, how they would travel to the site area, which shifts they can work, right to work, and a CV upload.
- Answers are checked against the role's requirements. Applicants are sorted into groups you define, such as meets requirements, missing a requirement, or needs review.
- Applicants who meet the requirements are invited straight away to book an interview slot from your calendar, by text and email.
- Applicants without the right licence get a polite message, and can be kept on a list for roles that suit them, or for when they obtain one.
- The office sees applicants by group, with their answers laid out the same way, and makes the decisions.
- Interview outcomes are recorded, and successful applicants move into your screening process with their details already captured.
- A simple report shows which job boards bring applicants who meet requirements, which helps you spend advertising budget better.
| Question asked | Why it matters for guarding |
|---|---|
| Licence type and expiry | The role needs the right type, in date |
| Travel to the site area | Night shifts often start when public transport is thin |
| Shift availability | Nights, weekends and patterns must match |
| Right to work | Required before any offer, checked properly later |
A recruitment week with the flow
Applications come in over the weekend. On Monday morning, the office sees the applicants who meet requirements, and many of them have already booked interview slots for Tuesday and Wednesday. The operations manager interviews, records outcomes, and successful candidates start their screening file the same day. The candidates without licences have had a reply and are on a list. The three-week deadline looks achievable.
The flow can also feed the licence and screening records, so nothing is typed twice between application and first shift.
When a new contract is being mobilised, the same flow can run a dedicated campaign for that site, with its own questions about travel to that location and the shift pattern the client wants, so the operations manager sees exactly how many suitable applicants there are for that contract.
Is recruitment eating your office's week?
- Most applicants do not meet the basic requirements.
- CVs are read one by one for licence details.
- Availability is chased by email.
- Good candidates take other jobs while you arrange interviews.
- Applicants often hear nothing back.