Ensuring Campus Security and Safety Teams Remain Satisfied with Their Jobs
- Category - ARMS, Industry Business, Safety, Security
All universities need to work to ensure that their campus security teams are satisfied. After all, a disgruntled security team will be less likely to perform their duties at peak efficiency. It is even possible that team members who are less than satisfied will accidentally overlook situations. As such, a lack of satisfaction in the job can cause a lack of focus, which would compromise the safety of everyone on campus. Of course, you are also likely to have difficulties retaining staff if your security team is dissatisfied with their job. Discover how you can ensure your security team remains happy as they work, allowing them to deliver the highest security levels.
Provide Wellness Programs
Among the various jobs that people can have, campus safety can easily be one of the more stressful careers available. As such, you need to give your team the resources necessary to ensure that they can stay healthy and stress-free. This is best done via a wellness program that includes both mental wellness and physical wellness. A wellness program is a plan that you as the employer offers to your employees as a way to encourage them to make healthy lifestyle choices. Examples of physical wellness programs could be a free gym membership, weight loss programs, or assistance to stop smoking. To encourage team members to take advantage of these wellness programs, consider offering a reward for those who meet certain goals, whether it is a bonus or some extra vacation days. Physical wellness programs will ensure that your team has the tools they need to stay in the physical shape necessary to keep the campus safe. Mental wellness programs can help the team combat the fatigue from working long or overnight shifts, both of which are common in campus safety. Mental wellness programs can also help minimize the lasting emotional impact of particularly tragic or unusual incidents on campus. With wellness programs in place, your team will be in better physical and mental shape, allowing them to perform better and reducing the stress that the job causes.
Utilize Technology to Make Certain Tasks Easier
Technology can also play a key role in ensuring your campus safety team is satisfied with their job. When used correctly, technology will make some required tasks easier, allowing your employees to focus on the other parts of their job, such as actually keeping people safe. With the right technology, there will be less frustrating paperwork that can lead to stress or plain disgruntlement. The best way to utilize technology to help your campus safety team feel satisfied is to find programs that will reduce their administrative workload. Instead of requiring your security team to create their own transcriptions of interviews and summaries, for example, consider software that includes some element of transcription or at least streamlines the process. You should also turn to technology to make creating reports much easier. With the right software, you can have templates in place so your security team never forgets to include crucial information or which legal requirements apply to a specific type of report. The software can also eliminate the need to send the report to a list of administrators or leaders by automatically sharing it. Harnessing technology to make tasks easier on your team will improve their efficiency and is likely to decrease the frustration your team may feel at completing administrative duties. After all, most people who choose campus safety careers do so to get in the field, not sit in an office and fill out paperwork for hours on end.
Follow General Advice for Happy Employees
When figuring out how to maintain job satisfaction among your campus safety team, not all of the techniques you should consider will be specific to security and safety teams. You will also want to follow the general advice for ensuring happy employees whom those in other industries should emulate. A crucial part of employee satisfaction across any industry is keeping your team informed at all times. If you let your team know what is currently happening, they will feel like a valued part of the team, improving satisfaction. In the case of campus safety, keeping employees informed is also simply a smart thing to do since team members cannot lookout for a specific security threat if they do not know it is an issue. It should also go without saying that your employees will feel greater job satisfaction if they receive appropriate pay and benefits for their job. Underpaid safety teams will be hard to retain and may not give the job their all since they feel that they are being underappreciated. Prevent this with appropriate pay for the position and by including benefits such as time off and the wellness programs mentioned above. Another strategy that applies across industries, including in campus safety, is to listen to your employees and let them know that their opinion counts. Not only will this give you the potential for new ideas and strategies that can be more effective than your current ones, but it also contributes to making employees feel appreciated.
ARMS Makes Workflow Easier, Which Enhances Job Satisfaction
When it comes to the technological aspects of employee satisfaction, ARMS can prove to be useful. The software behind ARMS allows for a smoother workflow for your employees, which will reduce their stress and enhance job satisfaction. The fact that ARMS Mobile can be reached by any device that can access the internet means that your team can use the OS they are most comfortable with, or you can use the system on the tablets or other devices you already utilize, regardless of OS. This minimizes the learning curve for understanding the system as well as frustration due to figuring out a different OS. In addition, the ARMS software was created to be intuitive to use. Its highly intuitive interface ensures that minimal training will be required. If any issues do arise, ARMS has a professional support team in place to assist you with technological concerns or problems. ARMS also offers training to ensure that every member of your team understands how to use the software most effectively, reducing their frustration and resulting in satisfied employees.
