AlliedBarton Reviews

Pros

Above average compensation for security field
Free professional development and certifications
Pro-military/Pro-veteran
Senior site supervisors on down to security officers are usually high quality
Kaiser available to officers who work 2 months and meet deadlines for form submission
SEIU, so regular raises
Violence, firearms, harassment and physical abuse are uncommon and highly discouraged
Diversity, except for handicapped people, is encouraged.
Incident reports get things changed when conditions are unsafe
Higher management usually solves problems when officers go over account managers' heads

Cons

Lazy account management passes the buck if they can't look good to district managers for doing it
Poor leadership at account manager level means BS and CYA up and down so district, client, and officer are kept in dark about critical information
Site supervisors often do both account management and officer jobs for officer pay
Anti-union/anti-employee/Anti-officer culture
Aggressive male-dominated culture masked with corporate identity does not encourage female and/or intelligent leadership
No breaks unless demanded
No time off unless form filled out and demanded
No schedule flexibility for flex officers unless earned and demanded
No health insurance for a year after 2 months if slim deadline isn't met
Management censors incident reports that reflect poorly on company, even if concerning important client issues
Fax-based system using copies of copies of forms not available to officers unless demanded

Advice to Senior Management

Stop bullshitting your clients and playing games.
Be honest with everyone, especially yourself, even if it means losing bad accounts.
Lose the detex patrols across the board and plan each site's schedule down to the quarter hour so officers stay busy, get their breaks, and aren't resentful of maangement distrust.
Advocate for your officers as well as clients so you earn their trust.
Keep the holier than thou executive attitudes to yourself, you are not special or irreplaceable just because you get paid more.
Do everything in your power to take care of your "internal customers" from the bottom up.
Do "DARE to be Great" rather than just saying it by celebrating officers more often than your celebrate yourselves.
Work with officers at each account site you manage and take your job seriously so that officers believe you are more competent than them at every role, at each site you manage.
Stop acting like you are god's gift to corporate management and act more like a senior NCO in a combat zone. (IE Stop chatting and farting around and bring me the ammo I need)
Lead from the front.

Pros

A job here is better then having no job.
Most sites are easy to learn.
Lots of free time at work.

Cons

Higher management doesn't respect the officers. They are all about getting people hired, after that they do not care.
I have personally witnessed my manager make the work lives of 5 officers harder in hopes they will quite.
Not school/military friendly (depending on site).
Hired an employee that could not pass background check, just to get an account.

Advice to Senior Management

respect and help the officers.
not lower hiring standard to get an account.
make training standardized. I had different training then my fellow officers.

Pros

Multitude of job sites, you can work at multiple sites. If you, like me, get a great account manager that's hard working and is actually around, kudos! Plenty of oppertunities to advance. Really enjoy my job, in all honesty.

Cons

Training isn't as comprehensive as I would have liked. The MSO training is nice, but buttons and pins aren't great rewards for extra training. Also, my recuiter told me I would be paid a lot more for a job that would go full time. Still part time, and less pay than I anticipated.

Advice to Senior Management

Not at this time.

Pros

It's good job if you like to be alone.

Cons

The Management treats all its employees as if they're disposable.

Advice to Senior Management

You need smarter, better educated, level-headed middle-management leaders. Why is incompetence rewarded?

Pros

Some of the people I work with are great.

Cons

No advancement
Company does not follow own handbook
Do not get raises on time nor back pay owed

Advice to Senior Management

Pay attention to what is actually going on at the site and why the hours were really cut.

Pros

for my position the pay is ok

Cons

The management crew refuses to follow the rules of the convening authority

Pros

I work at a remote site, therefore we have limited interference from AB management. Most of the team are mature individuals with previous experience in military or police work. We service a very large property (in excess of 250 acres) by motor and foot patrol. The client employees are very friendly and respectful of our officers. In general this is a very pleasent place to work. On site training and client customer support are excellent.

Cons

In general, to AB managment, we are as valuable as last weeks newspaper. AB company training is, for the most part, a joke. MSO has little to no practical application to the work we do. Fire Safety Officer training is only moderately more effective. None of this training is transferable out side AB. All of the pins and buttons, certificates, ataboys, etc, combined with three dollars and change, will just about buy a gallon of gas. In the two plus years that I have worked this site the account manager has visited the site four times. We have employees who have never seen the A M. Most nights and weekends the AB officer is the only person on the property, with our only outside contact our two way radio, which connects to an operations center nearly 15 miles away. Most of the people at the operations center are so poorly trained, they don't even know where in the city we are located, not to mention where on the property we are. I have NO confidence in their ability to be of assistance in an emergency situation, an attitude I believe that is shared by other team members. There is no mechanism for passing suggestions up the line to management. Post orders, at best, are vague. For the most part leftovers from the previous company that covered this contract, several years ago. The result, we are often left to our own best judgement as to appropriate responce to emergency situations. If someone up the line decides to disagree with that decision, WE get fired. Management makes it very clear that if you don't like the situation, there will be no problem to replace you. In the REAL world of employment an emloyee is as valuable a what he or she produces. Since we produce nothing, that's just how valuable we are.

Advice to Senior Management

Provide a realistic means of passing along assesments of problems and conditions on the jobsite. Provide a means of comunicating emergency information and personel capable of appropriate action. It wouldn't hurt to have management have some familiarity with the site and employees at the site.

Pros

When you get work then you can get paid. If you like working a grave shift then you find a decent site.

Cons

There is a trend phasing out guards who work a set schedule at one site only and replacing them flex force guards. Flex force guards get a flat rate of pay and must go wherever needed and whenever. I have worked with this company a long time and I'm going to school so I can find something better.

Advice to Senior Management

I am hearing now that AlliedBarton is losing accounts. Most of the jobs offered are flex, or grave, or somewhere far away from me. This is a sad thing since I have been with them for a long time.

Pros

You can meet decent people. There is the ability to move to different accounts in different geographic regions if needed.

Cons

Management seems to favor quantity over quality. After graduating college with a degree, tried to apply for a management/admin position but was basically breezed over without any consideration.

Advice to Senior Management

Forget the quantity over quality strategy and perhaps the larger corporate accounts will become interested. Ensure that the people you are employing are looking to better themselves and interested in growth rather than being just a body filling a position.

Pros

Depending on the location, its a very relaxed, professional setting. Also depending on your duties they make sure you get your breaks, sometimes the job consist on a lot of standing and they make sure you are well rested.

Cons

very unfair on who gets what position. I and several other officers have been a float for six months where several full time positions i am available for has open and instead of offering the spot for us they hire someone brand new and train them.

Advice to Senior Management

Your floats are the best workers you have, they know how every position work. Make sure to that they feel appreciated for what they do.