Garda World Security Reviews

Pros – Management is actually involved and cares what employees thing.

Cons – Some site are not suited for any guard and some people you work with are not theft good.

Advice to Senior Management – Remove the poor performers so the rest of us who do hard work can be seen.

Pros – climate for communication was always friendly and welcomed.
Accommodated a student schedule.
Benefits for full time employees was good
Unionized environment was very helpful

Cons – - No benefits for part time employees
- Inadequate equipment forced some employees to use own money to purchase tools and materials.

Advice to Senior Management – - consider implementing benefits for part time employees
- Improve resources available for career advancement
- more on the job training

Pros – Great social atmosphere. Diverse employee base from many nations. Flexible scheduling.

Cons – Disorganized management during continual reshuffling processes and contract negotiations. Improvements were made recently and stability is impoving.

Advice to Senior Management – Transparency and consistency would be appreciated.

Pros – A reasonable balance between work rotations, conditions of work average for the industry.
Administrative issues usually resolved quickly.

Cons – Not quite fully established with the correct positions / understanding for the high threat division.
Regular problems with equipment supply and cost cutting due to company bid policy

Advice to Senior Management – Correctly establish the high threat division and listen to much of the advice given by those put in management positions. Centralising all decision making only leads to problems, there is little point appointing managers or supervisors when they are not allowed to make decisions, this is reflected in the attitude of those further down the line toward the company.

Pros – Smaller firm in the industry with opportunity for growth

Cons – Upper management lack leadership and industry experience

Advice to Senior Management – Get more involved in the daily activities and communicate with employees on a regular basis

Pros – The pay is decent when you add up all the premiums, you get to work in different environment very other day, you meet different kind people if you're lucky you might get a good contract with a stable salary.

Cons – They don't care about their employees's we'll being, not a career job and money is more important then the staff. Have been working for almost 8 years, I've been in many life and death situation while on duty and I've never received a letter to acknowledge my action.

Advice to Senior Management – Start caring.

Pros – Garda are a huge international mult facet business. So you know they are not going anywhere like Aeroguard.

Cons – They are so big they don't take the time to build solid working relationships with thier staff and treat everyone like a number. Management sit in the back office and work with numbers then complain to the staff if they are not hitting the magical metrics that they need to look good. If you ask those Manager's how to change the numbers they will not be able to give any answers that add value.

Advice to Senior Management – Listen to your staff that work on the floor and have been doing the job for years. They are going to be able to tell you the areas of improvement required and where things need to get better. The so called management staff that work in the back offices who think they know the best thing for the business do not work on the floor in the actual work environment and do not know what they are doing. Management preach culture and values but do not uphold it or notify staff about what it is.

Pros – Great place to help people get on a plane with less stress, and flexible hours. Good training, but anal retentive managers in some locations.

Cons – Poor hiring practices for managing positions...seniority is only prerequisite for advancement.

Advice to Senior Management – Less manipulation more cooperation...too much testing without trying to help employees really grow.

Pros – Garda offers various positions in various locations.
Friendly staff.
Understanding team.

Cons – No chances for advancement.
Sites require no specialties or training.

Advice to Senior Management – More opportunities should be available for advancement within the company.
There is little motivation at many sites to want to excel towards something.
In comparison to Paladin Security Garda lacks structure, organization and opportunities for the future. Part-time employment is all Garda is for many.

Pros – Incredibly flexible hours. I worked as a temporary employee (for several months at 50-70 hours a week) and was given all of the hours I could want, by virtue of working at several different sites. The work was easy - mostly sitting around with lots of time to do what you want and get paid for it, while waiting for the few minutes of excitement that would come every few weeks (I am a student, and was able to complete a couple of calculus courses while on the job waiting for things to happen). Great place for students to work - really flexible hours, and the payrate was very reasonable for a student summer job in Canada.

Cons – Very long hours and continuous new sites - must be incredibly adaptive and excited for change to feel comfortable as there is almost no routine. Some jobs could be VERY boring if one is unable to keep occupied (often music or reading was unallowed). Often had to work 2-3 night shifts a week (sometimes for 12 hours overnight) and, obviously, sleeping on the job is not allowed so this can be tough also (however, fewer things happen so it is sometimes possible to watch films or play video games, read, listen to music, etc. when working a night shift to stay awake).

Advice to Senior Management – Stabilize temporary employees more fully on one or two sites - it wastes time always trying to find new sites resulting in sometimes being late, etc.