Hospital Shared Services Reviews

Current Employee – been working at Hospital Shared Services full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – - The job of protecting medical staff, patients, and visitors is an honorable one.
- Highest starting pay for entry-level Security work (around $12/hr).
- Meet lots of interesting and educated people at the work site.
- Despite the job's inherent risk of injury, the work itself is usually very easy.
- PRIDE reward system gives small monetary bonuses for employees who are recognized for exemplary work.
- Lots of preparatory training for future Supervisors and Site Leaders (AKA: Sergeants & Lieutenants). The company's industry knowledge is very obviously extensive.
- Company provides decent outerwear for cold temperatures (a big bonus in Denver).
- Company sends out a basic annual fiscal report to all employees each year.

Cons – - Rigid, unyielding demerit-based attendance policy, possibly written by Stalin himself.
- Very few advancement opportunities - A typical facility has 20-40 officers, and 1-3 supervisors.
- Often a thankless job, your extra efforts typically go unnoticed by clients & coworkers.
- Recruiting department passes over good hire candidates to exceed affirmative action requirements. If you're an African native, HSS will hire you with no questions asked.
- For a job where hand-to-hand combat is a strong possibility, HSS provides very little training material. One hour of training each year, to be exact, and many of their techniques are of questionable efficacy. In 5+ years with the company, I have seen 16 of my fellow officers TKO'd by hostile patients/visitors.
- No raises for officers in the last 3 years -- The company must individually negotiate annual raises with each hospital's administration team, and often makes zero effort to do so.
- Every year, Catastrophic Leave requirements are tightened further. If your sister dies right now, you will not be granted time off to even attend the funeral. This is not embellished, it is written in the employee handbook.
- Years of good employee evaluations, PRIDE rewards, and support from your supervisor are all thrown away when 1 secret shopper doesn't like how your uniform shirt fits. The secret shoppers employed by HSS seem to feel they haven't done their job until they've written something negative about you. A secret shopper once gave one of my fellow officers a score of 25% because the officer identified them as a secret shopper. In other words, the officer's valuable perceptiveness was thoroughly punished because one incompetent Shopper couldn't maintain her simple ruse.

Advice to Senior Management – 1. Secret shoppers are capable of half-assing their jobs too. Take their reports with a grain of salt. Asking if there is anything else I can do for someone is a frivolous gesture when their stated concerns have all been satisfied. Only secret shoppers look for this; it would annoy any 'real' guest to the facility. Any officer with half of a working brain can tell when there is something else to be resolved with a guest. The ones without working brains can get flushed out by employee evaluations, drug screens, and 'real' complaints (or just a better hiring process).

2. I know the economic climate is restrictive, but you're not saving any money with these cheap uniforms. They wear out in a matter of weeks/months and have to be replaced en masse. In the interim you have a ton of officers walking around out there in threadbare, worn-out uniforms. Go back to the blue pants and jackets from before 2008 so that we don't look like ambulance drivers -- This causes undue confusion at a surprising frequency, not to mention that it would be nice to have our appearances taken seriously again. We look a bunch of Paul Blarts.

3. What happened to the Security RAP? That was the most meaningful literature HSS has ever routinely sent to its employees. I imagine cost-cutting is the culprit once again.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Hospital Shared Services full-time for more than a year

Pros – Decent pay for unarmed security
Company always promotes from within
Plenty of overtime available

Cons – poor benefits
no raises
high turnover rate
no formal training
management in Denver has no clue about the status of sites outside of Colorado
Formal policy is not explained to clients, you are constantly being asked to perform duties far beyond your level of training.

Advice to Senior Management – Bring proper business offices and management to the other states which you have major contracts.
Follow through on promises to all employees, your rank and file officers are the face of your company.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Hospital Shared Services as a contractor for more than a year

Pros – Good training. Good opportunity to network during yearly trips to company headquarters in Denver, Colorado. Requires IAHSS certification.

Cons – Typical contract security. Do not kid yourself and believe that you are valued as an employee, no matter what your assistant director tells you. You are a warm body to fill in a schedule slot...nothing more. The clients (hospitals) are flighty, myopic, and often just plain ignorant. You will ALWAYS be subject to the client's whims. Often, the only experience with private security that these administrative shut-ins will have will be what they see on television. They have absolutely no concept of the scope and authority of security guards. Many believe security guards are equivalent to law enforcement officers. Others believe security guards are nothing more than Wal-Mart greeters.

Insofar as treatment from the clients is concerned, you will be treated like ambulatory furniture, at best, and subservient servants at worst. There is a tremendous amount of back-stabbing and 'cliques'. Due to the 'small town atmosphere' of the place, expect a lot of 'small town' politics and psychological in-breeding. That is, everyone knows everyone else and when poor employees are dealt with according to policy, expect the gossip wires to be crackling with information. On more than one occasion, I was interrogated by various hospital staff after issuing justifiable discipline to, or terminating one of my employees. I have personally seen employees terminated because the client did not warm up to them, even though they were excellent employees.

The administration is marginally supportive, as long as the client is positive towards you. If ever the client decides you are 'not a good fit', you will be discarded regardless of quality/quantity of work. Though, to be fair, this is often the atmosphere on job sites in the contract security industry. Always remember, HR is not there for you. HR is there to protect the company...ALWAYS.

Advice to Senior Management – There is nothing I can add. The management is concerned only about the revenue stream. Individuals making suggestions, or constructive criticisms are largely ignored, or discharged.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Hospital Shared Services full-time for less than a year

Pros – The company has a great benefit package for its employees, low turnover rate, does not borrow money to generate its profit and generates over hundred millions a year in profit.

Cons – 90 days probation time before you can enjoy your employee benefit package.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Hospital Shared Services full-time for more than a year

Pros – Friendly hospital staff and ever changing work environment.

Cons – Flex officers get no respect from HSS management. The people in scheduling could careless about you and will call at all hours of the night asking for you to come in with no notice. You will also be expected to search soiled and bug infested people and often time with not be offered any kind of ppe.

Advice to Senior Management – Start treating your flex officers better and hire some new people in scheduling, politeness and understanding go a long way when your asking an employee to come in with no notice at 2am.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Hospital Shared Services

Pros – Steady work and a steady paycheck when employed at a facility. (not float) The pay is comparable to other security jobs at about $12 an hour. Benefits and vacation time are available for full-time employees.

Cons – The benefits are cut down every year but they charge you the same. No recognition for good work. Mandatory overtime if your relief doesn't show up, no exceptions. Vacation is hard to use. I requested a week of vacation six months in advance and was denied. Management is chosen by the "good ol boy" philosophy, not by who deserves it. They will fire you in a heartbeat for anything they want.

Advice to Senior Management – Treat your employees like they are as important as we know that we are to you. You do not exist without the hard work of people like me so give us a break sometimes or just send out an email that says thank you for your hard work and we recognize your efforts.

Current Employee – been working at Hospital Shared Services

Pros – They do pay you bi-weekly and will pay for ASIS certifications. Also they trust you to be rather autonomous.

Cons – No clear definition of what to do in multiple situations. Never sure if patients are actually on a lawful hold or not. No paid time off in the first year. Pay is rather low considering the environment that you work in and the health risks at hand. Communication is terrible for a company that is upholding the observe and report philosophy, you are more likely to observe on your own that get any info from the previous shift. Training is silly too, you receive the same training that the hospital staff receives, and are then called on by the hospital staff to handle things they are unwilling to deal with.

Advice to Senior Management – Communicate with your employees, all of them!

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Hospital Shared Services

Pros – Work as an on call/per-diem staff requires you state your weekly availability, then you wait every morning at 5 am to see if you get a "sitter" assignment. Great if you aren't dependent on a budget, perhaps as a second income earner. Terrible if you are the primary income source for your family.

Cons – Very little social connection to the company, days/nights are in 12 hr shifts, very low respect from hospital staff who perceive you as "less" than CNAs because you don't do vitals or direct patient care. Sense of lack of any productivity or value, basically a human surveillance camera that intervenes only when a safety situation may develop which is rare. Very sedentary work leads to diminished health and lack of energy. To do personal appts you need the whole day off, cannot arrange to have coverage for 2-3 hr departure during a 12 hr shift.

Advice to Senior Management – Allow a "buddy system" among workers who can work split shifts for each other as needed. Reinforce to contracted hospitals that staff are BA level employees and knowledgeable about behavioral/mental health issues, not less than CNA certified hospital staff.

Current Employee – been working at Hospital Shared Services

Pros – Not very many but if I have to put one, your co-workers are nice.

Cons – Management does not listen to the employees needs or concerns.
Benefits are terrible.
People are promoted when they don't even have the skills to do the job
Pay is low in comparison to any company.
Treat the employees like dirt.

Advice to Senior Management – Listen to your employee's. They are smarter than you may think. If you don't treat your employees good in a bad economy, they will be sure to leave in a good economy.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Hospital Shared Services

Pros – Fun place to work, Amazing training programs. Appears to have a lot of growth if your immediatly hired at a facility. Best paying compared to competition in area.

Cons – Flex officers are pretty much black sheep. Almost zero direction, zero communication with manager until something serious happens

Advice to Senior Management – Communicate with your employees immediatly, not when something goes wrong or when it's time for disciplinary action. Disciplinary action probably could be avoid if done.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend