By Mike Bowles
There is no question that the volatile labor market through the Covid-19 pandemic has challenged the virtues of teamwork amongst our rank and file. While struggling at times, Top Guard has continued with earnest to place security officers who take pride in their performance, respect their fellow employees, and own their responsibility to show up for work each day as scheduled, on time and looking professional. Top Guard has continued to be committed to maintaining a premium quality service despite the pandemic infected labor pool. The current climate has certainly contributed to higher than normal employee turnover, but lowering our employee standards is not an option. The good news is we are now seeing a light at the end of the pandemic tunnel, and want to thank all of our extremely valuable employees who have continued to persevere.
Great teamwork at Top Guard has been achieved when each employee is committed and working towards exceeding customer expectations. And, this is an important time to emphasize that working in high-functioning teams has major advantages, not only in the quality of work produced but also in the positive effect that teamwork has for those on the team. When assessing how your security team is functioning, we ask that each Top Guard security officer consider the following for strengthening the quality of your teamwork:
Enthusiasm:
When a team has good energy and synergy, working together becomes encouraging as well as inspiring. A productive team atmosphere helps to reduce stress and improve the quality of each individual’s work life. Where security officers work well together, personal engagement and productivity is increased.
Communication:
Effective communication is the most important part of teamwork and involves consistently updating one another and never assuming that everyone has the same information. Being a good communicator also means being a good listener. By listening to both peers and customer directives closely you both show respect and contribute to better overall team performance. Offering encouragement also goes a long way to getting the best out of a team. It is also critical that security officers provide needed feedback if the work is to improve. When feedback is encouraged and respected, it often leads to improvements or solutions that contribute to team objectives.
Delegation/Efficiency:
Teams that work well together understand their strengths and weaknesses. One of the benefits of strong teamwork is allocating tasks to the most appropriate security officers. A strong and cohesive team develops systems that allow them to collaborate efficiently to complete tasks in a timely manner. When a team is working together to achieve a desired outcome, they will share the responsibility to support each other by doing the best work that they can. They will also focus more on the success of the collective group, rather than on individual self-promotion.
Support:
All workplaces provide challenges, but having a strong team environment in place can act as a support mechanism for security officers. They can help each other improve their own performance as well as working together toward improving their professional development. Building bonds on trust and reliance on each other can be extremely important when facing a particularly difficult challenge or if the team is forced to deal with security officer turnover while continuing to maintain productivity. Working as a team provides multiple learning opportunities as well. Individuals may learn different skills from others more proficient than themselves. When solving complex problems, teams learn together what works and what doesn’t. Security officers can cross-train each other as necessary to support each other and increase productivity.
Appreciation/Recognition:
Where fellow security officers regularly provide recognition and express appreciation for the efforts of individuals, those individuals feel valued for their contributions. When individuals feel valued, motivation to contribute increases and individual morale is heightened. Recognition and appreciation fuels increased unity, support, and productivity. Top Guard makes a concerted effort to frequently reward premium performance, and encourages all security officers to shine a light on exemplary work.
Building Trust:
When everyone on a team is committed to the achievement of a common goal through good communication, shared workload, and reliable attendance, trust will be increased. Where trust is high, collaboration and support will also be high. The greater the collaboration and contribution by individuals, the greater the potential for success.
Decrease Management Time:
Where teams work together toward achieve common goals, there is a sense of self-monitoring as well as team unity. This team dynamic reduces the time that managers have to worry and follow up on individual performances as team members help and support one another.
“Individual commitment to a group effort — that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.” – Vince Lombardi