38TH EDITION MAY 2024 DEDICATED TO UPDATING OUR TEAMS ON EVERYTHING THAT IS GOING ON AT PROFESSIONAL SECURITY ACROSS OUR HUB, OPERATIONS AND FRONTLINE TEAMS.
CONTENTS COMPANY UPDATES PAGE 4-6 HOSPITALITY UPDATE PAGE 8-10 QSR UPDATE PAGE 12 GUARDING UPDATE PAGE 14-16 SOCIAL VALUE UPDATES PAGE 18-19
COMPANY UPDATES
EXCEPTIONAL PEOPLE NEW STARTERS We have welcomed a few new members to our team over the past few weeks! Ben has welcomed two new members to his operations team recently. Callum Barrie has joined us as City Supervisor in Hull and Owen Hinchliffe, who used to work in Talent, has joined the Leeds team as an Area Manager. Tom has joined Michelle’s team as a new member of our SOC team. Tom has worked for Professional for a while now, having worked previously as a Door Supervisor! We have also welcomed Julie Edgerley to the team as our Head of People. A warm welcome to you all! IN THE SPOTLIGHT… GET TO KNOW JULIA! PLEASE TELL US A BIT ABOUT YOURSELF: First and foremost, I am a mum of three… Max 21 who’s at uni, Ruby 17 who’s at dance college and Elsie my 4-year-old bonkers Frenchie! She often makes guest appearances on teams meetings snoring away at my feet. I go to the gym most days, but I am at my happiest walking my dog along Formby beach or walking in the Lake District with my friends. I’ve always got a book on the go… there’s not enough hours in the day for the all the books I want to read. I’ve been in HR 30+ years! I’ve had a variety of HR roles in all sorts of sectors, including generalist HR and PM of systems. In 2006 I stepped off the corporate ladder when Ruby arrived as I had an international role. I didn’t want to be away from the children when they were small, so I set up a HR consultancy supporting SMEs in the NW. In 2021 I decided to revive my career and took a job at Carlisle Support Services, working with Martin Woollam as HRBP for the North, where we serviced rail contracts and the likes of Tesco and LFC. Unfortunately, my role was put at risk, but luckily, I secured the position as Head of HR for Beesley and Fildes, a chain of Building Merchants, before coming to Professional.
SUMMARISE YOUR ROLE AT PROFESSIONAL: My role will be supporting managers in their HR, creating HR strategy to support growth going forward, working with the likes of M&M to ensure we have a smooth transition/mobilisation of staff as we secure contracts in guarding, educating and mitigating any potential employment related risk to the business, to name just a few. WHAT IS ONE THING YOU LOVE ABOUT WORKING IN SECURITY? I love the fast past and the variety! No two days are the same! Security is challenging, competitive and an exciting space to work in. Working for Professional will give me opportunity to work on projects with people who clearly love what they do and are proud to work for the company. TELL US ONE THING THAT WE WOULDN’T KNOW ABOUT YOU? In my 20’s I was an extra in a Spinal Tap film… don’t ask, alcohol was involved! On a professional basis, I headed up a task force for a group of NHS Trusts reviewing HR systems ensuring they met all our regulatory compliance and then working with the software provider to continue to shape their NHS offering. I was only 3 years into my career and very flattered that I was asked to lead it. A SHOUT OUT TO OUR TALENT TEAM Dave would like to give a shout out to his Talent team for their efforts over the past few weeks on various projects. Boxpark Liverpool – All of the team worked in collaboration with our Operations team to ensure we had a high calibre team in place for launch. Bridgegate Compliance – Shout out to Adam and Connor for their continued work preparing for the Bridgegate ACS assessment later this year. ACS – A well done to Breanne who has been working with Roy and Dave, keeping us ahead of the game for our upcoming ACS audit.
ALWAYS WINNING DISABILITY CONFIDENCE COMMITTED We are proud to announce that we are a Disability Confident employer. We recognise the value of diversity and believe that an inclusive and equitable culture is critical to our success. Our commitment extends to raising awareness about both visible and non-visible disabilities and ensuring there is appropriate support and assistance within the workplace. WE HAVE REACHED 11,000 FOLLOWERS ON LINKEDIN! We are pleased to announce that we have reached over 11,000 followers on LinkedIn. Employee advocacy is so important when building a brand… a huge thank you to everyone who engages with our posts! Next stop 12,000! ENJOY THE JOURNEY WELL DONE DAVE! Shout out to our Operations Manager, Dave Andrews, who scored a try in Doncaster Toll Bar Masters final game against Brixton at the Southern Masters Festival last weekend! After a lengthy train and tube journey the team arrived, and in the baking sunshine managed to win all three of their games against, Swindon, Hammersmith and the hosts Brixton, bringing home the Southern Masters Rugby League title back up North to Doncaster!
HOSPITALITY UPDATE
EXCEPTIONAL PEOPLE HEROES IN HARROGATE! A shout out to Shaun & Aaron who worked at Revolucion De Cuba and Mojo a few weeks ago when a male tried to enter a premises with a 12-inchlong screwdriver! The DS safely took the screwdriver from the male, where he was then arrested. Gareth Griffiths would like to show some appreciation to them both for using their initiative on this night. We pride ourselves on working with the best at Professional and thank them for being so diligent and potentially stopping a dangerous incident from occurring. WOMEN WINNING IN SECURITY We recently received an amazing review from a customer who visited Pizza on the Square in Malton, that we have to share! The review was about one of our exceptional female DS, Daisy Marflitt. The General Manager of the venue passed the review on to us and also backed up the review, commenting that she is an asset to our company, always chatting and greeting customers and is generally a lovely lass! Yesterday I had the pleasure of visiting your restaurant. Everyone was lovely. The service was great, but what really stood out to us was your door lady. Not only is it absolutely amazing and reassuring to women to see a lady on the door, but it's also amazing to see your company hiring women to work on the door, as unfortunately there’s lots that still wouldn’t hire a lady for a “man's” job! But she stood out to us last night, bubbly enthusiastic and politely greeting the young lady. Such a lovely thing to walk into being greeted in such a polite manner, but not only was she all those things, but her actions need to be recognised, so if you could pass this on to her manager, that would be amazing.
KING OF THE RING STUDENT BOXING EXTRAVAGANZA! It was the ultimate clash of the titans at the Civic Centre in Newcastle last week for the ‘King of the Ring’ student boxing event! Only one winner emerged victorious and claimed the coveted title! Shout out to our exceptional operations and frontline teams for supporting the event ALWAYS WINNING LONDON FRONTLINE FORUM We held our third Frontline Forum in London last week, and it was great to hear even more feedback for us to work on! 7 of our frontline Door Supervisors attended and it was great to hear their ideas to improve current processes as well as come up with new ideas to help with communication and recognition of our frontline teams. We are now moving into the ‘ACTION PLAN’ stage, where we are working on how we can use the feedback provided to improve current initiatives and introduce new ones. STRIVING FOR PERFECT UNIFORM STANDARDS A recurring message but one that is improving month on month… uniform standards! The photos we have been receiving of our frontline teams across the UK have been fantastic over the past few weeks, and it’s great to see so many DS in our current uniform, really looking the part. Well done on everyone's efforts so far!
NEW DEPLOYMENTS FOR OUR CURRENT CLIENTS A huge shout out to our Operations and Frontline teams who have done a great job at various new hospitality deployments over the past few weeks. Here are a couple of our highlights… BOXPARK - LIVERPOOL The biggest deployment in Liverpool so far! Boxpark is the UK’s number one football screening venue, home to iconic fan reactions and that unbeatable atmosphere you’ve seen on tv! Our exceptional Boxpark Liverpool team have done a great job at our new deployment so far. Well done to all involved! CLIENT FIRST DIRTY DICKS - LONDON A shout out to our Head Doorman, Yaseen, and Door Supervisor, Giri, for doing a great job so far at our new deployment for Young's Pubs, Dirty Dicks. Dirty Dicks is a locals pub located in the heart of London, close to Liverpool Street and Shoreditch. They have been serving fine ales, wine and spirits to the East End since the 1800's. We of course have to give a shout out to the General Managers dog for also doing a fantastic job keeping the customers safe! BLINKERS STUDENT NIGHT It was Blinkers Student Night at Newcastle Racecourse recently! Think a festival-like atmosphere with live DJ sets, bands, food stalls and more! Shout out to our exceptional frontline and operations team for doing a great job with supporting the event!
QSR UPDATE
ALWAYS WINNING CLIENT FIRST WE CURRENTLY DEPLOY TO 187 VARIOUS QSR SITES ACROSS THE UK This is 8 more sites than what we reported on in the last Pulse! SUPPORTING OUR CLIENTS WITH NEW DEPLOYMENTS We have successfully supported our core QSR clients with various new deployments over the past few weeks. Well Done to everyone for their ongoing efforts to ensure they have been a success! ENJOY THE JOURNEY RONALD MCDONALD HOUSE CHARITIES NEED OUR SUPPORT Want to help one of our clients, RMHC, with one of their fundraising events? Email [email protected] to find out more!
GUARDING UPDATE
EXCEPTIONAL PEOPLE A FEW PEOPLE SHOUT OUTS FROM MARTIN W! I had the pleasure of spending 3 whole days with Martin Leeder, Sarah Baugh, and Michelle Booth at The Security Event in Birmingham to showcase our services earlier this month. It was an incredibly busy and fruitful time with lots of new contacts made and ideas for service development. Martin even managed to get on television during our time there – with those Hollywood looks fame was always going to happen! Thank you, Martin, Sarah, and Michelle. It was amazing to work so closely with you all and see you in action for three days straight was quite the experience. With you three it is no wonder we are going from strength to strength! It has also been good to spend time with Nick Gilling in his new role in business development. You can tell he is putting in the hard yards (quite literally) from his Treekly scores! He is no Lenny Cunningham but then again who is! Thanks, Nick, for the time and sharing of experiences this month. I am sure you will be a huge success in your new role.
CLIENT FIRST WHOLEFOODS MARKET MOBILISATION This month we mobilised Whole Foods Market with some exceptional hard work and creativity being put in from Michelle, Becky and Sara from the Solutions Team under the operational prowess of Mr Leeder, Stephen Murray Kev Ward, and Suzanne “forever” Young. Your passion and dedication to the project has been immense and even though we hit some bumps in the road at times the team, we have always delivered! A big thank you to Nick Epstein from Bridgegate for sharing the lead and incredible relationship with us. OUR JOURNEY WITH TRAVELODGE CONTINUES Our trial region in discussions for expansion with Travelodge continue! The success of our inputs so far has led to a strategic review from the client to extend their scope. By this we mean our ideas and delivery methodologies have met with approval and they are looking at the project in a different way! ALWAYS WINNING NEW CONTRACT WIN WITH ARVATO! We are delighted to say that we have been successful in our bid to provide security for Arvato Bertelsmann for a three site, three-year contract. This very interesting business provides logistical services for the likes of Apple, Lululemon, Levis and Avon. An emerging brand in the UK logistics market with a global pedigree. Exciting plans for expansion lie ahead.
EXCITING TIMES AHEAD! The next few months are packed with bidding activity with a number of clients from several sectors from leisure to retail to local government. Our focus remains on delivering “Transformational Security.” We do not want to be just selling labour – the previous two examples show how we have used a consultative approach to drive innovative solutions and creation of longer term sustainable for Professional and its incredible workforce. I AM LOVING THE JOURNEY WE ARE ALL ON! Martin Woollam commented “I have been here now since December so 5 months in total. I know it seems longer when I talk doesn’t it? But we have achieved a lot together. I joined the business because of the people and the characters I met, and I wanted to be a part of that journey. I am loving it as far as we as a business are getting traction on the guarding side and working closely on a few projects with other parts of the business. So much exciting stuff ahead and I am grateful for the journey we are all on together”. ENJOY THE JOURNEY INTELLIGENT DEPLOYMENT OF SECURITY OFFICERS RISK & CRIME MAPPING CUTTING EDGE TECHNOLOGY TO REDUCE SOLUTION COSTS CLOUD BASED AI & SUPPORTING MANAGEMENT INFORMATION
SOCIAL VALUE UPDATES
A FOCUS ON SUSTAINABILITY We are pleased to announce that the guarding division have taken some huge strides forward with its environment performance and overall sustainability. With all of our mobilisation activity in full flow we are proud that we have worked with Mathias & Sons to create an eco-friendly uniform supply and delivery service. Our relationship now delivers CO2 reduction benefits of having regularly scheduled visits to site as opposed to ordering and delivering single or a few items which will save us 20 tonnes of CO2 by year end in reduced mileage for managers. Packaging is made from sugar cane saving an estimated 2 tonnes of cardboard over the next 12 months Reviewing garment material to include polos that are made from single use plastics - this could recycle as many as 13 thousand bottles if our plans are realised. As part of our tendering process, we are now able to talk about our sustainability credentials on a solid footing with the progress we are making. We are making considered uniform choices to the purchase and recycling of uniforms and are able to quantify the impact it is making. Mathias are also able to provide us with a transparent and ethical supply chain to make sure that not only do we minimise waste of packaging, recycle garments for charity, recycle products for other uses and reduce our carbon footprint but the garments are not made in sweatshops that utilise slave labour and human misery to do so. We believe this is a massive step forward for the business.
WALKING FOR OUR MENTAL HEALTH ARE YOU TAKING PART IN OUR MENTAL HEALTH AWARENESS WEEK STEPS CHALLENGE? Movement is important for our mental health. But so many of us struggle to move enough. We know there are many different reasons for this, so this Mental Health Awareness Week we want to help people to find moments for movement in their daily routines. We have invited everyone from our Hub, Operations and Frontline teams to join our Professional Security Treekly® community once more to compete in a weeklong step challenge. This time though… prizes will be awarded to our top 3 steppers at the end of the challenge! A few members of our Hub team kicked off the challenge with a lunch time walk by the canal earlier this week. If you are not yet part of our Treekly community, please get in touch! One of the best things we can do for our mental health and wellbeing is to be active – it's a natural mood booster!
DO YOU HAVE ANY NEWS TO FEATURE IN THE PULSE? PLEASE SEND ANY NEWS TO SARAH TO BE FEATURED IN THE NEXT EDITION! Sarah Baugh Head of Marketing [email protected] 07443 985261