Hospitality establishment security officer

Hospitality establishment security officers are in charge of managing the overall process and implementation of hospitality facility security in terms of both safety of belongings, personal safety and building security.

The following job titles also refer to hospitality establishment security officer:

hotel security officer
hospitality establishment security guard
hospitality establishment security manager
hospitality security manager
hospitality security officer
hotel security manager

A high school diploma is generally the minimum required to work as a hospitality establishment security officer.

ISCO skill level is defined as a function of the complexity and range of tasks and duties to be performed in an occupation. It is measured on a scale from 1 to 4, with 1 the lowest level and 4 the highest, by considering:

• the nature of the work performed in an occupation in relation to the characteristic tasks and duties
• the level of formal education required for competent performance of the tasks and duties involved and
• the amount of informal on-the-job training and/or previous experience in a related occupation required for competent performance of these tasks and duties.

Hospitality establishment security officer is a Skill level 2 occupation.

These occupations, although different, require a lot of knowledge and skills similar to hospitality establishment security officer.

housekeeping supervisor
hotel concierge
night auditor
hospitality establishment receptionist
hotel butler

These occupations require some skills and knowledge of hospitality establishment security officer. They also require other skills and knowledge, but at a higher ISCO skill level, meaning these occupations are accessible from a position of hospitality establishment security officer with a significant experience and/or extensive training.

hospitality entertainment manager
rooms division manager
camping ground manager
accommodation manager
pastry chef

This knowledge should be acquired through learning to fulfill the role of hospitality establishment security officer.

• Human dynamics as part of hospitality security: The characteristics of human behaviour and human interaction and dynamics to ensure their security in hospitality establishment.
• Legal use-of-force: The characteristics of the use-of-force, which is a legal doctrine employed by police and army forces, to regulate acts of violence during interventions. Use-of-force is ought to balance security needs with ethical concerns for the rights and well-being of intruders or suspects.

These skills are necessary for the role of hospitality establishment security officer.

• Create solutions to problems: Solve problems which arise in planning, prioritising, organising, directing/facilitating action and evaluating performance. Use systematic processes of collecting, analysing, and synthesising information to evaluate current practice and generate new understandings about practice.
• Deal with unforeseen incidents in hospitality: Handle unexpected incidents following the appropriate protocol by solving, organising, reporting and documenting them.
• Comply with food safety and hygiene: Respect optimal food safety and hygiene during preparation, manufacturing, processing, storage, distribution and delivery of food products.
• Manage budgets: Plan, monitor and report on the budget.
• Manage staff: Manage employees and subordinates, working in a team or individually, to maximise their performance and contribution. Schedule their work and activities, give instructions, motivate and direct the workers to meet the company objectives. Monitor and measure how an employee undertakes their responsibilities and how well these activities are executed. Identify areas for improvement and make suggestions to achieve this. Lead a group of people to help them achieve goals and maintain an effective working relationship among staff.
• Perform internal investigations: Seek advice and collaborate with union officials responsible for topics that are relevant to you and your business or your work.
• Maintain incident reporting records: Keep a system to record details of unusual events that occur at the facility, such as job-related injuries.
• Protect important clients: Keep clients safe who have extraordinary level of risk by organising and providing the relevant security.
• Manage health and safety standards: Oversee all personnel and processes to comply with health, safety and hygiene standards. Communicate and support alignment of these requirements with the company’s health and safety programmes.
• Manage security equipment: Oversee and conduct inventory of security tools and equipment.
• Handle surveillance equipment: Monitor surveillance equipment to observe what people are doing in a given area and ensure their safety.
• Ensure hotel security: Guarantee the security of guests and the premises by monitoring the hotel premises.
• Ensure cross-department cooperation: Guarantee communication and cooperation with all the entities and teams in a given organisation, according to the company strategy.
• Manage emergency evacuation plans: Monitor quick and safe emergency evacuation plans.
• Detain offenders: Keep back offenders and trespassers in a certain area.
• Monitor work for special events: Oversee activities during special events taking into account specific objectives, schedule, timetable, agenda, cultural limitations, account rules and legislation.
• Undertake employee screening: Screen employees by compiling criminal records, commercial records and financial records of an individual.
• Detect drug abuse: Identify people under excessive use of alcohol and drugs inside a facility, effectively deal with these people and supervise customers own safety while applying relevant regulations.
• Manage outsourced security: Oversee and regularly review external security provision.

This knowledge is sometimes, but not always, required for the role of hospitality establishment security officer. However, mastering this knowledge allows you to have more opportunities for career development.

These skills and competences are sometimes, but not always, required for the role of hospitality establishment security officer. However, mastering these skills and competences allows you to have more opportunities for career development.

• Tend to clients’ personal items: Make sure that clients’ personal belongings, such as jewellery, personal documents, CDs and shoes, are properly stored, maintained and returned, according to its value and in line with organisational procedures.
• Set standards for handling valuables: Fix standards for the storage and handling of guests’ valuables.
• Handle customer complaints: Administer complaints and negative feedback from customers in order to address concerns and where applicable provide a quick service recovery.
• Ensure protection of car parking: Guarantee protection, safety and security of parked cars.
• Procure hospitality products: Acquire goods or services from an outside external source.
• Think analytically: Produce thoughts using logic and reasoning in order to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions or approaches to problems.
• Maintain customer service: Keep the highest possible customer service and make sure that the customer service is at all times performed in a professional way. Help customers or participants feel at ease and support special requirements.
• Ensure the privacy of guests: Develop methods and strategies to ensure maximum customer privacy.
• Schedule shifts: Plan staff time and shifts to reflect the demands of the business.
• Assist clients with special needs: Aid clients with special needs following relevant guidelines and special standards. Recognise their needs and accurately respond to them if needed.
• Develop working procedures: Create standardised series of actions of a certain order to support the organisation.
• Set payment handling strategies: Fix payment methods for services and goods such as cash, cheques, credit cards, bank transfers, traveller’s cheques and money orders. Develop and implement strategies to prevent credit card fraud.
• Plan medium to long term objectives: Schedule long term objectives and immediate to short term objectives through effective medium-term planning and reconciliation processes.

5414 – Security guards

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References

1. Hospitality establishment security officer – ESCO
2. Featured image: By Blemished Paradise – Nana Hotel, Bangkok, CC BY-SA 2.0