It has been noticed that several incidents about residents clashes with security guards have become part of our daily news feed now and then. Managing security staff resident conflicts effectively is crucial to reducing tensions. A recent incident took place on Thursday night in the Ecovillage-1 society in Greater noida where the security staff beat up the residents for complaining about power cuts Source : NDTV. In another incidence that occurred at Amrapali Leisure Valley in Greater Noida West where a guard was thrashed for denying entry of a SUV for lack of society sticker. source : TimesNow. Why are we seeing a surge in such cases? Why is there so much conflict and lack of cooperation among residents and security staff at such modern RWA high rise societies? The reasons are not that that complex to understand.
Most RWA hire security services purely on the basis of economic reasons. They refuse to pay anything even close to the market rates. They will hire the cheapest security agency and then expect them to offer services and quality which are impossible to deliver. Reason being cheap rates means cheap labour – Substandard, uneducated, untrained guards. The security guard labour pool is common to all the security companies. So obviously the better quality guards will get hired by the agencies who pay more.
And if the agencies are paying more for better quality then they will clearly demand a higher billing. But most RWA and residential societies will always complain about the high price and refuse to pay. They say that since they are a residential society and not a corporate or industrial unit, they don’t have any kind of revenue where they feel they need to spend on high priced security. There needs to be a complete overhaul of this closed mindset that people have. The security that you need at your home is more important as it involves your family as well as your home. Doesn’t matter if there is no parallel revenue on the side. A quality trained security guard does not care whether he is hired at residential colony or a factory unit. He will take the job where he is paid the most.
Another issue we have seen is the shrugging of responsibilities by the elected representatives of the RWA. Most of these RWA presidents and chairpersons fight elections for lucrative posts. They issue society rules but then never stand with the security staff when they are ordered to implement them. They want the security staff to face all the heat of the objections that residents or visitors but have no power to discipline their own residents. They only pressurize the security agencies to follow their orders and shy away when its time to stand with them because they don’t want to upset their voters and be the bad person. This leads to a very frustrating and tense environment which often leads to scuffles and arguments.
Trust me when I tell you that a security guard working in the heat day and night for less than minimum wage is not interested in troubling any resident. There is no ego trip he gets from stopping a vehicle without a society permit tag. He’s just following orders and implementing the rules set by your own elected representative. If you have issue then you need to talk to them and not argue with the staff just because he’s a poor person who’s job is dangling at the threat of the smallest complaint.And RWA need to penalise the residents who misbehave. Easiest way would be to add a penalty charge to their monthly maintenance bill after a disciplinary hearing.
Lastly there is a need for awareness programs to talk about these issues in the RWA meetings. Residents and security staff need to openly talk and discuss the issues in an open forum. Residents need to be educated about the importance of quality security guards and why maintenance charges need to be increased to pay for better quality security guards. Hire from security companies that maintain records, do background verifications, run scheduled training sessions etc.
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