Why Choose a Career With Valentis?
April 15, 2022
Many security companies will try and sell you the moon to get you onboard, well Valentis is here to give you the truth about the state of the industry and why we are a better choice. While this article is designed to promote employment with our agency, the bigger picture is also being provided to provide insight and knowledge into what we do and why.
The Current State of Job Recruiting
It is 2022, and the job market is flooded with companies desperate to hire workers to fill staffing gaps. Companies, large and small, are offering various incentives that include sign-on bonuses, higher pay rates, and other rewards designed to stimulate the worker to join their workforce. Public safety agencies are not immune to these recruiting challenges, and in some areas, personnel retirement numbers are far outpacing recruiting efforts. This will pose a challenge as law enforcement departments begin to examine their ongoing ability to respond to emerging needs within their communities. A rapid rise in the call for hired contract security is also at the heart of the recruiting challenge to staff such demands appropriately and adequately. A quick look at any recruiting website will identify a broader need for contract security companies seeking to hire personnel. Most companies often shows a common theme of responses amongst current and former employees. The generalized theme typically points to inadequate management oversight, lack of, or a non-existent training program, and executive management who does not share the morale’s they expect from their employees. While employees may not have a complete picture of how a particular company operates, more often than not, they have a grasp on everything that is going on. These employees also recognize when there is an inherent lack of organizational structure and zero evidence of an adequate training plan.
No armchair quarterbacking.
It is easy to armchair quarterback other companies and point out flaws and shortcomings. Competitors make claims that their company is better for a variety of reasons or offers services outside of the industry plagued overshadowing of terms such as "mall cop", "rent-a-cop", or one of the more intriguing ones, "wants to be a cop". In a prior online post, we offered a quote from Mahesh Naila, lead investigator and Michigan State University professor of criminal justice, who spearheaded a study on the contract security industry. The quote from a time past is as genuine as if offered in today’s market, "America's $7 billion a year private security industry is plagued with poor training and lax standards in some states”. There is no counter debate over the existence of poor training and lax standards in the contract security industry. We point out that it is not in "some" states but rather in “all” states. Imagine knowing that your employer has little to no regard for your safety regarding duty gear, equipment, and offers minimal, to no training designed to improve your ability to manage incidents at your site. Valentis focuses on the armed security market, as this article is aimed in that direction, as opposed to unarmed security operations, as they pose unique challenges of their own. Lack of training of armed personnel should be a key point of emphasis for executive management and supervisors, as the surrounding liabilities associated with training shortcomings should rise like a thermometer on a hot day. While often times we are misled by fancy studies that lean on a one particular side of a topic or the other, we cannot be fooled by these subject matter experts and their beliefs. There is no “expert” opinion that can satisfy an argument of varied use of a factory-produced Glock 19 pistol carried by an armed security officer, law enforcement, or a criminal looking to cause havoc, but the reports and findings are still written. One cannot buy into these “findings” because in all reality the only real differences that can be agreed upon is how the weapon is handled, the training surrounding its use, and the shooters competency to use it.
We at Valentis do things different.
Some of the points provided above clearly begin to justify why working at Valentis is truly different than working for our competition. We at Valentis do things different, period! A quote from Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple, clearly touches upon our operational model.
"You can't look at the competition and say you're going to do it better. You have to look at the competition and say you're going to do it differently".
- Valentis prices proposals based on paying higher wages than our competitors, a Collective Bargaining Agreement, or prevailing wage requirements. When you take a close look at our pricing model, it is not to promote company value and the bottom line, but instead presents a clear defined enhanced compensatory rate to show how we value our personnel. Ask yourself, why is nobody else doing that?
- Valentis focuses on true support of the client. Why is this a recruiting point? We are result-driven when it comes to our client engagement. Results can be broadly defined to include how we respond to active threats, address unruly individuals, interact with the general public at a professional level, enforce client rules, or how we are viewed by the client with the services we provide. We have elected to leave the typical propaganda marketing to the larger security companies and how great they claim to be. We maintain our focus on superior training, a well-defined organizational structure, and risk management for both our clients and our personnel.
- Training. This is what truly makes us better! We support this ideal in every sales proposal we deliver to prospective clients. We point it out to every applicant who applies to work at Valentis. You will not find a single company that spends more on researching, developing, and conducting a professional training program, per employee, than Valentis. It is not a sales cliché either, its real, and the foundational framework of our company. We develop and employ training that exceeds the industry standards, state requirements, and the expectations of the client. Superior training delivers superior results. Remember, your training, may someday be a deciding factor in your safe return to your family after your shift.
- Benefits. We value our employees and want to provide them with a “safety” net of tools that protect them and prepare them for their future. We offer our employees:
- Medical, Dental, and Vision Insurance.
- Life Insurance (Whole and Term Life).
- Short Term Disability Insurance.
- Accident Insurance through AFLAC.
- Lump-sum critical illness insurance through AFLAC.
- 401K with Valentis match.
- Paid Personal Time Off (Vacation, Sick, and Personal time).
- Stock Options.
- Equipment Advance.
- Employee Wellness Program.
- Employee Assistance Program.
- New employee and client referral stipends.
- Employee Recognition and Advancement. We recognize the importance of quality work, the need to point out exemplary efforts, and the value in identifying tenured service in our company, as well as prior and active service to our country. Employees are eligible to receive awards based on:
- Line of Duty Injury Award.
- Heroic Life-Saving Service Award.
- Significance Performance Award.
- Military Service Award.
- Years of Service Award.
- Career Development. Valentis is not a mere stepping stone to some other career. Instead, Valentis is dedicated to developing individuals through career advancement opportunities that promote and boost retention. Examples of these opportunities include:
- Linear promotion to supervisory or command staff positions.
- Dual role promotion to specialized areas, such as our Protective Security Team, Special Response Team, or in Investigations and Intelligence Gathering.
- Reassignment or relocation opportunities to different geographic regions.
- Community service outreach that demonstrates our reinvestment initiative to the communities we serve.
- Advancement into SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) as Valentis invents itself as a technology player enhancing services to clients.
- Organizational Structure. It does not matter how much training we do, the benefits offered, or how high the pay rate is. None of this is possible if the system is built on an unstable, uneven foundation. Isn't it true about the wise man who built his house on the rock versus the foolish man who built his house on the sand? Our chain of command, training and field operations are designed similar to that of the military while not part of the nation's formal armed forces. Valentis' procedures are designed for efficiency and an ability to facilitate individual decision-making while integrating a collaborative team approach. The concepts, policies, and procedures will appear identical to military units and structured law enforcement departments that operate with such a similar approach.
One Final Thought
We find ourselves in a competitive market, primarily driven by companies who only care about a contract bottom line versus finding and retaining quality personnel. Our competitors drive down the cost to the client, convincing them this is what they need. Quality-driven service with full value is overlooked and discredited because the security industry is general viewed as "all the same". We do more to convince our potential clients that Valentis is the better solution for their needs. We may be a younger organization, growing steadily, and recognize we do not live in a perfect world. We learn from our past experiences, constantly look to the future to enhance our operations, and trust our folks to perform their duties because they are more than adequately trained to do so. We are proud to be Valentis, and you will be too. Come check us out, we have a career waiting for you!