Whanganui security firm Alarm Watch scoops national staff award

Alarm Watch general manager Damien Hegley with the National Security Association award trophy "outstanding staff retention and staff development programme of the year".

Whanganui security firm Alarm Watch scooped a national award at the annual New Zealand Security Association Awards, for “outstanding staff retention and staff development programme of the year,” on September 15 at Te Pae Convention Centre in Christchurch.

Their average staff retention rate is 5.3 years and more than 30 staff have been with the company for five years or more.

“We were shortlisted as one of three finalists. It was a bit of a surprise when our name was called out,” said general manager Damien Hegley, who attended the ceremony with technical manager Graeme McKenzie - a founding staff member for 32 years.

“It’s huge for us. The awards programme pits us against all our peers nationwide. It says to us that we really do look after our staff - we have an amazing commitment to them. They’re the reason for our success and that’s why we put so much money into technology for them,” Hegley said.

Alarm Watch has already won awards in different categories a few years ago. Starting off in Whanganui 33 years ago as Electroguard, alarm monitoring took off more than 23 years ago, and 20 staff were employed 15 years ago. Today, 73 staff, all from around Whanganui, are employed.

The firm protects more than 30,000 customers nationwide, and some in Australia. Bureau monitoring on behalf of other security firms has promoted significant growth in the past 10 years.

Staff work over three shifts, 24 hours per day, seven days per week, 365 days per year. A technical staff of five cover Manawatū/Whanganui.

“We invest a lot of time and money looking after our staff. We invested in our own software we designed and built; this allows us to monitor our staff’s happiness,” Hegley said.

“Every hour, on the hour, our software presents staff with a prompt to see how happy they are on a scale of one to five, one being not so happy, five being over the moon.

“If they put a low number in, they can put in a comment - that goes to our shift management team, our CEO and myself, and we jump on it really fast.

“We also ask each staff member at the end of their day to rate how their day went and the reasons why, this keeps up positivity and happiness.

“Our operators’ work is reviewed throughout the day to provide positive feedback continually. Staff are at the forefront of what we do.

Staff benefits include free gym membership, lunch vouchers when positive feedback from clients is received, birthday vouchers, ice cream and dumpling trucks that come around on a regular basis as a reward for good staff performance.

“Staff are at the forefront of what we do, Alarm Watch is a great place to work. We’ve got a positive, happy team of employees, their happiness is paramount to our success.

“We’re known and perceived to be the best at what we do in the security industry. That’s the feedback we get from customers and other industry peers,” Hegley said.