Our Security Guard Hiring Standards
Every guard we place has to meet our standards.
Whoever works your site is representing you. We take that seriously, and you should expect us to.
Background Check
Credentials Verified
Fitness Test
Experience Vetted
Before a Safeguard guard puts on a uniform, they’ve cleared a background check, had their credentials verified, passed a fitness test, and been vetted for experience. Here’s what each of those steps actually involves.
Background Checks and Vetting
Nobody gets hired without one. We run it through federal, state, and county records, the sex offender registry, and the domestic terrorism watchlist. We also verify employment history with direct supervisor references and confirm the candidate’s state-issued guard card and any other licenses the role needs. If the job involves a patrol vehicle, we pull a driving record too.
What Our Vetting Covers
The reason we go this deep: putting a guard with a sex offense on a school post, or one with a theft record at a jewelry store, is exactly the kind of mistake that happens when a company skips this work. We don’t skip it.
Training and Certifications
Every guard finishes at least 40 hours of training before their first shift, and keeps training throughout their time with us. It isn’t generic material. It’s built around scenarios our supervisors have actually worked in the field.
Before first shift, then ongoing
De-escalation and verbal crisis intervention
Emergency response for fire, medical, and active threat situations
Incident documentation and report writing
Site-specific training built around your post orders and your risks
A guard who can only stand post isn’t useful when something happens. The point of the training is making sure they can read what’s in front of them and handle it without making it worse.
Physical Fitness Standards
An eight to twelve hour shift on your feet is its own kind of hard. Add foot patrol on a large property, or the possibility of sprinting toward a fire alarm or stepping between two people during a confrontation, and you can see why we don’t hand this job to anyone who walks in the door.
Every candidate takes a physical readiness test before we hire them. It isn’t an athletic tryout. We’re confirming they can handle the actual demands of the post they’ll be working: endurance for long shifts, mobility to cover a large site on foot, functional strength for access control and emergency response, and vision and hearing that meet observational standards.
Endurance
For long shifts
Mobility
To cover a large site on foot
Functional Strength
For access control and emergency response
Vision and Hearing
That meet observational standards
Experience Requirements
You can teach someone your post orders. You can’t teach them what it feels like the third time they’ve had to talk down a confrontational visitor, or the first time they’ve done CPR while waiting for paramedics. That kind of judgment comes from reps, and reps happen on the job.
Our minimum for most posts is one year of verified security or law enforcement experience. Our average guard has more. Military, corrections, and first-responder backgrounds move to the front of the line, and for executive protection, healthcare, or high-value asset sites, we require sector experience on top of the baseline.
Minimum for most posts: one year of verified security or law enforcement experience. Our average guard has more.
Military, corrections, and first-responder backgrounds move to the front of the line.
Executive protection, healthcare, or high-value asset sites: we require sector experience on top of the baseline.
Every candidate also sits through a scenario-based interview where we walk them through situations they’ll actually see and listen to how they think. If we hire them, they’re on a 90-day probation with supervisor check-ins at 30, 60, and 90 days.
Supervisor Check-Ins
30 Days
First check-in
60 Days
Second check-in
90 Days
Final review
Ready to Work With Guards You Can Trust?
Reach out and we’ll look at your site and tell you what we’d put there and why. If armed coverage isn’t the right fit for your property, we’ll say so up front.
Safeguard Security Services Inc. is licensed and insured. Our hiring practices follow all federal, state, and local employment laws, including EEOC guidelines. Guard credentials and licenses are verified through the state regulatory authority.