SECURITY AGENCIES GRADING

EXERCISE 2018

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Review of Security Agencies Grading Exercise

What do we want to achieve

• Sharpen the measurements to distinguish outstanding

SAs from the rest

• Measure security outcomes whenever possible

• Transparent scoring system with clear objective criteria

wherever possible

What the new assessment categories are

• Assessment criteria reframed under 3 categories:

• Process

• People

• System

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Review of Security Agencies Grading Exercise

How the review was done

• Assessment criteria and scoring system were co-created

with industry representatives over 4 sessions

• Attended by representatives from the 2 Associations, the

bigger SAs, and the Union

Topic of Discussion Date

Overview of what needs to change 21 Apr 2017

Process category 6 Jul 2017

People category 27 Jul 2017

System category 21 Aug 2017

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Review of Security Agencies Grading Exercise

What has been done

• Draft criteria were published on PLRD’s website in Sep

2017

• All SAs were informed in writing and given 2 weeks to

provide comments / feedback

• All comments and feedback were carefully evaluated

• Based on the inputs received, PLRD made refinements

to the criteria

• Final set of assessment criteria was published on

PLRD’s website on 17 Nov 2017

• All SAs were informed in writing to study the final

assessment criteria

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Review of Security Agencies Grading Exercise

Score Weightage for Each Category

Process

50%

System

20%

People

30%

25 criteria

190 points

9 criteria

160 points

9 criteria

53 points

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Review of Security Agencies Grading Exercise

When will the new assessment criteria take effect

• PLRD will adopt the new assessment criteria from SAGE

2018

• Assessment period: 1 Jun 2017 – 31 May 2018

• The number of A, B, C and D grades will be determined

by a grading curve

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PLRD’s Response to Feedback or

Questions

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Criteria Feedback / Question Clarification

2. Is there a systematic process

to ensure that Security Officers

are aware of the functional duty

they are employed for (pre-

promotion)?

Promotees are given expanded

job description together with

promotion letter. Will these

suffice?

Evidence must include

documentation of briefing on

expanded job descriptions and

additional responsibilities.

Merely surfacing the JDs will not

be sufficient.

May result in undesirable

outcome where SA artificially

inflate the number of promotions

to meet the criteria.

The progression guidelines

under the PWM model are well

known by now. There are clear

objective requirements for PWM

grade promotion. It would thus

be difficult to inflate the

numbers.

8. Did the SA conduct AAR for

the deployed sites during the

period of assessment?

Criteria appeared to focus more

on quantity than on quality.

Numbers are important in this

aspect. Smaller SAs may have

a few deployment sites whilst

the larger SAs have hundreds. It

cannot be that we accept the

same number of AAR

regardless of the number of

deployment sites.

Process

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Criteria Feedback / Question Clarification

4. Is the Security Officer aware

of the provisions in the Code of

Conduct under the Private

Security Industry Act?

Can SOs refer to charts at site

or other staff aids?

Yes, SOs may refer to staff aids

they carry with them.

6. Is the Security Officer able to

articulate the key procedures

without relying on any SOP

given any specific scenario?

People

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Criteria Feedback / Question Clarification

3. Does the SA have a wireless

voice communications system to

support its ground operations?

Criteria appeared onerous for

the private security industry,

given the nature of job functions

and the costs involved.

To consider other internet-

enabled software solutions with

redundant capabilities.

Criterion has been tweaked to

include mobile phones.

6. Does the SA have an

electronic Incident Management

System to report, manage and

document incidents?

Can handwritten incident report

electronically transmitted satisfy

the criteria?

Would transmission over email

or messaging apps satisfy this

criteria?

What is expected is a fully

electronic system which is

capable of reporting, managing,

and tracking all reported

incidents. Thus, merely taking a

picture of a handwritten report

and transmitting it by a

messaging app from a mobile

phone to another mobile phone

would not meet this criterion.

What constitutes as an

“electronic” Incident

Management System?

There must be proper IT

software which tracks the start

of the incident to its conclusion.

The respective fields of the

incident (the ‘when’, ‘who’,

‘what’, ‘where’, ‘how’) must be

searchable.

System

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Criteria Feedback / Question Clarification

7. Does the SA have a secured

IT system to facilitate training

through e-learning?

I load PowerPoint slides or PDF

files into our mobile devices

(e.g. smartphones, tablets) so

that our SOs can do self

learning. Can this be considered

as a e-learning system?

Will I get the additional points

for this sub-criterion: “the above

system also allows e-learning

anytime and anywhere through

mobile devices”?

What is expected is a system

which allows authorized

individuals to log in and choose

the training modules desired.

The training delivery can be

done through slides, video, or a

combination of both. PLRD Is

open to accept other innovative

modes of delivery.

Additional 20 points will be

awarded if the system allows

remote log in at any time using

mobile devices.

8. Does the SA have a secured

IT system to administer e-

testing?

What are the key features that

PLRD is looking for in a e-

testing IT system?

We are looking for a secured IT

system that requires user

authentication for log in. The

system must be able to

administer the test and capture

the test result of each

participating individual.

System

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Criteria Feedback / Question Clarification

9. Does the SA have an

electronic system to track the

developmental training of its

Security Officers for progression

under PWM?

What kind of IT system /

software / platform do I need to

use to track all these

information?

It is up to the individual SA to

decide what IT system or

software should be used.

What is expected is an

electronic system which

captures the following

information of all Security

Officers employed by the SA:

• Particulars

• Training records

• Effective date of current

PWM grade

• Projected date when the

Security Officer is eligible for

progression to the next

higher PWM grade

System

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Feedback / Question Response

Most criteria, e.g. remote surveillance system, 24

hours command centre, wireless voice

communication system, are too costly to

implement for smaller SAs.

As stated earlier, PLRD’s objective is to sharpen

the measurements to distinguish outstanding

SAs from the rest.

It follows that SAs which have invested heavily in

technology to be more effective and/or cut

reliance on manpower should be appropriately

recognized.

This is a deliberate move by PLRD to steer the

industry towards higher standards and better

security outcomes.

Can the technology adopted come from a third

party vendor? Or must it be our own proprietary?

PLRD’s objective is outcome oriented. It does

not matter whether SAs have the organic IT

capabilities or buy IT services from 3rd party

vendors.

Other Feedback / Questions

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THANK YOU