VSG TAKES THE LEAD AT THE BSIA AWARDS

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21st July 2009

VSG, one of the UK’s fastest growing providers of security services, has once again achieved outstanding success at the British Security Industry Association (BSIA) Annual Security Officer Awards. This year, VSG employees gained awards in no fewer than five categories, increasing the company’s successes of previous years even more, and elevating VSG to the coveted position of the company that has, in total, won the most BSIA awards.

The individual VSG employees who succeeded in winning these prestigious national awards in the face of exceptionally tough competition were Paul Malcolm, who was recognised as the Best Newcomer, Gary Dowse who won in the Best Use of Technology category and John Robinson who won the Service to the Customer Award. In addition, the VSG security officers working at Westfield Derby Shopping Centre were the winners in the Best Team category and VSG’s HR Department were presented with the Inspiration in HR award.

“As always, we are delighted by the success of our employees at these awards,” said Leon Barwell, VSG’s Commercial Director. “We never lose sight of the fact that people are the foundation stone of the services we offer so we recruit only the best and support them with what we believe to be the finest training in the industry. Their consistent achievement in the BSIA awards year after year is clear confirmation of the effectiveness of this approach.”

Best Newcomer Paul Malcolm joined the security industry from the army just 18 months ago. He received his award for the work he has carried out for Jones Lang LaSalle at the Grange and Pyramid shopping centres in Birkenhead, where one of his most outstanding achievements has been the successful integration of two sets of shopping centre evacuation procedures to produce a single procedure that is coherent and effective. Paul is currently also developing new training programmes for staff at the shopping centres.

His extraordinary knowledge of high-technology security solutions helped Gary Dowse to win the award for the Best Use of Technology. Gary provides security services to Argos and has not only introduced the first biometric access control system to be used by Argos, but has also implemented a computerised visitor management system that covers all Argos sites.

In the hotly contested Service to the Customer category, John Robinson, who works at DHL (B&Q) Scunthorpe, achieved success by consistently delivering outstanding performance in every aspect of his role over a period of many years. Among the most notable of his recent achievements is the restructuring of sign-in procedures to take into account the needs of the many visitors to the site who do not have English as a first language, and the instigation, in conjunction with the local police, of a crime prevention policy for the whole site.

The effective and efficient response of the VSG team at Westfield Derby Shopping Centre to some very demanding situations, including an attempted suicide and an arson attempt, were key factors in helping it win the Best Team award. The team has also been praised for the exceptional services it provides for shoppers, and the way it continually adapts its operations to handle the unique and diverse challenges it meets at the centre.

Finally, VSG was also recognised with the Inspiration in HR award for the work that it has done in the last year in further developing its training and development programmes for personnel and the HR support for its 5,000 strong workforce. This was a great accolade for the company and particularly for Simon Reeves, HR Director, and his team.

For further information please telephone VSG on 01604 744014 or E: sales@vsg.co.uk