Choosing a Security Company

We would like to offer you a little assistance here in selecting the right security company for your event:

1. Legal framework

In order to be able to offer security services in Austria, the provider must have an appropriate business license. Although the security industry is a licensed business, on the market there are enough providers who do not have the required business license. The activities of the guards are regulated in §129 of the Industrial Code for the security industry (security guards and private detectives). In order to be able to offer security services for events, a company must have a business license in accordance with § 129 section 4 item 5. All other trade licenses, such as for organisation of events or even the private detectives do not authorise persons to take on security services for events. Nor is a security guard authorised to offer personal protection, as this is reserved for private detectives. You should note that you may be liable if you have the wrong business license in the event of damage. You should therefore check if your security service provider has the right business license.

2. Insurance

Liability insurance in the amount of between € 2,000,000 and € 5,000,000 for bodily injury and property damage is the recommended minimum by various places. Legal expenses insurance should also be taken out in this field. Since the risk associated with event security is classified as very high by the insurance industry, these insurance policies are very expensive. The minimum premium is around € 5,500 / per year for liability insurance and around € 6,000 / per year for legal expenses insurance. These are very high expenses, especially for smaller companies. This means that sometimes the wrong insurance or insufficient insurance is purchased. Without the proper business license, insurance cover is not possible in any case.

3. Social security

Although it should now be common practice for all providers of security services to have their employees registered for social security in the security industry, there are always companies who have labour contracts with their employees. As in the construction industry, sooner or later subcontractors will be held liable for social security offenses in the event industry too. The customer should therefore put their trust in a reputable provider in this respect.

4. Staff

The collective agreement is currently € 6.90 gross (as of 2010) for registered employees in the security industry; for employees in the field of event security it is € 7.48 gross (for comparison: the collective agreement wage for cleaners is € 7.37 gross). Hourly rates of € 15 enable compliance with the legal and social insurance legal constraints of a maximum payment of collectively agreed wages, as liability and legal protection insurance as well as overhead costs are deducted from the remaining portion. Training of employees also has to be financed, who unfortunately usually cannot make progress at the above-named hourly rates. Fair remuneration for employees requires not only a better level of education, but also lower turnover and thus greater experience.

5. Submitting bids

No event is like another - event processes are not identical. A lot of care and experience are therefore needed when planning event security. You can recognise serious providers by the fact that they do not simply send you just one uncommented offer in reply to your inquiry, but instead always also inspect the event location on site and only then give a binding estimate. No serious offer can be made without this on site inspection.

6. References

In order to find out whether a provider also has the necessary experience to handle your event, taking a look at the reference list of the potential contractor is essential. Since the field of event security takes care of a very large proportion of public events, which among other things will be reported in the media, it can be assumed that companies that state "for reasons of confidentiality no references are listed" in their reference section do not have the necessary references. Depending on the nature of the planned event, you should take note of which events potential contractors have references for. If only school balls or experience in nightclub security are found on the reference page it is unlikely that this company will be the right choice for a VIP event. Another indication of customer satisfaction is repeat business for events. If you are uncertain when choosing your security company, we highly advise you to ask for references from customers of similar events and to verify them.

7. Equipment

Radios are essential for events - without communication work cannot be carried out effectively and response times will not be fast. To be able to communicate clearly by radio it is necessary to operate radios with headsets. Since the cost for professional mobile radio devices is very high, they are unfortunately still not the standard means of communication for security service providers.

The bigger and more important your event is to be, the more you should rely on an experienced company, because the organisers are always held responsible for errors and these can cause negative PR.