Max: Hello and welcome back to the Recruitment Hackers podcast. I'm your host Max Armbruster and today on the show, I'm pleased to welcome Diana Trasolini from Paladin Security, Vice President of People and culture at Paladin Security, which is a company that hires, well as the name suggests, hires in the security sector, and has over 16,000 people working mostly in Canada, is that right, Diana.

Diana:  Canada and the US.

Max:  Canada and US. So, welcome to the show.

Diana:  Thank you very much for having me, Max.

Max:  Pleasure. I'm excited to find out about how to hire security, and what are the specific challenges around that. But first, perhaps, tell us a little bit about Paladin Security, what do you do, and what kind of people do you hire.

Diana: Yeah Paladin Security has been around for a while since 1976. I've been with the company for just over 10 years, so for a pretty long time and I would say that the company has been growing extensively since its inception, but also extensively over the last 10 years. So really fast growth for both organic growth and through acquisition. So since I've been with the company, it's been about eight times growth. And it's been fun to be a part of that. We do obviously specialize in physical security so security officers or security guards. We also have several other companies that fall under the Paladin name, so Paladin risk solutions which does investigations, emergency management and risk solutions, we have a parking company palette of parking. And then we also have a US company, PalAmerican security. So, again, all these services on the US side of things. So, yeah, kind of sums us up on what we do,

Max:  What is the bulk of your hiring? What kind of positions?

Diana:  The majority of our hiring is at the security officer level for sure.

Max:  And that service, I guess the private sector mainly. You were telling me before the interview about the work you're doing in the healthcare sector and hospitals. Is that a big, big industry for you, and what are the other industries you serve?

Diana:  Yeah we serve a variety of different industries, so healthcare is a big one. A lot of the hospitals, care facilities across Canada, we provide security services for. We also are in commercial, retail, business centers. We do mobile security so security officers in cars do mobile patrols. Yeah, pretty much anywhere that means security, we provide the services.

Max:  So, last year was good for business, business kept growing, as you said, eight times growth in the 10 plus years you've been there so from a few thousands to 16,000 people today. Congratulations on driving that enormous growth. Do you miss the old days, you know, just 2000 people? I mean 2000 is still too big where you can't really remember, you can't really remember everybody's name, but now 16,000 like, you probably don't even know everybody on your own floor.

Diana: Yeah that's a great question. I mean it's been so exciting to be part of the team that's helped with the growth. Do I miss the old days, I would say in some ways, yes, in some ways, no. You're right it is, you do miss knowing almost all of the employees by name, but to be part of this big organization that still managed to keep a very like small company feel. It's been fun to be a part of that and to build the culture around how to be a big company that still maintains personal touch to everything that we do.

Max:  Yeah. I noticed the word 'culture' was in your job title. It's obviously something that after being in a company for 10 years, people will come to you to answer culture questions. But culture is a living thing, has you has your culture evolved recently or have been challenged with the events from last year?

Diana: Yeah COVID definitely, it shifts things, but I think when you have a strong corporate culture, it helps that that foundation helps the company persevere through difficult times like COVID. So, yes, of course it's been tested and tried with having to shift people working from home and having security officers who are working in certain healthcare facilities during a time when there's a worldwide pandemic. I mean, it's tricky, and we have to be fluid and flexible and be able to shift within our culture to make sure that we continue to meet our employee needs and I think that's kind of been the key is to foundationally, you stick true to your culture, but you're also fluid and flexible enough to move with the times.

Max:  Yeah the shifts to accommodate the concerns you said some of the security guards did not want to work in the health care sector in your hospitals. I've heard that from other people that it was really difficult to hire in the healthcare sector during this time, due to all that's going on and the coverage, the crisis. But let's talk in a more general sense about those security guards, like, I think a lot of us have have watched, unfortunately, the mall cops movie where we imagine sort of a comfortable job where there's not that much happening, but you do get to wear either a gun or a taser. Is that the bulk of security is mostly just maintenance and kind of like making sure everything is okay and surveillance, or are there other similar like squat teams that are a little bit more action oriented?

Diana: You know what this is a good topic to discuss you need to know. You talked on what really is the crux of what causes our recruitment challenges in security is the stereotypes. 

Max:  Yes, I am great at those.

Diana:  Yeah, and you knw what everyone is, it's not just you, but the security industry has the worst stereotypes and that makes it so challenging in so many ways, but I can tell you, lots of like lots of companies I would say yeah sure like maybe stereotypes come around for a reason, and lots of companies maybe have those minimal standards. But I mean for Paladin, that's something that we as an organization are pushing so hard to set the bar higher and to do things differently, so that we can rip those stereotypes so that we can show the true value of security. And it's really does start at like the onboarding and hiring level but all the way through our organization, I mean, we pretty much have no sites for our work. Well first of all in Canada we don't carry a weapon, so no guns and tasers unfortunately. But also, our security officers are often embedded in our clients programs, so we're not just maintaining status quo, and walking, we're often embedded in their health and safety, embedded in their concierge and customer service. We provide such a tailored approach to the services that we offer. And then on the security officer side we provide such extensive training for everyone coming in and then ongoing training to ensure that we don't just have bodies, the mall cop stereotype. That's just not not really how it is for us. 

Max:  But I guess, I apologize for the stereotype, somewhat, didn't want to say there was anything wrong with kind of having a surveillance, more passive approach to security. Because, obviously, it's one of those ...