Title – KFC has bouncers to stop violence
Source – The London Paper
Date – 19th March 2008
On a recent trip to the Philippines I was shocked to see the number of guards that were deployed at all sorts of retail outlets, in fact all outlets. I came back and was telling my friends about the situation there and my most memorable experience of walking to a 7-eleven in the middle of town. When I walked in, I was confronted with an unusually large Pilipino who opened the door for me and like so many of the people I met was exceptionally friendly, the difference was he was not there to greet me, he was the security for 7-eleven. No SIA license in the Philippines, there what identified him as security was the golden pump action shotgun… as I soon learned there is a hierarchy amongst the security guards in the Philippines, the golden shotgun is more respected then the silver one, as for hand guns, well they were just for the new boys… It seems in the Philippians a security guard getting shot is incidental to the job.
When I started telling people this story, it put people off visiting, as any country that requires armed guards at a 7-eleven is surely not a safe place to go. The answer to that particular question can be found at our other website www.safegapyear.com, for now the point to this story is how long is it before that story does not even raise an eyebrow to people living in the UK, how have things gone so wrong that we need to have door supervisors on the door of our fast food restaurants and why did KFC wait for the local authority and police to act to restore order to their restaurant?
There can be no doubt that no matter how much the thought and prospect of employing door supervisors in fast food restaurants is abhorrent, sometimes it is required to redress the balance and to make the working environment safer. But employers should be acting proactively to ensure that they are providing safe environments for their staff and customers alike and the reasons go further than just the simple good practice of responsible employers, it makes good business sense too.
In the case of this KFC in north London, they had clearly lost a degree of control over their premises and violence and suspected drug use followed. We all know once you establish a reputation for zero tolerance, the message quickly spreads amongst those that may seek ‘safe havens’ for drug use and distribution or gang rivalry. Equally when a premises gets a reputation as a soft touch, those that would exploit this, flock.
Employers have a responsibility to provide a safe working environment for staff, clearly that was not the case here, and whatever measures the management took clearly were insufficient for purpose and failed. The result was as the Licensing Act 2003 dictates, for the police and local authority to act to stop any escalation of violence and drug use, the last chance they were given was to provide door supervisors to protect the premises, staff and customers as a condition of their license. The result as far as the business is concerned is good and bad; seemingly the violence and drug use has declined greatly if not stopped altogether, but as a condition of license KFC is now stuck with the expense (and ultimately inevitable loss of trade that will result from some people simply not wishing to visit a fast food restaurant that requires ‘bouncers’ on the door) of security to remain operational. Would voluntary measures and proactive measures not have been more effective, less long term and less expensive?
Providing staff with effective training, taking advice from suitably experienced consultants and maybe even employing door supervisors to redress the balance in the short term might have been effective in a similar way to the measure imposed on them by the police and local council, but would have ingratiated them with these same authorities and would have allowed them to control the expense rather than having it imposed upon them.
Source – The London Paper
Date – 19th March 2008
On a recent trip to the Philippines I was shocked to see the number of guards that were deployed at all sorts of retail outlets, in fact all outlets. I came back and was telling my friends about the situation there and my most memorable experience of walking to a 7-eleven in the middle of town. When I walked in, I was confronted with an unusually large Pilipino who opened the door for me and like so many of the people I met was exceptionally friendly, the difference was he was not there to greet me, he was the security for 7-eleven. No SIA license in the Philippines, there what identified him as security was the golden pump action shotgun… as I soon learned there is a hierarchy amongst the security guards in the Philippines, the golden shotgun is more respected then the silver one, as for hand guns, well they were just for the new boys… It seems in the Philippians a security guard getting shot is incidental to the job.
When I started telling people this story, it put people off visiting, as any country that requires armed guards at a 7-eleven is surely not a safe place to go. The answer to that particular question can be found at our other website www.safegapyear.com, for now the point to this story is how long is it before that story does not even raise an eyebrow to people living in the UK, how have things gone so wrong that we need to have door supervisors on the door of our fast food restaurants and why did KFC wait for the local authority and police to act to restore order to their restaurant?
There can be no doubt that no matter how much the thought and prospect of employing door supervisors in fast food restaurants is abhorrent, sometimes it is required to redress the balance and to make the working environment safer. But employers should be acting proactively to ensure that they are providing safe environments for their staff and customers alike and the reasons go further than just the simple good practice of responsible employers, it makes good business sense too.
In the case of this KFC in north London, they had clearly lost a degree of control over their premises and violence and suspected drug use followed. We all know once you establish a reputation for zero tolerance, the message quickly spreads amongst those that may seek ‘safe havens’ for drug use and distribution or gang rivalry. Equally when a premises gets a reputation as a soft touch, those that would exploit this, flock.
Employers have a responsibility to provide a safe working environment for staff, clearly that was not the case here, and whatever measures the management took clearly were insufficient for purpose and failed. The result was as the Licensing Act 2003 dictates, for the police and local authority to act to stop any escalation of violence and drug use, the last chance they were given was to provide door supervisors to protect the premises, staff and customers as a condition of their license. The result as far as the business is concerned is good and bad; seemingly the violence and drug use has declined greatly if not stopped altogether, but as a condition of license KFC is now stuck with the expense (and ultimately inevitable loss of trade that will result from some people simply not wishing to visit a fast food restaurant that requires ‘bouncers’ on the door) of security to remain operational. Would voluntary measures and proactive measures not have been more effective, less long term and less expensive?
Providing staff with effective training, taking advice from suitably experienced consultants and maybe even employing door supervisors to redress the balance in the short term might have been effective in a similar way to the measure imposed on them by the police and local council, but would have ingratiated them with these same authorities and would have allowed them to control the expense rather than having it imposed upon them.
We can help businesses and organisations who want to be proactive and who want to resolve potential problem before they happen and before they burden the business with long term costs. We help people avoid dealing with situations that occur ‘out of the blue’ and help them see Beyond The Blue.
Please visit our website at www.btbl.co.uk
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