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june 2017 3 www.securitysystemsnews.com 2017 Monitoring Source Book Chris Newhook CENTRAL continued on page 12 By Kenneth Z. Chut C hian YARMOUTH, Maine—A central monitoring station can be a cool place to work—if your idea of cool is not knowing what's going to happen from one minute to the next, or talking people through crises, real and perceived, or getting information fast and accurate while determining whether lives are at stake. Experts at four security firms weighed in recently on the stressors and satisfaction that operators experience—and the kinds of support these employees receive to keep fresh. "It can be stressful for a new hire," said Steve Crist, director of customer s u p p o rt c e n t e r a t A D S S e c u r i t y, based in Nashville, Tenn. "The most difficult aspect of the job is the stress of handling multiple high-priority alarms. At any time there could be a multitude of priority alarms, from a burglary to environmental alarms, all of which require immediate attention. The randomness is the unknown X factor. Sometimes the planets align in a certain way and [seemingly] everyone's alarm goes off." A common theme among those interviewed is that ongoing professional development for veteran operators is at least as important, and possibly more critical, than the fundamental training for newbies on the job. There are limitations to what security companies can do to prepare inexperienced operators for the unforeseen and the heat of the moment at a monitoring center. "We keep our teams small and lean," said Chris Newhook, central station manager at American Alarm and Communications Inc., based in Arlington, Mass. "It's a welcoming environment, bright, open, upbeat with esprit de corps. We keep people's interest with a diverse workday." The company spends training time with new and experienced operators, helping them walk callers through technical trouble shooting, so that the operator doesn't automatically pass off a stressed customer to a technician. This involves more than technical training, Newhook said. It involves verbal/communication skills, empathy and quick decision-making. "We don't have a 300-page manual for operators," Newhook said. "We might have 18 or 15 pages. Keep it tight, keep it easy. I don't ever want to hear, 'Sorry, I am just the operator.' That's not acceptable. I need thinking people." Central monitoring operators: training, empathy and thinking really fast Monitoring centers take great pride in their screening of job applicants, knowing that if they don't, the attrition rate for new hires and operator turnover will become a problem for everyone—the company, customers and public safety agencies. "It's a difficult job," said David Smith, director of marketing and communications at COPS Monitoring, based in New Jersey. "If you're not a good fit, in terms of temperament, emotional maturity, it can be overwhelming." COPS has proprietary procedures for screening applicants, including psychological testing developed with the assistance of an industrial psychologist trained in matching people to jobs. The system gives the company baseline information on whether an operator has the right stuff. A routine exchange with a customer can turn stressful, such as when the caller gives the operator a wrong password for his or her security device. "Is it because they don't know, forgot or is it because they are under duress?" Smith said. "Because we have no way of knowing, our job is to assume they gave a wrong password because they need help. Unfortunately, as you can imagine, customers are not always grateful that we sent the police after they gave us what they thought was a valid code." In addition to an exhaustive training program for new hires, including 120 classroom hours, and several weeks of tandem training with an experience operator, COPS' system of redundancy provides operators with layers of response, expertise and backups from multiple monitoring centers. When experienced operators reach a high level of proficiency, the company provides rewards and perks— including days off, day trips, dinner and entertainment, according to Smith. Morgan Hertel, vice president of technology and innovation for Rapid Response, headquartered in Syracuse, N.Y., also addressed help for veteran operators. The company is well aware of an occupational hazard that may fall under the category of "human nature." When taking a stress call from a customer via mobile device at sea, for example, every operator knows that scripted responses get tossed overboard. An operator thinking on his or her feet and on the fly is one thing, Hertel noted. Asking for the right kind of help at the right time from the right source is another. David Smith Steve Crist