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Commissionaires BC’s Security Services Backed by Former Canadian Military Personnel
Genevieve Diesing, venture-magazine.com
Fall 2009
Commissionaires BC – aka BC Corps – the British Columbia division of Commissionaires Canada, is an organization that employs veterans for a range of public and private security services. Today, Commissionaires BC does more than $30 million of business with 500 employees. Nationally, Commissionaires has gross revenues in excess of $460 million, and has more than 19,000 employees total.
“Commissionaires provides an opportunity for former members of the Canadian Forces and Royal Canadian Mounted Police to continue to serve their country and community,” says CEO Allen Batchelar. “The result is an organization whose membership has a common bond.”
Many of Commissionaires’ members joined the company after completing distinguished military careers, Batchelar notes, and the chance to continue to serve the greater good is fulfilling for them. Member feedback confirms this. “One of the things we hear from everybody is that it’s easy to become strongly committed to this organization,” Batchelar explains. “That’s largely because we have a clearly defined purpose. Whenever there are people involved, the commitment is there.”
Outward Focus
Commissionaires BC is changing with the times, and with a younger membership than ever. The company is embracing a dynamic, diverse and technologically savvy business model, and seeks to be the go-to security provider in British Columbia, says Vice President of Marketing Audrey Plé. “We’re undergoing a real shift to ensure we meet the growing needs of our clients,” Plé explains.
“Really what we’re saying to clients is, ‘Tell us what you need, and we’re going to do it.’”
As a result, its guarding practices have become more sophisticated and include services like business continuity consulting, delivered by certified protection professionals. The company recently set up a 24/7 monitoring system for a customer, evidence of its commitment to tailoring services to meet its clients’ specific needs. Its senior vice president of operations, Douglas Stuckel, even earned designation as an anti-terrorist expert.
Commissionaires offers identification services of all kinds, such as digital fingerprinting and background checks – a rapidly growing business – as well as bylaw enforcement services to smaller cities. Its training unit provides a variety of courses, such as security, dealing with “difficult” people and customer service training.
“We’ve always trained our own people to very high standards, and now we’re moving into training others, as well,” Plé says. “We’re building a sustainable training business unit that can operate on its own.”
This unit is in the early stages of growth, Plé says, but it shows great promise. “Commissionaires BC is developing courses to meet the demands of our ever-changing security environment, and [we] just hired a senior curriculum developer with decades of security training experience,” she adds.
Staying Personal
While one of Commissionaires BC’s goals is to make guarding less labor intensive, it still plans to retain the human touch. This means that although the organization will be at the forefront of innovations in guarding and identification services, it will not do so at the expense of its members.
“Because our purpose is still based around the people, we’ve got to closely integrate technology and the people,” Batchelar explains. “We will never become purely a technical company.”
Commissionaires’ base of veterans provides something no computer can, Batchelar continues. “That’s commitment and experience. We aim to deliver operational excellence at the front end, and all levels.”
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