Protec Security services Ltd provides custom based security services for enterprises. When referring

to this company you should just use the word Protec. This is a Limited Company, with shares owned

by the founders$/$directors $$ Mr$.$ Hekmat Al Khabeer who is a Company Director and owns $33\%$ of the

shares, and Ms$.$ Ro$$a Al Waddah, who owns $20\%$ of the shares,$47\%$ of the shares are distributed

among $3$ other investors $.$ The company has been in existence for $15$ years, seeing many changes in

that period $$ mostly driven by improved legislation in Security and safety, and safeguarding the

private institutions, as well in trend changes in security protocols and safety in the past decade. It is

a highly competitive market, dominated by big players such as Al$-$Asad, Allied fast intrusion, Alsabatt first, but there are also many smaller, independent companies like Protec, with very small

profit margins.

Protec started initially in Lebanon and now have multiple offices across politically disrupted areas in

the Middle East, GCC$,$ south Africa, Latin America and employ approximately $800$ staff, $($of whom $200$

are managerial and administrative staff$).85\%$ of its Security$-$staff are male and $15\%$ female. More

than $60\%$ of the security staff are above $25$ years of age with many staff working part$-$time hours to

provide an additional income for their families, some are retired army veterans, and police retirees.

There is a very high turnover rate of staff because the work$$s both physically and long working hours,

in some cases the security issues related to the life of the employees, and strict and intense work

conditions imposed by the management to meet increasing demand. Most of the security officers

earn little more than minimum wage $($approx$.3$ $$/$hour$)$ in Lebanon to $($ approx. $6$$$/$hour in other

branch operations depending on the countries min wage structures$)$ and is pretty much the same

across different countries where the company is present. Statutory paid leave of $25$ days is given but

no other financial or intangible benefits are offered, health benefits are within the standard labor

law imposed by the ministry of Labor in each country. Around half of the staff are expats from Far

East and Asian Countries and some have limited English, plus no Arabic speaking in many of the

employees.

Due to its changing business contexts, Protec faces some critical HR$,$ organizational and structural

related issues. Staff shortages, for example, continue to pose a big problem for the company, and its

HR department has difficulties in motivating or recruiting staff. Protec has tended to recruit more

experienced workers. Its equal opportunities policy addresses age issues, gender, ethnicity and

many other issues concerned. the company only offers all workers access to basic training and

development as required by corresponding Government regulations and local authorities.

There is no union representation at Protec, so the company has no formal staff representation or

negotiation avenues, only following local labor laws in Lebanon and the other countries. Security

teams are frequently dis$-$satisfied with their pay and working conditions, and with no formal body

for staff representation, this means that individual complaints and queries take up a great deal of

time for the management team. Some of these complaints relate to claims of racial discrimination $$

if these escalate, then Protec could easily find themselves in a costly Employment Tribunal. Other

staff complain about very limited training and little advanced practice in using complicated devices,

techniques and equipment which are used to maneuver critical situations, and hazardous conditions.

These levels of staff dissatisfaction are also reflected in the high turnover rate, with staff leaving to

take up jobs elsewhere, citing marginally better pay, better working conditions or better levels of

training with their new employers. On top of all these quarrels between staff as there are no clear

directions into Customer service and relationship management, especially in the recently opened

branches where there is less presence of decisions on many levels.