Staffing shortages, an increasingly remote or hybrid workforce, and the changing role of security officers has created a complex landscape across the guarding industry.
Staffing challenges across the private security industry continue to impact organizations nationwide. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the industry averages more than 160,000 security guard job openings each year, largely driven by chronic turnover rather than growth. Many guarding firms report continued difficulty attracting and retaining qualified personnel, a challenge echoed globally as labor markets remain tight across frontline roles.
Due to staffing shortages, many security guard companies have turned to increasing hourly wages, hiring bonuses, and other costly measures. The high turnover rate among guards can result in increased recruiting costs and frequent training (and re-training) needs—making on-site guards a costly method of protecting your facility.
Addressing Security Labor Shortages with Emerging Technologies
Changes in how and where people work have introduced new security challenges, making it more difficult for organizations to maintain consistent coverage through traditional guarding alone. The fluctuating nature of security guarding has pushed the industry to search for cost-effective answers while also reducing risk to personnel, customers and assets.
As the industry searches for solutions that address the labor shortages in the market, companies are quickly finding solutions in technology, such as Active Video Monitoring, aimed at addressing current security staffing issues while also anticipating future concerns.
Emerging technologies like this may appear out-of-reach at first glance for many organizations. In reality, many advanced video monitoring solutions can integrate with existing camera systems, minimizing upfront investment, simplifying implementation, and allowing organizations to enhance protection without extensive hardware investments.
Organizations are often surprised to learn that these solutions can critically offset traditional guarding costs by saving commercial businesses money involved with recruiting, hiring, training and assigning personnel in an industry that sees a staggering estimated national turnover rate of between 100% and 300%, according to the Service Employees International Union, the nation’s largest private security officers’ union. This means that most security guards leave their current roles within a year, and some in as little as three to four months.
Because Everon’s Active Video Monitoring service verifies real threats before response, organizations can also reduce false alarms and benefit from faster, verified police response—an advantage over unverified alarms and routine guard patrols.
Technology Provides Consistent and Diligent Performance
With Everon’s monitoring center overseeing your video monitoring remotely, Active Video Monitoring can be a force multiplier that addresses staffing shortages.
Unlike traditional guard patrols or reactive alarm systems that notify stakeholders after an incident occurs, Active Video Monitoring delivers proactive threat detection, identifying and assessing suspicious activity in real time and intervening before damage, theft, or vandalism escalates. When unwanted activity is detected, Everon’s Active Video Monitoring solution enables immediate deterrence through flashing lights and pre-recorded and live audio announcements. Monitoring specialists can deliver personalized “talk-down” messages—calling out intruders by location, description, or behavior—often stopping incidents in progress and reducing the need for law enforcement intervention.
In addition to providing a more proactive security approach, cameras don’t miss shifts and don’t require the same supervision as a human guard. Unlike personnel who may become distracted, fatigued, or pulled away to respond to another situation, Active Video Monitoring provides consistent visibility into critical areas of your property. With critical features like system health alerts, you’ll automatically receive notifications if any cameras or devices go offline or are malfunctioning, helping reduce downtime and maintain continuous coverage. Cameras can also be placed in high-security areas where loss prevention concerns may limit the presence of on-site personnel.
Everon’s Active Video Monitoring solution helps organizations proactively address evolving security concerns while providing visibility across an entire property or multiple locations at once—rather than limiting coverage to where a single guard can physically be at any given moment.
Performing in Hazardous Environments
Critical to any modern security strategy is, first and foremost, the protection of people. In high-risk scenarios—such as fires, severe weather, or active threats—human personnel must evacuate, temporarily leaving sites unattended.
In such events, Active Video Monitoring can take over, gathering real-time evidence that can be invaluable to first responder preparedness, providing them with data that can help decrease response times and minimize damages to life and assets. This continuous visibility can lead to awareness without placing personnel in harm’s way.
Here's why commercial organizations are turning to Active Video Monitoring as a cost-effective solution in an increasingly costly world:
Benefits of Active Video Monitoring Over Traditional Security Guards
- Lower cost than after-hours security guards
- Visibility across multiple areas of your property simultaneously
- Constant focus and alertness
- No guard hiring or training needed
- Low reliance on guards’ skill or attention
- Remote evaluation of all activities on-site
- Ability to dispatch police within minutes of on-site activity
How Active Video Monitoring Can Work for Your Organization
With Active Video Monitoring, Everon’s monitoring center agents detect and evaluate activity in real time. Trained monitoring specialists verify behavior, activate visual and audio deterrents when appropriate, and coordinate law enforcement response only if unwanted activity persists—creating a layered, cost-effective alternative to traditional guarding.
Discover why commercial organizations are replacing traditional guarding and traditional alarm systems with Everon Active Video Monitoring—a proactive, technology-driven approach that helps reduce labor costs, enhance safety, and stop incidents before they escalate.