Security company org chart example
A contract security and cleaning company, where the unit of organization is the client site: district managers hold sites, site supervisors hold officers, and the control room holds the night. Recruitment and compliance are whole departments, because the business is licenses and turnover.
How a security company is usually structured
Operations is geography. An operations director holds district managers; each district manager holds eight to fifteen client sites; each site has a supervisor (often a working officer with a stripe) and a roster of security officers or cleaners. Mobile patrol is a site of its own — a supervisor and a set of drivers covering dozens of small contracts. On the chart, each site's staff are stacked under their supervisor, which is the only way a company with forty sites fits on a page.
The control room runs the business hour by hour: controllers who check officers on and off, handle alarms and incidents, and a scheduler who fills the schedule. It reports to operations but works with every site, and in a company past a hundred officers it's the function most often understaffed.
Two departments are bigger here than in any other industry of the same size. HR and recruitment, because officer turnover of 30 to 50 percent a year means the company never stops hiring, and vetting each hire is a legal requirement. Compliance and training, because every officer holds a license and every site has a contract with audit clauses. Compliance reports to the top, with a dotted line into operations, so a failed audit can't be quietly resolved.
Typical titles by level
The vocabulary these charts use, from the top down. Titles vary by country and by company; the levels don't.
| Level | Titles you'll see |
|---|---|
| Leadership | President, Operations Director, Head of Security or Head of Cleaning (in mixed-service companies), Finance Manager |
| Managers | District Manager, Contracts Manager, Control Room Manager, HR & Recruitment Manager, Compliance & Training Manager, Business Development Manager, Key Account Manager |
| Supervisors | Site Supervisor, Mobile Patrol Supervisor, Cleaning Supervisor, Team Leader, Scheduler or Scheduling Coordinator, Duty Controller |
| Front line and support | Security Officer, Door Supervisor, Mobile Patrol Officer, CCTV Operator, Controller, Cleaner, Relief Officer, Recruiter, Vetting Officer, Trainer, Payroll & Billing Clerk |
Where these charts go wrong
Charts here fail by drawing the company per client so people appear twice; by omitting on-call and relief staff so the roster looks thinner than it is; by putting compliance under operations, where it's the first thing cut on a bad quarter; and by drawing the control room as a night function when it's the function that runs the day too.
Questions people ask
- How do you chart staff who work at client sites?
- Under a site supervisor, under the district manager who owns that contract. Name the site in the supervisor's title. Never chart by client company: the moment a client has two sites or a site changes hands, the chart breaks.
- Where does the control room sit?
- Under the operations director, beside the district managers — not under any one of them, because it serves them all, and not under compliance, because it's operational. It should be drawn as a 24-hour team with day and night controllers.
- How many officers per supervisor?
- Ten to twenty on a single site is normal; a mobile patrol supervisor can run 8 to 12 drivers. District managers typically hold 8 to 15 sites and 80 to 150 people through their supervisors, which is why the chart stacks every site.
- How do you show relief and on-call staff?
- In the pool they draw from — usually a relief team under the control room or a district manager — with their employment type set so they're visibly different. Leaving them off is the most common way a security chart understates the workforce.
Other industries
- ManufacturingTwo shifts, and quality kept out of production's line.
- LogisticsDispatch runs the day; supervisors run the people.
- ConstructionOffice and field, meeting on every project.
- Software startupSquads under a CTO; product managers on a dotted line.
- NonprofitThe board on top, programs beside the money.
- Medical practiceA clinical line and a business line, crossing at nursing.
- SchoolDepartments led by teachers who also manage.
- HotelSix divisions around one general manager.
- Marketing agencyDisciplines own people; pods own the work.
- Sales teamRegions for closers, a team for openers, RevOps beside them.
- Accounting firmA partner pyramid, three service lines.
- Law firmPractice groups, and the business side that runs the firm.
- ChurchA board that governs, a pastor who leads, ministries below.
- RestaurantFront of house and back of house, meeting at the pass.
- IT departmentRun, build and secure, under one director.
- HR departmentPartners, specialists and operations: the three legs.
- Local governmentElected above appointed, and two officers who answer to the council.
- Utility companyField crews, a 24-hour control center, and a regulator in the room.
- BankThree lines of defense, drawn as lines.
- Staffing agencySales desks, recruiting desks, and a back office that pays two thousand people.
- HospitalTwo hierarchies that meet at the bedside.
- Retail chainHead office, the field, and a store drawn once.
- Small businessOne owner, two managers, and the jobs the owner still does.
- Finance departmentAccounting closes the books; FP&A says what they mean.
- Marketing departmentDemand, product, brand, and the operations under all three.
- Customer service departmentTeams on the floor; quality, training and scheduling beside them.
- Engineering departmentProduct teams under a VP of engineering; platform, data and security under the CTO.
- Operations departmentSupply chain, fulfillment and the functions that keep both honest.
- Product departmentProduct, design, research and the operations that measure them.
- Consulting firmThree practices, one firm behind them, and no engagement on the chart.
- Real estate brokerageAgents who are not employees, on the chart anyway.
- Insurance agencySales on one side, service on the other, and the lines where they meet.
- Dental practiceA clinical line the law draws, and a business line the office manager runs.
- UniversityAn academic line and an administrative line, and governance kept off the chart.
- E-commerce companyThe site is the store, the warehouse is a contractor, and the lines between them are drawn.
- Veterinary clinicThe doctors own the medicine, the manager owns the day, and the technicians answer to both.
- Auto dealershipThe front end sells the cars; the back end pays the bills; the chart shows where they meet.
- School districtSchools on one line, the money on another, and a board that governs from a second chart.
- Police departmentPatrol takes the calls, investigations takes the cases, and professional standards answers to the chief alone.
- Nursing homeThe administrator holds the license, the director of nursing holds the building, and the survey reads both lines.
- Property management companyThe owners and the boards are clients, the site staff are employees, and the chart is where the two facts meet.
Or start from a structure — functional, divisional, matrix or flat — or from your own spreadsheet. The guides cover a reorg, a merger, an assistant's chart and a consultant's deliverable.
Make it yours
Download the spreadsheet, replace the names, import it — the chart redraws itself. Or start empty and drag people until it's true. Building is free at any size.