From our friend Jake Allen at The Combat Operator:
One of the aspects that amuses me about contracting is the free-flow of people between companies and contracts. Its not uncommon to join a project and see a number of familiar faces with whom you have a shared history even if each has worked for multiple companies in the interim. The down side of this reality is that you also see a few nardowells who probably should be either in prison or committed to an institution for lunacy or just general stupidity. How does this happen? Simply stated, its the buddy system that is to blame. In this business people recruit and even promote their mates in absence of, or often worse, in violation of standing company policies.
I have no problem with people hiring their friends or for that matter their family provided the people are qualified to do the job. But what gets me is when people are brought onto a contract simply because someone in a position of authority believes an applicant is a good guy. Ive always believed that being a solid citizen was the bare minimum for any employee and not some kind of a differentiator that should give someone the leg-up on getting a job.
As a friend of my own likes to say, Being a nice guy does not make you the right guy. I like that, because it implies that being likeable is important but it should never supersede the actual skills required to do the work. Most everyone would prefer to have teammates that share our interests. It just makes life in the zone better if you are surrounded by selfless team players who respect other peoples space, clean up after them selves, require no micro-management, are trustworthy and reliable, like to have a beer, talk about footy, maybe play some poker or are otherwise sociable around the dinner table. All of that is important because often we are often living together in close quarters with loaded weapons and little or no external supervision. Its important to get along with each other. Having good guys on the team is an important aspect of what enables a team to function. If for no other reason than, should the need arise, a guy is more likely to risk his life for a person he genuinely respects than someone he cannot tolerate. But the real question is: How often is the very existence of that life threatening situation created in the first place, at least in part, due to the poor technical or tactical proficiency of some idiot who despite his above average social skills should not be in the job in the first place? Of course its impossible to know precisely but in all the events I have seen, experienced, heard and read about the vast majority of them can be worked back to a very few people making some severely poor decisions.
Armed security is, at its core, a thinking-mans game where intellect borne of training and experience ought to be the most prized commodity. Those who are trained to do so can design security systems and services that mitigate risk in the first place and thus avoid armed conflict in many cases. In military jargon this is often called pre-kinetic or left-of-bang meaning they are the actions taken long before an incident occurs. This is perhaps the most important and certainly the most underrated aspect of security consulting. But despite our best efforts and planning events will occur which require people to think on their feet and deal with the difficulties and complexities that constitute combat.
Wouldnt it be great if you could take any operator from any background and like Neo, the main character in the movie The Matrix, simply plug his brain into a computer and in seconds upload all the necessary training and decision making criteria in a batch of digital files? Yeah that would be cool but here in the real world we are a long way from that. Not only can we not do it automatically, most PMCs dont even try to do it manually. The absence of documented processes/procedures and intense repetitive training (and believe me there is a massive absence of both among most PMCs) means that companies are betting their entire future on the decision making skills of their lowest paid employees.
But all operators are not equal despite the fact that the company may see them as interchangeable widgets each with the same fixed operating cost. I often counsel anyone who will listen that the greatest commodity in our business is people. Contracts change hands all the time but the people on the ground hold the companys reputation and with it their future in the palm of their hands every single day. In a business where a single poor decision by just one employee can result in loss of life, the smearing of the companys brand and the loss of millions of dollars in revenue. Its puzzling to see how little effort most PMCs put into finding and retaining the best people. Especially when you consider that when your best people leave to work for a competitor it has the two-fold impact of lowering the previous companys service quality while simultaneously increasing that of their competitor.
I really dont see people as good/bad, young/old, smart/dumb, I simply see them as trainedready, or untrained and thus unready. Sure, most operators are trainable but that implies that you have time between the impending moment-of-truth and the completion of said training. Do you? You can always train someone tomorrow but what if the moment-of-truth comes in the next 5 minutes, or after lunch or tonight at midnight? Is he ready? Is your company ready to deal with the consequences of his lack of readiness?
Good people are worth their weight in gold if the definition of good includes more than social skills. I, for one, would rather work with cantankerous and grumpy teammates who are tactically switched-on than guys who are agreeable in camp but useless when the bees start buzzing.
Id like to see companies adopt lucrative referral programs that reward referring parties when the new-hire is a success but also sack the referring party when the referred person does not perform to standard. Of course this implies that the company has a standard to begin with…Ill leave that for another day. The point is that people should think hard about who they endorse. Were that the case the overriding criteria for employment would return to where it belongs and that is in the realm of training, experience and real-world capabilities.
Leave a comment letting me know if you agree or disagree.
{ 17 comments… read them below or add one }
What I love most about that blog, is just how much of it had to do with defense technology…..
Totally agree.
OT: Guys, seriously, have you noticed that lot of these PMCs prefer AKs to ARs? One can only guess why is that when M4 is soooooooo good :D
Me Id rather be Tested & Trained then assigned to PMC X Unit based on skills seen by Veterans.
IE Im Good with
Long range Views
Trying to think what Enemy might do
Firearms
BUT dont have Build, Body for
F2F Hand 2 Hand Combat.
etc.
but Give Me the tests & see where I fit or Dont fit.
Save time & money etc.
& save lives
for ALL PMCs.
NO exceptions.
Hire New Blood & avoid Xe mistakes.
Love FULL AUTO FIRE.
Spot on! I couldn’t agree more.
Gee, contractors are hiring their buddies. News for you that’s how the world works, look at fed gov’t jobs. As a former fed employee, I can tell you that most(if not every time) someone applied for a position, and it’s status was changed to action cancelled, it’s because the hiring authority already knew who they wanted for the job but that person didn’t make the computer referral so they just don’t hire anyone and keep changing the announcement til their buddy gets hired.
Guys, seriously, have you noticed that a lot of the PMC’s prefer AK’s to AR’s? One can only guess why is that when in the middle east the AK’s run about 15 USD and you can pick one up on every corner.
;D
Your correct toyo in your assumption that costs force companies to choose the AK. That is the primary reason. But there are contractors who choose it for other reasons such as the bang you get with the 7.62 round. There are ofcourse other 7.62 longs like the G3 for example but the magazines for these are harder to come by and if your the only guy in the squad running a G3 then what good are you to your mates who have other weapon types. There is a lot to be said for uniformity among teams. The AK is just a ‘good enough’ weapon in many instances but it does not really excel in any balistic category. Its widely available, cheap and durable. Thats about all that can be said about it.
In PMCs, how much team intergration is done before deployment? US SF/SEAL and other units typically spend years together, and are well integrated as a team when they deploy. There might be a new guy, but the majority of a team has worked together for some time. Even line infantry units get time to spool up together. Is the dynamic the same in PMCs, and if not, is this a hinderance to their operations?
The other question I have, appropos the AK-47 thing, is who buys the weapons and equipment that PMC personnel use? If the company buys it, does the quality/source of the equipment say anything about the company?
soonergrunt,
It’s my understanding that the bulk of PMC work is base level military tasking. Convoy security, base security, that kind of role. That is entirely different to SOF tasking. It’s a job done by 19 year old privates in the military. Why would an organisation who’s sole reason for existence is to turn a profit waste time and money on getting excellent personnel and turning them into an excellent fighting unit for that kind of task?
This is McDonalds, but instead of carrying a spatula and selling burgers, they carry a rifle and sell security. Don’t confuse that with any kind of dedicated military organisation.
Jim,
If this is so, they why hire retired SF-types like Black, er, Xe, and Triple Canopy do? The also do close security on diplomats and such, and not just any private gets offered 100-k+ per year.
I know that you also see a lot of the types you are talking about as well, but I think Jake is talking about the “higher end” of the spectrum here.
soonergrunt asks a good question and jim’s response is for the most part correct. just to answer your question directly soonergrunt there is zero predeployment integral team training. teams are built in-county where if any training is to take place by the company will take place there but as jim indicates most companies simply see this as an unnecessary expense. the McDonald’s remark is interesting and perhaps not in the way it was intended (i noted the condescension). Actually, most PMCs should only hope to achieve MickeyDee’s level of process/procedure development as this is a huge problem in the industry. Finally, as indicated there is a wide range of ‘missions’ for PMCs from static security, convoy ops, close protection of dignitaries, etc, etc. None of them are difficult but there is a spectrum of capabilities needed ranging from the ex-Infantry Corporal with one 4-year hitch to the SF types with more experience and maturity. Jake
Oh and Jake, any criticisms for not being def tech related aside, I did actually read the piece and found it quite interesting. I’ve even directed a few friends towards thecombatoperator. And thanks for following up on your post here.
Thanks to Jim and Jake for your responses.
>>>Leave a comment letting me know if you agree or disagree.
Word.
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