After multiple jobs working as a security guard, UW alumnus Rajdeep Malhi decided to create his own security service. Operational since November 2015, Malhi’s KingsGuard developed to address his frustration with disengaged management. </p>
In Malhi’s experience, contracts provided by security services have often come with restrictive clauses that limit their employees’ abilitiy to work with multiple firms.
“A lot of companies I have worked for [have said] that you’re not allowed to work for other companies while you work for us,” Malhi said. “In most contracts, companies will say, ‘While you’re employed with us,’ you’re not allowed to work anywhere else, and I think that’s unfair.”
According to the KingsGuard’s website, “transparency in terms of employment” is a company commitment. In other words, Malhi explained that contracts are designed to be “straightforward.”
“Once you’re bound to something, you’re limited to what you can do. I want to allow the guards that work for me to have the freedom to do what they want in the way that they want it,” Malhi said.
Having been a student, Malhi is familiar with the challenges of finding consistent employment. Despite contractual limitations, during his time at UW, Malhi worked five separate security jobs, often overlapping in employment periods.
“This is often not followed because working for one company is never enough, especially if you’re getting part-time hours. Companies are always aware that their employees work for different companies simultaneously.”
It was during his time at UW that Malhi recognized a pattern of disengagement between employees and management.
“I noticed how each company could be improved in the way they treated their employees and how they rewarded their employees,” Malhi said.
While working at the Air Canada Centre, he explained that there was a tendency to use sub-contractors. “The security guard company that comes in doesn’t treat their employees well,”he said.
Looking to the future, as KingsGuard grows, Malhi wants to bridge the division he saw in his previous positions by getting to know his employees on an “individual basis.”
“There’s going to be no middle-man that takes care of the employees; that’s going to be myself,” Mahli said. “I think that’s really crucial for any security guard that works for [a] company; that they have [those] open [lines of] communication with who’s in charge.”
In order to further increase communication, Mahli has planned to release regular news flyers, either in print or through email, to keep employees both up-to-date on company affairs and to celebrate employee milestones.
While KingsGuard is currently based in Brampton, he is hoping to bring the company to Waterloo.
The central purpose of KingsGuard is to provide services for residential, commercial, industrial, and construction sites.
As the company progresses into Waterloo, Malhi is intending to work in and attend the university.
In going back to his roots, Malhi also joined the Kitchener-Waterloo Chamber of Commerce — an organization that would be able to assist student employees through workshops and networking with other employers in the region.
“Students that are employed by KingsGuard have the opportunity to take part in various events such as the Chamber Young Professionals,” Malhi explained. “This event is aimed towards young professionals, so I can only imagine that there will be a lot of like-minded people who are in university or [have] recently graduated.”
