Commissionaires Canada changed its logo, a red maple leaf, because it suggested that the company was part of the federal government.
The Commissionaires aren’t the same company they were when they started more than 80 years ago, and they have a new brand to prove it.
The old logo, a red maple leaf, was misleading, said Doug Briscoe, executive director of Commissionaires Canada.
“People either didn’t know who we were, or thought we were an arm of the federal government,” he said. This was problematic when the company was trying to attract new clients and recruit more staff, he said.
The Commissionaires is a non-profit company that was founded in 1925 to provide First World War veterans with either transitional or permanent security-related jobs.
Today, the company is one of Canada’s largest security guard firms with 17 divisions across Canada. It employs about 18,000 people.
The new logo, an orange maple leaf encircled with orange and navy brackets, is followed with the tagline “trusted everyday everywhere.”
It was launched in Ottawa last July and branches across the country are continuing to help establish the new brand with an aggressive advertising campaign.
Briscoe said a common misconception about the Commissionaires is that they only provide security guard services. He said the business has about 45 different services, such as GPS tracking, digital fingerprinting, training, and bylaw enforcement. He said he hopes the more progressive image will reflect how the company has evolved with the security industry.
The market for security services has grown since 9/11.
“People are taking security more seriously,” he said. “We’re starting to see more of it in places like seniors’ residences, which were almost unheard of years ago.”
This growth has prompted a greater demand for security personnel and the Commissionaires are using their new brand to help draw more staff.
“We still have a strong mandate to attract veteran Canadian Forces and RCMP personnel,” said Paul Guindon, CEO for the Commissionaires Ottawa division. “But there’s not enough out there to fill the demand.”
Advertisements in the National Capital Region on OC Transpo buses, visits to university and college campuses and speaking engagements in the private security community help with the recruiting shortfall, Guindon said.
He said the Ottawa division has been particularly successful and trained about 1,000 new members last year. The division is the largest in Canada, with 3,400 members who serve at 200 sites that extend beyond the capital region to places such as North Bay.
But Briscoe said Ottawa recruitment can be difficult because some contractors, such as the federal government, require bilingual employees.
Since 1945, Public Works and Government Services Canada have granted the right of first refusal to the Commissionaires as part of the Common Services Policy.
This gives the company the option to take a security-guarding contract for government owned buildings before it’s offered to a third party.
“We don’t always go for it though,” said Briscoe. “But the government is certainly one of our largest clients.”
But conditions need to be met for the Commissionaires to take a contract. For example, a certain percentage of working hours must be filled by veterans.
Ottawa and Montreal are exceptions because it can be hard for the Commissionaires to fill bilingual positions. Since December 2006, amendments were made to the policy to ensure the Commissionaires can continue to retain the right of first refusal.
These include dropping the working hours for veterans from 70 to 60 per cent, and revising the definition of veteran to include RCMP officers who were honourably discharged, according to a press release.
Briscoe said the Commissionaires right of first refusal was renewed for 10 years in December 2006.