Alliance Security credits employee smarts for big growth

WARWICK, R.I.—Alliance Security, a burgeoning resi security and home automation provider, based here, anticipates increasing its sales from $56 million to $110 million this year. It also expects to double its workforce to 600 by the end of 2015 and is in the process of moving to a new 60,000-square-foot site in Cranston, R.I.

The credit for the big growth goes to employees and the company's emphasis on internal education, CEO Jay Gotra told Security Systems News.

With 300 employees a year ago, the company has about 500 employees now as a result of a hiring wave. Alliance is “seven states short of being nationwide,” he said.

It currently has 225 technicians with the goal of having more than 350 by the end of the year, he said.

As far as doubling its total workforce goes, “we can't do that fast enough,” Gotra said.

“As we keep growing, the biggest thing we're doing is growing our employee base. We're finding quality employees and investing in them,” Gotra said.

The company regularly holds Friday management meetings where employees read and discuss books on business development, pass along knowledge and plan for the future, he said.  
“Learning is earning,” he said.

“Our employees understand the vision of the company,” he said, and that learning culture gets passed down to its customers.

Alliance also offers online courses through its “Alliance Academy,” which provides various tutorials and assistant manager programs and “other qualifications to our employees,” he said.

“Having that culture, they will be very loyal to us. We have a high retention rate,” Gotra said.

The move to Cranston into a building formerly occupied by the Katherine Gibbs School “will revitalize and transform a great space that has been empty for quite some time. It's all about bringing life and energy back into the community,” Gotra said.

Alliance also has a strong philanthropic presence in Rhode Island communities. It has for many years aligned itself with the Rhode Island Coalition Against Domestic Violence, the Christmas for Kids project and most recently with Year Up, a non-profit group that helps underprivileged youth see that they have the ability to earn more than minimum wage; Alliance has mentored and hired students in that program.

“We try to make sure our employees understand that there are things more important than sales and growth, to show them the real world,” Gotra said.