For a lot of people arriving in Canada, the first job is a security license and a night shift.
It is one of the most accessible entry points into the Canadian workforce. The industry is always hiring. So a great many newcomers start out standing in a lobby, watching a construction gate, or walking a condo perimeter at 3 a.m., in a country they are still learning.
What happens next depends almost entirely on the company they landed with.
Harsh Sharma started exactly there. Guard, then supervisor, then manager, then operations director. Today he is a co-founder and Managing Director at Sentry Security Group. In a recent conversation with CEO Bryan Bultz, he explained what that path taught him about running a security company and why the way a provider treats its guards ultimately ends up on the client’s invoice.
“Caring about our employees means more than just giving them shifts.”
Harsh Sharma, Managing Director, Sentry Security Group
For clients, this matters more than it first appears. The guard standing at your lobby desk at 3 a.m. is the product. How that person was hired, trained, supported, and treated is the difference between a security program that works and one that only looks like it works on paper.
Looking for security services in Toronto or Ottawa? Contact Sentry Security Group to discuss your site.
The Path Nobody Plans For
Very few people set out to build a career in security. It is usually the job that is available when you need one.
The difference between the people who leave after four months and the people who build something is rarely talent. It is whether anyone in the company treated the role as a starting point rather than a warm body on a post.
“I started as a guard, then supervisor, then manager, then operations director.”
Harsh Sharma, Managing Director, Sentry Security Group
Said quickly, it sounds like a job history. It is really a description of what is possible in this industry when someone is given proper training, real responsibility, and a reason to stay.
That progression is also why Sentry operates the way it does. Every policy in the company was written by people who have worked the shift being scheduled. When Harsh looks at a guard on a night post, he is not looking at a line item. He is looking at where he was.
“I see myself in my guards. I want them to achieve their dreams as well.”
Harsh Sharma, Managing Director, Sentry Security Group
Hiring Is Not the Skill. Connecting Is.
Most security companies describe themselves as good at recruiting. In an industry with well-documented turnover, that claim is worth examining.
When Bryan pointed out that Harsh was good at hiring people, the correction was immediate.
“I’m not good at hiring people. I’m good at connecting with people.”
Harsh Sharma, Managing Director, Sentry Security Group
The distinction is not wordplay. Hiring fills a shift. Connecting is what keeps that person on your site six months later, when they know the building, the tenants, the routines, and what normal activity looks like.
Connecting means understanding what someone actually wants from the job. Some guards are studying. Some are new to Canada. Some are working toward a policing career. Some need stable hours around a family. A company that knows the difference can schedule, train, and place people in a way that works for both the employee and the client.
A company that does not know the difference simply fills a gap and hopes the person shows up.
The Problem the Industry Avoids Talking About
Ask most security providers about the biggest challenge in the industry and you will hear about pricing pressure, or labour shortages, or competition.
Harsh named something different, and more uncomfortable.
“Many security guards in Canada are newcomers. Sometimes they may not fully understand a simple instruction, but they are afraid or uncomfortable asking questions. That is how a small issue becomes a major problem on site.”
Harsh Sharma, Managing Director, Sentry Security Group
This is a communication problem before it is a security problem.
A guard who does not fully understand an access control procedure, an escalation path, or a post order will not usually announce it. They will do their best. They will guess. They will avoid asking, because asking can feel like admitting they are not qualified for the job.
Then something happens. A contractor is let onto the site who should not have been. A visitor is logged incorrectly. An incident is not escalated because the guard was not certain who to call. A report is missing the detail that matters most.
The failure gets blamed on the guard. The actual failure happened earlier, when nobody made sure the instruction was understood, and nobody made it safe to ask.
Training Is Risk Management, Not Onboarding Paperwork
This is why training is not an administrative step at Sentry. It is the control that prevents the incident.
“Sending a guard to a site without proper training is not good risk management. It is simply hoping that nothing goes wrong. And sooner or later, something will.”
Harsh Sharma, Managing Director, Sentry Security Group
Proper training in this context means more than a licence and a uniform. It means:
- Clear, specific instructions, given in a way the guard confirms they understand
- Site-specific orientation before the first shift, not during it
- A named person the guard can contact when something is unclear
- A culture where asking a question is treated as professionalism, not weakness
- Follow-up after deployment to confirm the instructions are actually being followed
For a client, this is not a staffing detail. It is the difference between a documented, correctly handled incident and an expensive one.
Support That Goes Beyond the Shift
The part of employee care that most companies never get to is what happens outside the schedule.
Security work is often the first Canadian job for newcomers. That means questions about immigration paperwork, finances, employment verification, credit, and eventually, home ownership. Most employers treat those as none of their business.
A mortgage application does not care how hard someone works. It cares whether an employer will produce a letter confirming stable income, on time, in the right format. For a newcomer with no Canadian credit history, that piece of paper can be the whole difference between renting and owning.
“One guy was struggling, and he said, ‘I need to buy a home.’ So you provide him with the letters, whatever he needs, so his purchase is easier.”
Harsh Sharma, Managing Director, Sentry Security Group
The same logic applies to career direction. A police foundations graduate working as a guard is not looking for a permanent post. They are looking for the experience that gets them into a police service.
“If we hire a police foundations guy, you need to give him the kind of experience that helps him in the future, so he can become a police officer.”
Harsh Sharma, Managing Director, Sentry Security Group
That means deliberate placement. Sites where they will handle real reporting, real incident documentation, and real interaction with the public, rather than a static post where nothing is learned.
The employee gets a career step. The client gets a guard who is motivated to document properly, because the quality of that work matters to their own future.
Recognition Is Part of Retention
Good work in security is usually invisible. Nothing happened, so nobody noticed.
That is exactly why acknowledgement matters.
“When a client gives positive feedback, or a guard handles a difficult situation very well, we make sure they know their efforts are appreciated here.”
Harsh Sharma, Managing Director, Sentry Security Group
A guard who de-escalates a confrontation in a condo lobby, catches an access issue before it becomes a break-in, or writes a report clear enough to be useful to police has done skilled work. Passing the client’s feedback back to that person costs nothing and changes how the next shift is worked.
Guards who feel invisible leave. Guards who leave take their knowledge of your property with them.
Where Our People Go Next
The clearest evidence of how a security company treats its employees is where those employees end up.
Over the years, Sentry team members have moved on to careers with:
- The Canadian Armed Forces
- Toronto Police Service
- Ottawa Police Service
- Canada Border Services Agency
- Other public safety and enforcement organizations
Some companies would treat that as a loss. It is worth being clear about why it is not.
Organizations like these have serious screening standards. If they are consistently recruiting from your guard force, it says something about the calibre of people you hire and the standard of work they were held to. It also says that people who want a real career in public safety see this company as a legitimate place to start one.
“We are very proud to see our people grow and succeed in this industry.”
Harsh Sharma, Managing Director, Sentry Security Group
Why Site Setup Starts With Leadership on the Property
Employee care and client service meet at the same point: the site walkthrough.
At Sentry, new sites are set up by the leadership team in person, on the property, with the client. That is not a sales gesture. It comes directly from having done the job.
“I started as a guard, then supervisor, then manager, then operations director. So when I walk onto a site, I feel like I am working there. What can I do to improve this site? This is how I am going to place it. This is how we are going to do the patrols here.”
Harsh Sharma, Managing Director, Sentry Security Group
Someone who has stood a post at 4 a.m. sees things a salesperson does not. Where the sightlines fail. Where a patrol route wastes twenty minutes. Which door is the actual vulnerability. What a guard will realistically be able to do alone on a night shift, and what they will not.
That assessment then becomes the post orders, the patrol pattern, and the reporting structure the client actually receives.
The follow-through matters just as much. Harsh walks patrols with guards after deployment, shows them the standard of report the client should be getting, and reviews what is being submitted.
“I treat my sites like I am working there, and I follow up with all my guys.”
Harsh Sharma, Managing Director, Sentry Security Group
What This Means for Clients
None of this is charity. It is operational logic.
A guard who understood the instruction does the job correctly the first time. A guard who is comfortable asking questions escalates properly instead of guessing. A guard who is supported stays on your property long enough to learn it. A guard with a career ahead of them writes reports that stand up to review.
Every one of those is a direct benefit to the property manager, condo board, developer, or business owner paying the invoice.
The reverse is equally direct. A guard who was hired quickly, trained loosely, paid poorly, and never spoken to again will still stand at your entrance. They will simply be worth much less when something actually happens.
The Bottom Line
There is a version of the Canadian dream that gets talked about a lot and a version that actually happens. The second one is quieter. It looks like a night shift, a licence, a supervisor who explains things properly, an employment letter that arrives when it is needed, and ten years of showing up.
Harsh has lived that version, which is why the company he helped build treats a guard post as a starting line rather than a ceiling. Some of those guards will stay and run sites. Others will leave for the Canadian Armed Forces, a police service, or CBSA. Both outcomes are the point.
For clients, the practical takeaway is simpler. Ask a prospective security provider how they take care of their employees, and listen to whether the answer is specific.
Vague answers about a great team culture tell you nothing. Specific answers tell you a great deal: how instructions are confirmed, what site-specific training happens before deployment, who a guard calls when something is unclear, how feedback reaches the person who earned it, and whether anyone from leadership has actually stood on the site.
Because in this industry, how a company treats its guards is not a human resources matter. It is your service level.
Work With Sentry Security Group
Sentry Security Group provides professional security services, guard-to-site matching, structured reporting, supervisor support, and long-term security partnerships for construction sites, condominiums, commercial properties, financial institutions, events, and government sites across Toronto and Ottawa.
Get in touch with Sentry Security Group to request a site assessment or discuss your security needs.
