It is our pleasure to introduce and welcome the following new members in our team. Please join us in providing a warm ASP welcome to all the new members. We are proud to have you all as part of our team!

Sharifa Akbar

Sharifa Akbar joined us as “Training Coordinator” for the Aviation Security Division. Sharifa, who likes to be calle Sherry, reports to Mr. David Ramlagan – National Aviation Training Manager. In her role, Sherry will be responsible for developing and/or arranging high quality Training Programs which meet all GTAA and Transport Canada specified requirements for our frontline staff in airport security.

She has over four years of rich experience in the field of training development and facilitation. Sherry is certified in Adult Education from Sheridan College and Service Excellence from Ontario Tourism Education Center.

Melissa Shehadeh

Melissa Shehadeh has joined ASP as “Accountant” in the Finance Department and reports to Mr. Paul Parkinson – Director of Finance. Melissa has a Business Administration Diploma with specialization in Accounting from the University of Guelph-Humber.

Before joining ASP, she has worked in the finance and accounting field for over four years in a fast paced and detailoriented work environment. Her experience has helped her develop advanced technical and multi-tasking skills with the ability to learn quickly while maintaining / improving efficiency.

Hello ASP! Hard to believe it’s been another quarter. I’m sure you feel like the most recent newsletter was only last week. It’s amazing how quickly times flies, isn’t it? It’s this that I want to speak to you about. At least for me, a day whizzes by at light speed, and there is never time to finish it all. Sometimes it tires you right out. I know that at YYC, it is always busy—we are like bees in a hive when we are getting the job done. All well and good, but what I want to discuss is how important it is to disconnect after work as much as it is to be engaged while at work.

We have a wide range of duties that we must perform during each shift, and regular breaks are a must. Whether it be access control, patrolling, escorting, you name it, when at work, we need to be 100% switched on so we don’t cause any errors. It’s not an easy task, especially when duties pull us in multiple directions, when deadlines are on top of us, requests, additional taskings—it’s the nature of our jobs that we are always doing something and there is extremely little down time, and even then, there’s something that we can do.

When the whistle blows at the end of the day, I encourage you to relax, put the phone on silent, curl up with a good book, watch a tv show, play a game, coffee with friends, time with family—whatever it is you like to do that isn’t work, do it! Schedule a part of day during your rotation that allows you to step away; take that break and go meditate, go outside, breathe deeply and ground yourself. Disconnecting from the work world at the end of the day, and taking time to decompress is healthy, it promotes positive associations with your schedule and most importantly, it refreshes you.

The idea is that we need to do everything in moderation which goes for work as well. I say this to you with the hope that it strikes a chord and reminds you to take your health seriously and take time to find balance. What do I do to disconnect and relax? I grab my favorite beverages, get some fresh ingredients from the store, cook up a storm and invite my friends over for games night. From me to you—the secret to balance is to visit your happy place every day. Until next time, take care of yourselves!

I want to nominate Gurdeep Aulja our senior guard on Airside for International Women’s Day.

Her dedication and long hours that she puts in for our company, and her willingness to make her work a better place, are a true inspiration.”

“If you want to follow, follow the footsteps of your women colleagues because they are the real heroes and real winners.

Managing home and work as a single mother, is never easy but she has always done it so effortlessly….. Wishing you all the success and prosperity on International Women’s Day.”

Thank you everyone for sending in your testimonials. As a company and as individuals, we must continue to champion and promote workplace diversity and gender equality, not just because it is the fair and right thing to do, but because gender diversity has a positive impact on the success of the company.

The ASP Diversity and Inclusion Committee is committed to promotion of workplace equality and diversity. For more information, please write to inclusive@security-asp.com.

“If you want to follow, follow the footsteps of your women colleagues they are the real heroes and real winners.”

Anoop K. Babra

As most of the world was shut down last Spring, I found ample opportunity to meet myself. From trying varieties of teas, mastering DIYs, cost-free beauty treatments from the kitchen to watching classics, “my to-do/undo list” has been endless. I happened to go for a long drive on rainy evenings with my alter ego sitting strapped snug in the front passenger seat. Those evenings when one’s heartbeat matches the rhythm of peaceful drizzle and one consciously surrenders to the atoms harmoniously put together with loving details & precision. Even though change is inevitable and there’s a consistent reflection, mystical & naturalistic learning seems to be occurring all the time.

These long drives through the serpentine country roads made me feel deeply content, calm and fulfilled. There was no rush or wish to do anything else, change anything or even learn anything. It was like a transition into a different state of being or at least a different way to “taste being”. Life is clear, relaxed and steady! Life is simple and it refuses to complicate itself. Driving past the thick & lush foliage of Alaskan Paper Birch, Red Pine, Maple & Arbutus I realized that after a lot of seeking, searching and exploring what one has been seeking for has always been around after all. Big & small raindrops created magical ripples in the freshwater swamps and were a good reminder that the repeated yet ever fresh recognition of the freedom and fulfilment hiding in plain sight is the essence of undiluted awakening all at once.

I love to read the same thing again and again, be it a note from a friend, a message on WhatsApp, some lovely random quote, a flyer, a notice, a billboard or a scribble that I may have hidden deep in a book long ago. There are times especially when I toss and turn in bed, I self-diagnose my symptoms for COVID 19, eventually, I fall asleep over them. I may not be the most upholding theist, an apostle of any faith, I am not a non-believer either. I believe in a higher realm of God, Universe to be more precise. My prayer is just a prayer. A good example is from the last snowstorm day, “Sarbat da Bhala” (blessings for everyone basically). Sometimes I simply pray for my friendships, peace or a safe drive home.

This is a dynamic universe. Human feelings transition like the weather- made of cycles and microcycles. Some cycles rather quickly, momentarily, others may have rhythms that spin over hours, years or even decades. The key to witnessing these cycles, winds, waves, tides and seasons of feelings, is to have patience and trust the process of life. Also, it is much more important to be good at feeling something rather than focusing on feeling good all the time. That’s not humanly possible. At least I have yet to meet anyone who can manage to feel good all the time, no matter how evolved they claim to be. Life is really too short to be insignificant! Let’s be ourselves, unmask and breathe!

In addition to this. ASP has also created 2 new Lead Specialist positions to support the Specialists with their crucial day to day tasks at the airport.

Well done to all employees who have been promoted within all ASP Operations. I am proud to highlight that most of the promotions have come from internal candidates which clearly demonstrates succession planning and depth of knowledge and ability the ASP family has by promoting employees from within.

Zaina Syed – Security Guard, TPIA

“I have been with ASP for 7 months now and I can confidently say that as a woman, I have never felt more equal to my male counterparts in a professional environment than I have with this company! Competency, performance, hard work, professionalism and respect are of the utmost value here. Women and men alike, we are all seen as equal power to keep this ship sailing. Happy International Women’s Day to all!”

We would like to recognize OSR Alfredo Tejada for going above and beyond. A passenger arrived from Istanbul and was connecting to the USA. Unfortunately, there was a problem with his connecting flight to Detroit and he needed to be rerouted to Chicago the next day. With limited options for dining at the airport these days and knowing this passenger would have to stay in the airport overnight, Alfredo took it upon himself to purchase a drink and something to eat for this passenger as he waited for his flight the next morning.

I would like to recognize the entire OSR team for their unwavering support for one and another during these c hallenging times and never losing focus of our purpose in providing our client and passengers with outstanding Customer Service every single day. This could only be achieved through teamwork and commitment to one another.

Reminder that if you wish to have your vacation accrual paid outside of the regular May and November payout, your request must be made by no later than the Friday before the payday. Just send an email to aspaccounting@security-asp.com. This is so the team has enough time to get it processed along with the regular pay. If your request is after this cut-off, then it will be processed on the following pay.

To better serve the employees and avoid potential payroll errors, we ask employees to check their online portal to ensure that the hours worked are properly reflected in the scheduling system. If you see something wrong, bring it up to your supervisor or manager immediately. Getting this fixed before payroll starts processing will avoid the need to rerun your pay stub and prevent frustration.

When you started working for ASP you should have received a welcome email or package explaining how to access the portal. If you do have an error in the number of hours you were paid, you will need to reach out to your supervisor or manager to discuss so they can get the correction made.

“ we ask employees to check their online portal ensure the hours worked are properly reflected”

Every pay the payroll team processes over 1,300 pay cheques. At our peak before COVID they were processing more than 1,600 pay cheques. Wow! Thank you, Sherrie and Yemisi.

We would like to hear from you: If you have any suggestions on how we can better serve you or improve our delivery to you, please send an email to aspaccounting@security-asp.com

I have had the pleasure to be with ASP Security for more than 6 years. Over this time, I have watched this organization grow immensely from our modest roots to the large company we are today.

Sometimes, when companies go through this type of growth, they forget how they got to this point. It is important to note that we are where we are today in this industry because of our dedicated employees who believe in our company culture and vision.

As I reflect on the last 6 years, I am always proud of the fact that no one within the ASP family has forgotten about our humble roots and continue to live and breathe the company’s vision as we continue to move forward.

Part of this process is that we always have an open-door policy for all our family in the field, especially during the unprecedented times due to COVID-19. It is extremely important that we are always available to our people out in the field so that they continually have the highest level of support when needed.

Without the dedication of our employees, we would not have the opportunity to grow and continue doing what we love.

I wanted to remind everyone that we have a full open-door policy and if there is a time that you would like to speak to your manager or would like to provide us with any feedback, ideas on how we can be better or even just want to talk, you can call us anytime. I look forward to having many more conversations with all of you in the future. 

“ we always have an open-door policy for all our family in the field”

The Communications Corner is an ongoing series of tips, tricks, and best practices for writing, creating PowerPoints and decks as well as the theories and best practices to be an effective communicator. Each time, we will look at a key aspect of communications. This week, it is writing effective emails.

We want our ASP family to understand that each call we These days, many of us are overloaded with emails – whether we are writing or reading them. And we all know the frustration of getting an email that is so confusing and convoluted it creates a chain reaction of more emails. None of us need this.

Good business emails are to the point, easy to understand, and give your audience the information they need. To write those great emails, start with the subject line. I like to assume that the person I am writing gets hundreds of emails a day. Imagine getting all those emails with subject lines that are one word or do not relate to the body of the email!

The subject line prepares your reader for the body of the email, and it should give a hint about why you are sending the message. If the email is about something in the future, I like to include that date in the subject line. For example, a good subject line about asking for time-off is “Vacation request– July 5-6, 2021”. In this example, a bad subject line would be “Away” because it could be about someone who is away from their post, which requires immediate attention. Think of how the read would feel if an email hits their inbox with the subject line “Away”.

In the body of the email, I like to clearly state the reason for the message and use bullets if I am covering many items. If the email is an update or instructions, I write one or two short sentences explaining the situation and then write “Please note:” before the bullets. For example:

Email overload in the workplace is often a fact of life, and this will not change anytime soon as businesses continue to rely on tool more and more to communicate both internally and externally. However, using email effectively can help you standout, be appreciated by your colleagues, and most importantly, be an effective communicator!

A few final tips:

• Imagine you are getting the email (don’t over communicate)
• Make subject lines informative and relevant
• Keep messages clear and brief
• Be polite
• Proofread, proofread, proofread

“Good business emails are to the point, easy to understand and give your audience the information they need. ”