UBOT: A Cost Everyone Sees, Few Fully Understand

You see it every month.
You feel it in the P&L.
And you know it hurts profit.

So when UBOT starts climbing, the explanation usually sounds obvious:

We need more bodies.
We need to fill positions faster.

That explanation makes sense. And sometimes, it’s partially true.

But here’s what experienced owner-operators start to notice over time:

Even after hiring picks up…
Even after open posts are filled…
UBOT often doesn’t go away.

It just moves.

UBOT Is Visible — But the Cause Often Isn’t

Unbillable overtime is one of the few costs in a security business that’s impossible to ignore.

It hits profit directly.
It shows up clearly.
And it demands attention.

What’s less clear is why it keeps returning.

Most companies can tell you:

• How much UBOT they ran last month
• Which sites were involved
• Who covered the shifts

Fewer can say, with confidence:

• Why the same posts keep creating pressure
• Why coverage gaps repeat even after hiring
• Why overtime feels unavoidable at certain sites

So UBOT gets treated as a staffing problem — not a structural one.

The “More Bodies” Assumption

When UBOT shows up again and again, the default assumption is simple:

If we had more people, this wouldn’t be happening.

That assumption drives:

• Faster hiring
• More recruiting spend
• More urgency to fill posts

And sometimes, that helps in the short term.

But many owner-operators eventually notice something uncomfortable:

UBOT doesn’t disappear — it cycles.

It flares up at the same locations.
It spikes around the same situations.
It pulls the same supervisors back into coverage.

Which raises a quiet question most people don’t ask out loud:

If hiring alone was the answer… why does this keep happening?

What the P&L Is Really Saying

The P&L doesn’t explain causes. It reflects outcomes.

When unbillable overtime persists, the P&L is telling you something important:

Not that you’re mismanaging people.
Not that you’re understaffed everywhere.

But that pressure is repeating somewhere in the operation — and it’s expensive enough to matter.

The problem is that the pressure is spread thin:

• Across sites
• Across supervisors
• Across weeks and months

So it never shows up as one obvious “broken thing.”

It shows up as margin that never quite lands where you expect it to.

Why This Is Hard to See From Inside

When you’re running the business day to day, UBOT feels tactical:

• Fill the shift
• Cover the post
• Keep the client happy

Those decisions are often the right ones.

But taken together, they can hide patterns that only become clear when someone steps back and looks at the operation as a whole —
not to fix it, but to measure it.

That’s the gap most companies live with:

They see the cost.
They don’t see the full picture behind it.

Where Clarity Actually Comes From

This is why the Shield Check™ doesn’t start with advice or changes.

It starts with simple questions that help determine whether unbillable overtime is:

• Isolated, or
• Part of a larger pattern that’s quietly limiting profit

No assumptions.
No recommendations.
No disruption.

Just a disciplined way to understand whether what you’re seeing on the P&L is adding up to something meaningful — or not.

Because once you know that number, you can decide what, if anything, is worth doing next.

→ Learn more about the Shield Check™