Despite the budding of the Prunus tree in my garden, and the revival of the dawn chorus – a phenomenon that I have the privilege of hearing daily courtesy of my dog – all is not necessarily spring-like in the lives of many of our professional colleagues.
The continuing squeeze on spend is starting to tell. Last week, a client asked what possibilities there were for further reductions in an already tight guarding budget.
Protecting the assets and operations of the global service provider needs a certain level of human presence and, despite a willingness to contribute to the bottom line coffers, said company’s growing corporate operations need increased protection rather than a reduction.
Employees outside of the security function
No easy answer here. However, there’s one potential resource which is often under exploited… All those employees outside of the security function… and we do mean all.
That said, there’s still a problem on the horizon. Mention ‘security’ to most of these folks and their eyes glaze over like a Krispy Kreme doughnut (note that other brands are available, folks)…
Add the word ‘training’ to the mix and they all – senior management included – flee from the scene like a herd of frightened deer.
‘There is NO WAY these ‘securocrats’ are going to turn me into a mini-security guard’ they mutter (prior to claiming the commencement of urgent meetings they need to attend which just happen to be taking place on the other side of the site).
Quite right they are, too.
When security and training collide
The problem? The use of the word ‘security’ in conjunction with ‘training’ evokes visions of plodding around the perimeter like a modern form of corporate Home Guard.
Apart from those with closet vigilante tendencies, if nothing else this concept is bad business practice. The perception may be wrong, but it steadfastly remains despite any argument to the contrary.
The answer do is to increase awareness through education, not to train people in security skills.
Perhaps ‘Guerrilla Education’ or ‘Guerrilla Marketing’ would be better phrases to use?
What we’re talking about is the subtle education of the corporate masses that security is in their own interests and really doesn’t require the application of handcuffs and walking in the rain.
Not one advantage but two
Advantage Number One: the tools of security Guerrilla Marketing are both cheap and fairly readily to hand… many of us have our own consultants to hand in the shape of our marketing and sales departments.
Advantage Number Two: most people don’t feel threatened when given a free mouse-mat or comic book.
Does it cost money? That depends on how far you want to go.
At the bottom end of the scale, designing a simple but useful poster program is virtually free. Find a budding computer artist or enlist the help of your marketing colleagues to do the design and print them on your printer – A3 is good – and ‘Go Guerrilla’.
The sudden overnight appearance of posters around the site and their equally rapid disappearance after 24 hours will raise curiosity and interest.
One poster – designed by a small local security department within a well-known petrochemical company in Africa – ended up being circulated globally. How’s that for cost-effective?
Fear not for your reputation
Do not fear for your reputation. It’s more likely to be enhanced than diminished because you will be seen as an innovator.
If you can convince management to support your awareness programme as part of a manpower trade-off, you may be able to realise the addition of a marketing budget to raise awareness.
After all, it’s better than losing the manpower anyway without any compensation. Try it. You may well be surprised.
Here are some salient points to bear in mind:
Behind the scenes of the programme it’s part of your everyday business process. At the front face, it subtly informs and, hopefully, subverts.
Making the sums add up
Finally, if you want to do some arithmetic, think of adding five minutes of patrolling and surveillance time from every person on your site – every day – at little or no cost. Whether walking to the car park, standing around the coffee machine or passing down the corridor.
In some cases, you may add the equivalent of one or two ‘man-days’ to your security effort each week.
The people involved don’t actually have to do anything. They merely have to be aware and report. That’s nothing if not cost-effective.
Peter Horsburgh CPP PSP is the principal consultant for Bredon Risk Management Services (www.brms.co.uk), a security and risk management training and consultancy based in the Midlands, and boasts over 30 years’ experience in the security training and education sphere
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