Jason Towse believes the future in security services lies in understanding specific vertical markets and delivering tailored services.
We have seen the security industry come a long way, particularly in the last five years where the need for efficiency and technology enhancements have seen us move away from the traditional guard on a door image and towards one of a skilled workforce and a security service that can add real value to the organizations it protects on several levels.
Now more than ever it is critical that as an industry, we don’t apply a “one size fits all” approach to our customers and the different sectors they operate in. Adopting this narrow mentality will only limit the success of both the service delivery and the provider/customer partnership.
I believe the industry will see its next big evolution through taking a sectorized approach. Companies that are already integrated and that understand risk can propel themselves into the sphere of true security partners, through the capability to deliver based on sector-specific risk.
Sectorization is about focus and developing a more robust skill set in dealing with specific issues and/or threats. These encompass different governance structures, regulatory bodies, accreditations, bespoke business language, and varying degrees of risk, which will dictate who has the ability to deliver the multi-layer services needed.
Sectorized focus and specialization can only be achieved through operational expertise, delivered by teams of experts embracing the idiosyncrasies of the environments. For example, in retail it could be understanding shrink and profit protection; in healthcare it is protecting clinical staff and patients and delivering customer service. In education it is providing pastoral care and enhancing the student experience; and for environments of critical security it will be protecting against risks such as data theft, infiltration, and extreme activities.
Public sector
The public sector has seen budgetary challenges with suggestions that outsourcers are prime to fill the gap. This is a perfect example of the need for an outsourcer to understand the sector if it is to be successful in not only helping to reduce spends, but in meeting the expectations of the general public, particularly in the case of the police.
Really, the key to this is the right people in the right sector — harnessing talent and creating tailored training and learning solutions for more in-depth and on-the-job development of new skills relevant to the sectors.
This sectorized approach helps with creating career growth opportunities and benefiting the overall image of our industry, based on acquiring and demonstrating essential skills, complementing subject matter expertise, and not simply following job descriptions.
These sector leads will be value-added roles with increased accountability around addressing the specific risk and providing a multi-layer solution. Each sector will have a specific need around the management information that will enable organizations to identify trends and to apply the intelligence in determining the risk level. And so, as well as our people’s skills matching the sector, so must our systems and technology in order to add real value.
Security industry growth
I am positive about the prospects of the industry, expecting it to continue to grow over the next three to five years. However the key challenges remain and innovation must be focused on working smarter.
Achieving sectorization for security providers is the only way to unlock their growth potential and partnership status with customers; but it may be easier said than done if they fail to demonstrate the associated benefits to their customer base.
With signs of growth in the economy, however fragile, buyers still focus on cost, value, and return on investment. Whilst the market demands specialists, it still needs to take that leap of faith in expanding its reach in trusting and forging true partnerships — an opportunity that is currently often missed.
My advice is to work with your existing and prospective customers to develop partnerships through a tailored approach, but always keep in mind it cannot be truly tailored without the very best sector specialists.
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I think as more we security industry develops/grow… we more we see sectorized specialization as one single solution fit all no longer apply…
I think that a security company may struggle to survive if it started to specialise it’s personnel too much. The clients want professional, intelligent people and are happy to provide the specialist training required, some actually preferring blank canvases. Training guards in specific disciplines will only give them an overview and the individual company needs would still need to be trained on the job.
So a more generalist approach is required? Do you think though that you can have an organisation with generalist security guards, but led by specialists who will lead those guards one way or the other?
As the current trend is for outsourced guarding, the specialist knowledge will sit with the client, with each client having different priorities/ requirements, which a third party would struggle to keep this knowledge base for all their clients. However, those who lead the guards do need to understand the different requirements for each sector, understanding that the guard they send in for a corporate position may require different skill sets from retail or construction.
also from my past expr. it all depends on the client requr. as per task/security service/clients needs… but as security field grow things change…
Great, that sounds like a sensible approach.
You will see this especially as more and more technology makes it way into the field. More and more you see customized solutions rolled out in the security industry at require specialized knowledge and just like in any other job market you are looking for people that can hit the ground running or already have a general sense of what your system can do. At a previous employer we had a security division that worked to secure and monitor video lottery machines at multiple remote locations. There was a technology component in there that when we started interviewing people we… Read more »
That sounds like a good solution, though. Recognising that you were unable to find people with all of the skills required, you found people with all the skills but one, in common. Was the training solution effective?
@Robert Brown Yes it was successful, what ended up happening was these security personnel would be trained on a system as well as some technical support personnel within the office so when problems came up the two different functions could better communicate with each other about what was going on. This lead to a better working relationship where we had instances where help desk personnel would go out to the field with security personnel to get a better idea of the job they were completing or things they were dealing with and this allowed for the technical support personnel to… Read more »