SEPTEMBER 2015 PROFESSIONAL SECURITY www.professionalsecurity.co.uk

Security Management

Part of our continent you cannot ignore

AHEAD OF BUSINESS CONFERENCE:

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Windmill at museum in Ukraine. Despite strife, the region’s surged

economically since the collapse of the Soviet Union - as western

businesses have appreciated

More detailsThe seventh SASMA Business Security Conference 2015 is running in Warsaw on November 26 and 27. Visit www.sas-ma.org. p

Eastern Europe is a part of our continent that you can’t ignore, Peter French of SSR Personnel tells us ahead of a business security conference in Poland.

And that need to understand eastern Europe is as true for businesses looking for

markets as security departments looking at risks and staffing UK sites, he argues. SSR’s been sponsoring the SASMA conference in Warsaw each autumn for seven years. He told Professional Security: “You can’t ignore it as a market sector.” Indeed once you, as Peter has, talk to people in that region, they tell you that they aren’t eastern Europeans - they are central Europeans. Further east - such as Ukraine and Russia - is eastern Europe.

‘Don’t have to be dour’For some years now the UK service sector in general, including security, has hired and indeed relied on young people from Hungary, Romania, Poland and the like: with good and helpful attitudes. Peter thinks that the security sector has a great deal to learn from coffee and sandwich shops and so forth using central Europeans behind the counter; why not employ them in Security, given training on top of the people skills they already show? Peter says: “I know some vendors are now saying, actually I can teach someone to do security; you don’t have to be dour to be a security person.” While shift working is not suitable for everyone, and the traditional 12-hour shift might be the last thing that someone wants to do, security guarding is a relatively well-paid job compared with others in the service sector; those slightly longer hours, especially if in a four-day pattern, allow more leisure time, which might appeal to young people from abroad in a big English city that’s new to them.

Risky regionCentral and eastern Europe remains a risky region; with commercial opportunities come threats, as Peter sets out. The civil strife in Ukraine, or Russian invasion - depending on point of view - affects both sides, not least because of European Union sanctions on Russia. What was a fairly stable part of Europe now has areas of lawlessness, which may affect the security of travellers and goods alike. Even before the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the region had counterfeits and grey market goods on the move, as their makers want nothing more than to sell them into western supply chains, typically of cigarettes and alcohol. Likewise, western brands want to combat the counterfeits. Also, organised crime is trafficking in drugs, people, and guns. As a recruitment consultancy, SSR has been in the region for at least 15 years. Peter says that English is the language of business in the region, whatever the company or nation. Interestingly, for all the talk for years of globalisation, businesses seek local hires, who have local or national knowledge, whether of law or the threats to doing business.

BenchmarkThat said, central European businesses want to know about British Standards and such international standards as ISO 9000, to benchmark their own business. Hence the SASMA conference, that Bill Butler spoke at last year while still chief exec of the SIA. Poland has actually de-regulated its private security; its guards were once badged and required training; now (as the UK would find if it did away with the SIA?) guarding vendors are finding themselves under-cut by the untrained. If a buyer is looking to squeeze, the cut tends to come in the officer’s wages. The SASMA

conference, then (it’s in English and Polish) is also for politicians and civil servants; to inform that sector regulation has a point, and private security is justified. Peter recalls in Brussels a Labour minister for Europe replying to a question why there wasn’t more interaction with the private sector. “He said, ‘you are only here for the profit’. Part of what we are trying to do at the conference is try to change opinions in central government, to get them to come along and understand and hear what the issues are.”

Ring-fenced RussiaBesides border security, which affects transport and supply chains for consumer goods (note UK corporate security speakers at SASMA have been from the likes of British-American Tobacco, Tesco and Pfizer), central Europe has multi-nationals that care about security, and quality, Peter says; and vendors are trying to keep the standards up. You might take the view that Poland, Ukraine and so on are miles from the UK. While multi-nationals in that region are

Peter French

HAPPY

‘The security industry is so varied and every day is different.’Dawn Holmes, Vice president corporate security, at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

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Security Management

Employers’ guideOn the SfS website is a toolkit for employers as a guide to recruiting and retaining female staff. Visit: http://www.skillsforsecurity.org.uk//gfx/pictures/1437160578.pdf. p

looking to ‘ring-fence’ Russia, that’s partly to keep on doing business with neighbours such as Kazakhstan, where a booming Vegas-style economy is rich in minerals and a growing middle class that wants consumer products. Private security here has to protect goods containers besides goods, as the containers if stolen might be as expensive a loss (in terms of replacement) as much as what they’re carrying. The trouble in Ukraine only adds to bright young people with computer skills who may not find a legit job and who have nothing to do. They may find work as computer hackers, hijacking and ransoming websites. Likewise Peter points to an insider threat here in the UK, of intelligent young people in work who maybe are less than satisfied and may create a security risk. He’s not saying that central European staff are necessarily a risk, any different from a worker from Nottingham or Birmingham; but security managers should be alive to that. Peter points to a generational difference; the 50-year-olds lived their first 25 years under communism and the last 25 under freedom, and have seen big rises in income. The 25-year-old, by contrast, your Slovakian electrician or your Latvian mall security officer, may take freedom for granted. It all adds up to the reason for the SASMA conference and why - even if you think the Polish border is several borders away - we are immersed in central and eastern Europe even if we don’t know it. p

SASMA speakersSSMA speakers include Godfried Hendriks, the Dutch consultant, a board member of the US-based security management association ASIS International; the counter-fraud trainer and investigator Nigel Iyer; Johan Hartman, the Regional MD for Citi in the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region, responsible for physical security, investigations and fraud management in 54 countries; Laurence Freeman, the Director Corporate Protection, Business Continuity and Crisis Management in adidas Group; and Russ Stewart, Head of Business Continuity, Safety and Security for audit firm KPMG in the UK. p

FEMALES HAVE A GOAfter Skills for Security‘s schools workshops, most, 88 per cent, of female students were interested in finding out more about the security industry and its careers, SfS says.As part of an Equality and Diversity project with the Equality Challenge Unit (ECU) and the Skills Funding Agency (SFA), Skills for Security (SfS) aimed to encourage females to consider security as a career choice and set out to tackle some of the preconceptions of an industry that is 92pc male. By understanding the schools’ thoughts on the industry, SfS says that it has been able to develop detailed guidance material for schools and employers. From January to June SfS delivered workshops with schools and students as an introduction to the security industry with ‘have a go’ sessions and a guest speaker. Most students attending reported that they hadn’t considered the security industry as a career as it was male dominated and there was of a fear of not ‘fitting in’. SfS adds that it was clear that teachers and career advisers were not aware of the range of career routes available in the security industry, however, students in the workshop showed more interest in the security industry than they had before the session. In total 79pc of students were interested in getting further information about the security industry,

and, out of those students that took part in the peer focus group, 30pc of male students and 88pc of females indicated an interest in getting further information on the security industry after the session. SfS gathered feedback on student opinions of the security industry and what employers could do to attract more students.

‘Security is changing’One student said afterwards: “The workshop has given me a greater ambition of working in the industry as I have learnt there is a lot more to it than just being a bodyguard.” Dawn Holmes advocates the training and opportunities available in the security industry as she progressed from warehouse supervisor to vice president of corporate security at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. After taking a degree in fine art, she began work at Boots, and an investigator’s job advertised caught her eye. She then went to the Britannia Building Society; Experian; and to her current role at Bank of America. She points out: “Security is changing and there is strong requirement for new entrants from a range of backgrounds possessing varying experiences and qualifications that will strengthen the team.” p

WORKSHOPS IN SCHOOLS:

Students trying their hand at installation

Photo courtesy of Skills for Security