Corporate culture is by no means a new concept and both its significance and role in the Executive Protection (EP) world should come as no surprise. Growing up, we had a set of rules to follow in our own homes that may have differed from our friend’s parent’s rules. While we may have come from a very relaxed environment where wearing shoes inside the house and using curt language was acceptable most any time, this was not always the case when we went over to a friend’s home. We knew that over at Jimmy’s house, his mom did not allow any shoes on her carpet and during dinner, only his parents spoke. These differing customs often came with mild criticism and mockery but were accepted as part of the deal when it came to hanging out with Jimmy. It is no different today when doing EP work.
The key to surviving in the EP world not only consists of recognizing the elements of corporate culture but adapting your EP plan to strike a balance between the overall mission of safety and the sometimes quirky desires of the client. On the surface, one could say that the corporate culture includes the values, policies, and generally accepted practices within the organization. In reality, it goes much deeper.
Forbes contributor, Jacob Morgan, defined it well in his 2015 post on How Corporate Culture Impacts the Employee Experience when he said,
“Regardless of what you believe culture is or where it comes from, the one thing that is common is that culture is about feeling.”
As an EP specialist, you may find yourself one day working with a banking or insurance executive where a more formalized appearance and set of interactions is required. The company’s existence for the last century has likely been based on a strong tradition of trust and stability. Business attire is considered mandatory for almost every setting outside of the office and the EP team is expected to meld into that formalism to conform with the company’s image of one people can trust. Communication is almost always strictly professional and the use of “sir”, “ma’am” and “my pleasure” are commonplace. The very next week and you may find yourself on a detail with a young, dot com executive whose instant net worth in the hundreds of millions of dollars was precipitated by a company acquisition or a public offering. In this case, your client may be the sandals and board shorts type of “executive” whose Friday afternoon schedule is often determined by the big wave action in Ocean Beach. They may also frown upon formalized greetings and ask you to address them by their first name. They will occasionally ask for your opinion on things (and as we all know, the usual question involves how long it’s going to take to get to the next place they are going.) The changes in your behavior, mannerisms and dress are based not only on a corporate policy (or lack thereof), but also on an overall feeling that you get for how to adapt to that client’s culture.
Balancing your EP program to adapt to a specific corporate culture is somewhat easier in a formalized setting. There is very little left to chance and ambiguities are often not part of the equation. A rigid structure of protocols, that EP agents can appreciate, is often adhered to without question. We can set our proximity, plan our vehicle positioning and in many instances, know exactly what to expect from our clients. A more relaxed environment, similar to those in the Silicon Valley companies and in the entertainment industry, presents its own unique challenges. The EP must not only be able to adapt in terms of dress and appearance, but also in terms of procedures and protocols. Casual clothing may be acceptable, beards and several days growth of stubble may be encouraged. Similarly, the proximity to a client may be governed completely by the client’s desires and the situation in which they are in public. General practices for remaining near the client may be thrown out the window when they say they don’t want anyone even remotely near them. EP agents must keep in the back of their minds respect for their client’s desire for a certain measure of privacy. I’ve had instances where it seems as though every attempt I made to close the distance between myself and the principal was like the invisible force when similar poles of magnets repel one another. I would move 5 feet closer and he would move 5 feet further away. Often, it is not the client’s desire to have protective agents around them but in fact, a decision mandated by a Board of Directors or other organizational security elements (such as the company’s internal corporate security division, a professional management company, or event/venue policy.) Despite all of this, you just may find that individual agent and individualized corporate cultures may not mesh well together. Even the best attempts at adapting to your client’s corporate culture may not work and a better-suited EP agent is put in as a replacement.
There are oftentimes no definitive answers as to how to handle situations until it comes to that point where one needs to make a decision. The ability to adapt to a changing environment and make decisions based on the totality of circumstances, helps to ensure success in what we do today. Researching a company’s history, speaking with company employees and discussions with colleagues in the industry help give some insight into your clients culture. Doing one’s homework helps in the continuing efforts to balance the need to ensure the client’s safety with the ability to keep the client amenable to having us around.
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I had the pleasure of attending the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) annual convention in Boston this week. Overall, it contained a somewhat surprising number of travel security & risk management related education sessions and found the principle of Duty of Care to be thematic throughout the program. General David Patraeus was a keynote speaker highlighting US politics and military perspectives as related to operating in the global environment. ASIS International Chief Knowledge Officer Michael Gips participated as a panelist on a discussion related to travel risk management at general session as well. Individuals from Facebook, Berkshire Hathaway, Northwestern University, Marriott International, and many others spoke on relevant topics in separate sessions as well. The presence of such titans of industry and their leading the way by speaking on travel risk issues showcases the importance of safety & security being incorporated into today’s meeting and event planning.
From my personal perspective, there were two very important takeaways from the convention:
1. There are over 70+ countries around the world that criminalize LGBTQ in a variety of ways. This is a complex and complicated issue for corporations to deal with properly today due to the legalities involved however Duty of Care cannot be ignored or neglected or it may come back to bite the organization that does choose to delay their dealings with addressing this from a policy/procedure stance. Be sure your management team involved in HR, Corporate Security, Travel, Legal, and operations are all having a dialogue on how best to address this for your organization.
2. The best practices that our company (PRS) are currently employing for meeting & event planning safety & security risk mitigation are in fact in-line with current industry best practice. This is reassuring to hear that other industry stalwarts are following the same approach & methodology that our team practices regularly, start with a detailed risk assessment of venue, program agenda, VIP’s activities, asset allocation to determine your risk mitigation (gap analysis) plan to include personnel staffing, technology as well as policies & procedures awareness. The more the travel industry professionals can become educated about these best practices and on a global scale, all the better. We need to continue to raise awareness of the importance of what security practitioners do to support the meetings & events planners and articulate its importance.
At PRS, we will continue to refine our process as there is no “cookie-cutter” approach for each & every client but rather take the overall high-level areas to address (which should be largely consistent from one industry to another in risk assessment for events) and customize the content for each area for that client and venue. With each & every event project we undertake there is a key takeaway learned to help us better help our clients on future engagements and we do take every advantage to help make our support services to you/your company more agile, scale-able and efficient to ensure a seamless, optimized, zero loss event.
Healthcare providers across the nation continue to grapple with increasing incidents of violence and how to select productive mitigation strategies that promote a safe environment while protecting patient care. This is despite the Joint Commission Sentinel Alert issued in 2010 which attempted to address escalating violence. Much debate has ensued since about how best to curb violence. As a result, many programs were introduced to protect clinicians including training on the early indicators of potential violence, de-escalation techniques, timeliness when requesting assistance from law enforcement, mental health intervention, drills, personal alarm devices, and self-defense. Greater demands have been placed on security officers to be proactive and present when a patient has the potential to become aggressive. Despite this multi-disciplinary approach, violence in healthcare continues to escalate and remains an issue. The Joint Commission and individual states forge ahead in an attempt to create a safer patient care environment. California’s Senate Bill 1299 attempts to chart new territory through an interactive, transparent, and collaborative process designed, hopefully, to mitigate violence.
California SB 1299 – A Review California, in its latest effort to protect clinicians, recently enacted SB 1299 requiring numerous standards to be met and is designed to hopefully reduce incidents of violence. In summary, this legislation mandates covered healthcare providers focus their efforts on specified areas including:
Workplace Violence Prevention Plan – Healthcare providers are required to adopt a workplace violence protection plan as part of the hospital’s injury and illness prevention plan. The plan must always be in effect and applies to all patent care areas including in and outpatient facilities and clinics.
Reporting – To meet mandated reporting requirements of violent incidents and to post such incidents on their website; included in this definition is physical force against a hospital employee by a patient or a person who is a companion of a patient, that results in, or has a high likelihood of resulting in, injury, psychological trauma, and stress regardless if injury was sustained; the use of a firearm or other dangerous weapon must be included as well; violent incidents against employees must be documented and records maintained for at least five years; healthcare provider must report violent incidents resulting in injury or if a firearm was used or other dangerous weapon against a hospital employee regardless if an injury occurred; or, incident resulted in an eminent threat; the hospital shall report the incident to the division within 24 hours. All other incidents shall be reported within 72 hours.
Training – To provide education and training for all staff, including temporary or contingent staff, who give direct patient care; training must be delivered at least annually with interactive questions and answers between staff and the trainers; topics are to include how to recognize the potential for violence, when to seek assistance to prevent or respond to violence; and, how to report to law enforcement.
Infrastructure – Must be in place to ensure sustainability and include resources to cope with the aftermath of violence; a system for responding to violence and subsequent investigation needs to be included.
Partnerships – Must allow unions/bargaining units to be viewed as a collaborative partner, Staffing models designed to prevent violence must be established; there needs to be the presence of “sufficient security measures” including alarms, staffing, security personnel, response protocols and crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED).
Assessment/Monitoring – Provide an assessment of specific units and their potential inclination towards a violent event; assess program impact and needs at least annually and adjust where and when necessary.
Definition of Workplace Violence SB 1299 mandates including in the workplace violence prevention plan a working definition of workplace violence. In California, it is recommended that CAL OSHA’S definition be followed. CAL OSHA defines workplace violence as:
1. “Workplace violence” means any act of violence or threat of violence that occurs at the work site. The term workplace violence shall not include lawful acts of self-defense or defense of others. Workplace violence includes the following:
2. The threat or use of physical force against an employee that results in, or has a high likelihood of resulting in, injury, psychological trauma, or stress, regardless of whether the employee sustains an injury;
3. An incident involving the threat or use of a firearm or other dangerous weapon, including the use of common objects as weapons, regardless of whether the employee sustains an injury;
“Types of workplace violence” are defined in four categories:
a. “Type 1 violence” means workplace violence committed by a person who has no legitimate business at the work site, and includes violent acts by anyone who enters the workplace with the intent to commit a crime.
b. “Type 2 violence” means workplace violence directed at employees by customers, clients, patients, students, inmates, or visitors or other individuals accompanying a patient.
c. “Type 3 violence” means workplace violence against an employee by a present or former employee, supervisor, or manager.
d. “Type 4 violence” means workplace violence committed in the workplace by someone who does not work there, but has or is known to have had a personal relationship with an employee.
Our Perspective Healthcare in the United States prides itself on best practices and continually accepts the challenge of developing new ways to enhance patient care and safety. As such, healthcare has a well-earned positive reputation for sharing information and observing developments beyond state boundaries. While most states have minimum standards for workplace violence prevention and security officer training, it is clear that healthcare providers regardless of location must continue to evaluate their own efforts and watch for breaking developments elsewhere. It is predictable that governing bodies will watch how SB 1299 plays out and the impact it has on curbing violence.
Premier Risk Solutions believes there is an opportunity for healthcare providers across the nation to examine ways to enhance existing safety and security standards. Should transition continue towards the kind of model SB 1299 proposes, then positive changes can be made now ahead of this emerging trend. From our perspective, the unprecedented transparency SB 1299 mandates can adversely impact the brand image and public perception of safety and patient care for California healthcare providers. Should other states adopt similar legislation, the opportunity to have systems in place before being mandated will enhance safety, reputation, and patient care. Therefore, we recommend organizations regardless of location focus on what they have direct control over: High-level execution of the mandated portions of this legislation.
Sufficiently meeting the requirements of SB 1299 or any program designed to enhance safety will be a very time consuming and arduous process involving significant staffing hours to develop, monitor and adjust to meet ever evolving standards. Premier Risk Solutions can help navigate the complexities of SB 1299 or any enhancement of security and safety measures under consideration. We have as part of our team, staff who provided state legislative committee testimony as a subject matter expert during the review process of SB 1299. We can invest the time for you. Our services encompass:
Assessment of your current security posture and future needs.
Preparation of a strategic-plan that fulfills all requirements.
Training for all staff that meets and exceeds requirements.
A follow-up to ensure your program remains on point and producing tangible, positive results.
Enhanced Safety for patients, visitors, and staff.
Contact the PRS team for further information.
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PRS President Michael Delamere and Managing Director Joe Zaccaria had the pleasure of recently participating in a joint in-depth discussion with Dr Michael Corcoran of The WorkThreat Group, industry expert in behavioral psychology, of whom PRS senior management has had a long-standing partnership with over the past approximate decade.
This video will discuss the problem and provide recommendations for implementation and future consideration for your organization as well as provide a couple of real-life case study examples of how all aspects of private security come into confluence as related to this topic. Gain a deeper understanding of Workplace Violence Prevention and all components (investigations, protection, crisis management, etc) that go into it! Please do communicate any questions you or your organization may be struggling with in relation to this topic.
Often times in in our consulting practice we hear from our clients and prospective clients that they are missing a policy or procedure, gates or guns, cameras or access control components that they desire to have in place. This may all be very well appropriate perhaps for the organization, however, what often times occurs is a disconnect with the enterprise security risk management plan. All organizations regardless of their size need to have a plan in place. Some will be required to be more robust than others. Some don’t have one & know they need one and, although rare, some don’t realize a need for one at all, whether it be out of ignorance or negligence.
At PRS we truly believe that each enterprise must have a custom approach to suit their individual business & organizational needs. We do not wish to push a size 12 shoe across the board to any or all of our good clients or prospective clients. Rather, the approach that we take through our pre-assessment phase is to learn details through a security maturity evaluation. Listen to our Senior Advisor & Chief Security Officer – Rich Mason – in this video highlighting the issues and approach we take towards providing our solution to Enterprise Security Risk Management. Learn more about this extremely important and complex issue! Are you ready for a Security Transformation?
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Serving US: Seattle, Bellevue, San Francisco, San Jose, Sunnyvale, Cupertino, Fremont, Milpitas, San Mateo, Palo Alto, Sacramento, Los Angeles, Orange County, San Diego, Las Vegas, Reno, Portland, Vancouver WA, Honolulu, Denver, Salt Lake City, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Austin, Chicago, Columbus, Atlanta, Tampa, Orlando, Miami, Charlotte, Washington DC, New York City, Boston
Serving International: Vancouver Canada, Mexico, Guatemala, Panama, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Peru, Ireland, United Kingdom, France, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Czech Republic, Netherlands, Poland, Hungary, Turkey, Ukraine, Russia, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria, Algeria, Egypt, India, Bangladesh, China, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Philippines, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea
Mark Kominek, Senior Consultant and Technical Surveillance Countermeasures (TSCM) Expert for PRS and former FBI Agent discusses the current state of technical espionage devices being used against corporate America and what can be done to guard the C-Suite at the office and at home.
If your organization would like to confidentially discuss any potential concerns you may have, please email us at info@www.premierrisksolutions.com or call us at [company-phone id=1].
**We recommend you make such calls from outside the area of concern. Do not use any mobile or hard-wired telephony or other equipment you feel may be compromised.
Scott Schlimmer, Senior Consultant for PRS and former CIA Officer introduces an exciting new intelligence analysis course designed for security professionals. Bringing global events of importance to the C-Suite is often very difficult in our 24/7/365 new cycles. The course is designed to funnel global events through a filter, in order to turn the information into actionable intelligence that will command the attention of corporate executives.
Email PRS with your interest in this training: info@www.premierrisksolutions.com Let us know your organization’s name, preferred US training city (or if you prefer web-based training), and the number of people you have interested in attending the program.
PRS will then prepare a nationwide training schedule for the course, as well as webinar schedules in the near future.
