Strengthen your


organisation’s personnel security with the NPSA maturity assessment tool


PSA research indicates that many UK businesses haven’t considered whether their personnel security is fit for purpose and are therefore carrying unknown insider risk.


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The Personnel Security Maturity Assessment tool is designed by NPSA to help you understand personnel security maturity in your business and provide steps to manage insider risk.


The Personnel Security Maturity Assessment tool covers the seven key areas of personnel security


• Governance and Leadership • Insider Risk and Management • Pre-Employment Screening • Ongoing Personnel Security • Monitoring and Assessment of the Workforce


• Investigation and Disciplinary Practices • Security Culture and Behaviour Change.


It will provide you with an assessment in each of these key areas plus an overall assessment across all seven keys areas of your personnel security maturity. On completion, the tool will recommend actions to take that will guide you to the next level of maturity. It will also suggest digital learning, guidance and behaviour change campaigns that will help you achieve the appropriate level of personnel security for your business.


The tool is completely free with no fees or subscriptions, available now on the NPSA website.


Is the tool right for me?


This assessment tool has been designed for any business to independently use, regardless of the size or sector. If you’re unsure about its suitability, begin with a short triage questionnaire to assess your readiness for the full assessment.


These questions will help determine whether the tool will be useful in your business’s journey towards developing a personnel security programme and provide next steps so that your organisation gets the most value from using the full assessment tool.


If you are responsible for personnel security in your business or are in a role where you would like to get a snapshot of personnel security maturity, this tool can take you through that process and help you focus resources to build or maintain a proportionate personnel security programme.


The assessments can raise awareness of potential gaps and vulnerabilities in your current personnel security programme to your senior decision makers. It will help to focus attention on those specific areas and support bids for appropriate resources, with engaging colour-coded management information to tell the story.


If you have an insider risk stakeholder group, the tool can help shape your organisation’s action plans, support priorities and measure your organisation’s performance against key indicators.


How does the tool work?


You’ll answer five questions across each of the seven key personnel security areas. For each question, select the response that most closely describes your current business position. You may need to consult


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other business areas to gather accurate information. The tool allows you to pause and save responses, returning later without losing information.


To ensure the output of the tool provides you with a meaningful and fair reflection of your personnel security maturity, along with relevant signposting to appropriate resources, you are, of course, encouraged to respond as accurately as possible.


Based on your responses, you will be immediately provided with an assessment of your maturity in each key area with links to resources that will help you to improve, or maintain, your maturity in those seven key areas.


You will be also provided with an overall personnel security assessment for your business and indications on where improvement is required. This will be presented in graphical format for quick export into reports for senior leaders.


The questionnaire takes approximately 30 minutes to complete by one person who has an in-depth knowledge of the existing personnel security arrangements in your business. You may choose to record your own evidence and notes as you progress through the questionnaire to support your decision making.


You should look to repeat this assessment in the future, as your action plans are implemented and embedded, to help maintain oversight on the development of your personnel security maturity. This information could help influence proportionate resourcing and instil confidence in security-related decisions.


To access this tool please visit the NPSA website: https://psma.npsa.gov.uk


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