How preparedis your business? Post-pandemic


The Protect Duty:


The planned introduction of the Protect Duty legislation, which seeks to impose a legal obligation on organisations to consider the safety and security of their staff and the public who use their facilities.


Why am I so passionate about the subject?


I began my security career as a security officer for a very large security company working on multiple client sites and dealing with incidents as part of the role. I understood then what support I needed and how training and procedural advice would help me.


My career has taken me through various operational roles, as per my role in 1996 to senior operational strategic roles as Group Head of Security for two large organisations. The latter was the largest shopping centre owner in the UK, intu, until its sad demise in 2020 due to company administration.


In my role at intu I was, for the first time, able to really set the security strategy for the organisation – and with great support from the senior directors and group board, we introduced crisis management and major incident management training into our shopping centre-based teams at all levels to support our teams on the ground.


This strategy


delivered training which moved away from


traditional table-top exercises and actually tested our teams against the procedures they were operating to, in realistic settings.


Live scenarios tested their reactions and their decision making and placed them under an element of pressure to manage the crisis and bring the incident to a conclusion.


The introduction of duty management assessments ensured that those responsible for managing an incident were prepared for that responsibility and trained against the procedures to support their teams in the decision-making process and to liaise and work with the emergency services.


Supporting those dealing with crises


Now, I’m not saying this live scenario training would have prevented a crisis. Nor would it mean – necessarily – that in a real event, there


© CITY SECURITY MAGAZINE – AUTMN 2021


would not be lessons to learn or things we would or could do differently.


What it did do, I believe, was demonstrate to the people receiving the training that the company cared about them and wanted to support them in undertaking their challenging roles and helping them to be as prepared as possible to deal with a crisis – even though, in the environment they were working in, this was a very likely event that would take place.


Senior leaders may read this article and say “We have been dealing with a crisis since February 2020 with the pandemic, so what training do my teams now


need? We have


managed well, our business is fully open and


things are finally looking positive for the coming months.”


In part, that would be correct. Businesses have managed an extremely


difficult situation well in general, but that has come at a cost. Financially, there are more constraints on business in a lot of sectors.


Businesses have had to make difficult decisions and headcounts have been reduced, with people losing their livelihoods, budgets being slashed and cost cutting in place - with training more than likely being an area of cost reduction. However, the threats have not gone away. Teams will still need to be supported and prepared to manage crises.


The governance structure in place around accountability and evidencing what, as an organisation, you have done to mitigate risk is still very prevalent.


Post-pandemic – are you prepared?


So, the question that organisations should be asking themselves post-pandemic is “How prepared is your business, how prepared are your teams and are you doing enough to mitigate risk and prepare your teams for that next crisis?”.


• It will happen, unfortunately, and it will be instant - without government briefings or advice telling you what to do.


• It will lead to disruption to your business and, if significant enough, could lead to injury and death.


• It will have an effect on your brand and could affect your reputation.


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• It could see senior directors in an enquiry answering questions about decisions they took or failed to take.


So, how important is that bigger Christmas tree in retail this year? How important is a management away day? How important is a glossy new brochure telling everybody what a great company you are?


I would say they all have a role to play and are important, but if it is at the cost of supporting your teams in being prepared to manage crises, and testing teams and first-line management response against your procedures, then I would say, in the big scheme of things, a big Christmas tree won’t help in an enquiry, a management away day won’t evidence support to your teams and a glossy company brochure may well not be read.


We see the support that organisations provide for their employees around a number of very important aspects of working in today’s society, across small and large businesses and in complex work environments. That support is weakened if employees don’t have the tools to do their jobs and are not prepared to face challenges that may well arise in their roles.


To all the front-line employees who face the risk of dealing with crisis situations every day, you have my total respect!


Ian Pugh


Non-Executive Director Kiasu Group


www.kiasugroup.co.uk


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