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TAPA APAC REPORTS


RESKILLING SECURITY IN INDUSTRY POST THE COVID-19 ERA


The supply chain world has changed more drastically in the last year than it has in more than a decade, and with it the skillset needed to cope with these changes has also evolved.


Even though the launch of Industry 4.0 was a starting point for reskilling workers, the pandemic has ensured that that time is now. As the pandemic rages on, the uncertain future will give rise to various security decisions as well. Society has been adapting and changing habits rapidly since coronavirus began spreading across the globe. However, protecting assets remains crucial for organisations and facilities. This is as important for supply chains as it is for industries such as healthcare, banking and travel.


Industries such as healthcare, construction and manufacturing are already among those which need strategic security rethinking, both now and post Covid. These industries are bringing in the concept of compartmentalisation. In information security, compartmentalisation, whether public or private, is the limiting of access to information to persons or other entities on a need-to-know basis to perform certain tasks. It originated in the handling of classified information in military and intelligence applications.


Facilities may need to have limited access, with real-time tracking systems maintained by integrated electronic systems. Several other industries like event management and tourism will have to analyse how to control crowd gatherings to maintain social distancing to reduce infection transmission rates. The process of developing a physical security plan now includes virtual meetings, evacuation plans, compartmentalisation skills and flow of people. This also needs to constantly be upgraded and reviewed to prepare for future events and emergencies.


This is especially true for the travel and tourism industry. Both business and leisure travel remains at an all-time low, even after some travel bubbles have opened between countries with lower rates of Covid infections. Unfortunately, the working-from-home culture now in place round the world hits the travel industry the most. According to a McKinsey report during the early days of the Covid-19 outbreak, the travel industry was showing a global decline in tourism of 35-48%. While smaller airlines in some domestic markets will recover faster, international tourism may not come back to pre-Covid-19 levels before 2024. As aviation jobs have subsequently disappeared, Singapore, for example, has reskilled almost a quarter of staff layoffs and put them on the frontlines of community


support centres to help manage the Covid recovery programmes. Even before the pandemic broke out, former airline staff have been reemployed within the healthcare industry, where their persuasive customer service skills can be effectively deployed.


Hotels have also been reskilling workers, from housekeeping to front desk, and even security.


According to research, best practises in maintaining security and public health include:


• Preventing overcrowding of public spaces


• Balancing the physical protection of financial assets and laying the framework for an investment in security services


• Updating ageing security systems


• Maintaining privacy of both employees and the public


• Securing information and data


Reskilling is being slowly implemented. However, the Covid-19 outbreak has accelerated everything and industry must change gears to adapt to this new disruption. The question one must then ask in a situation like this is ‘should we rework security standards for industry and manufacturing to ensure that industry is ready for future disruptions?’


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