Train your Physical Security Team like a Pro

Throughout my long career in the security field, I have created and managed a great number of physical security training programs. After building out many of these programs for the U.S. military and U.S. Intelligence agencies, I went on to deliver custom-designed programs for corporate security and large-scale tech companies such as Google, Meta, Fitbit, and GoFundMe. In a field as vast as corporate security, it is critically important to have a keen area of specialization. I specialize in creating and running highly effective corporate security training programs. If this is a hot topic for you and you want to know more, read on!????

Identifying the security problem you’re trying to solve

Before you set about implementing any kind of organizational program, it is imperative to ask these two questions up front:

• What is the problem we are trying to solve??
• And, what is the correct tool or action to solve it??

While training is a powerful tool, training alone cannot fix every problem you may be facing within your current physical security program. Perhaps the skillsets of your current security team are misaligned for the job and mission they have been given. Maybe your company’s policies and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) are poorly written and impossible to implement within the work environment you're trying to safegaurd. Maybe you have the wrong security equipment, or that equipment is poorly placed or maintained. Training cannot fix those issues. However, appropriate training can address the following topics because they are all true behavioral and security operational process learning objectives :

• Security Officer and Help Center Customer Service Skills
• Security Awareness and Operational Security Mindset?
• Understanding of Security Protocol and Process
• Emergency Preparedness and Response
• Workplace Violence Detection and Prevention
• Professional De-escalation skills
• Objective Incident Report Writing?
• Executive Protection Operations and Nuances??

Of course, other hot security issues besides these can benefit from proper training. But as you launch a security training program, make sure the act of training can realistically meet the operational security needs your organization may be facing.????

Tools and methods for security training program development

When an organization decides to build or improve upon their corporate security training program, the ADDIE method of instructional design is the optimal choice. ADDIE, or “Analyze, Design, Develop, Implement, and Evaluate,” is an ideal work?ow model for security organizations to follow as they build out not only their security training program but all of their security programs.??

Let me walk you through the ADDIE process as it relates to corporate security training program development.??

Analyze: Through a formal Training Needs Assessment, performed by an experienced instructional designer, use qualitative and quantitative data to identify the programatic security problems you're trying to solve and the security training gaps you wish to ?ll. This is the most important step, and if you do it correctly, your training objectives and priorities will become clear and justifiable.?

Design: As you identify your security learning objectives, remember that all learning objectives must be measurable and observable to be true learning objectives. And because you may in the future need to justify any budgetary or resource request, adding measurement metrics to your training program will help you prove Return On Investment (ROI).??

Develop: Assign experienced Instructors to design solid Learning Management System (LMS) training modules focused on enhancing the learner’s training experience. The training experience can end up being a elearning module, an instructive video, a classroom experience, or a combination of all three.

Implement: Deliver the learning experience in a set time frame. Be upfront on how long this training will take, and be clear about the expectations you desire from the security workforce after completing this training. When legal and compliance standards require, make sure 100% of your security workforce takes a specified training. You will have to demonstrate proof of this when a regulatory inspector pays you a visit or after a major security incident or breach. If a workplace violence incident occurs onsite, it is not a good look to have no idea which security teammates have taken the workplace violence training and which have not. As you launch your training program, be meticulous about programming your LMS to record what percentage of your security team has taken an assigned training at any given time.??????

Evaluate: Utilize the Learning Management System (LMS) and instructional designers to prove the Return On Investment (ROI) of your training experiences. If your current instructional design team (or vendor) says that cannot be done, have them retrained or hire a more experienced team or vendor. Some instructional designers struggle with this task because it can be tedious and challenging if the data they are working with is not solid.???

Establish a corporate security training production lifecycle?

Once you determine that training is indeed the appropriate tool and action you require to improve your existing corporate security program, you should implement a training production workflow which may look something like this:

1. Training Request Intake
2. Instructional Designer Review of Training Request
3. Instructional Designer will Design the Training and Create the Learning Objective
4. Instructional Designer will Develop the Training Product to fully address all Learning Needs of the Requestor
5. The Final Training Product will be Reviewed and Approval by Requestor
6. Training Product Launch
7. Training Product Performance Evaluation
8. Training Product Redesign of needed Based on Performance Evaluation

If you follow your security training production workflow meticulously,? you will find that, over time, identifying learning needs, delivering effective training, and evaluating the effectiveness of your training will come naturally.?

A final note:?

I have been in the government and corporate security training building business for twenty years. If you have questions or would like me to build a corporate security training program for your company or organization, you can reach out to me anytime to request my services.