1) The document discusses an upcoming business security conference in Warsaw, Poland called SASMA. It notes that central and eastern Europe is an important region that cannot be ignored by both businesses and security departments. 2) It provides an overview of some of the economic and security-related challenges facing countries in central and eastern Europe, including Ukraine and Russia, such as organized crime, counterfeiting, and effects of the ongoing conflict between Ukraine and Russia. 3) The conference aims to inform both private sector security professionals and government officials on important issues in the region and help benchmark security standards to international levels. It highlights how understanding dynamics in central and eastern Europe is relevant even for companies based far from the region.

1. SEPTEMBER 2015 PROFESSIONAL SECURITY www.professionalsecurity.co.uk
Security Management
Part of our continent
you cannot ignore
AHEAD OF BUSINESS CONFERENCE:
104
Windmill at museum in Ukraine.
Despite strife, the region’s surged
economically since the collapse
of the Soviet Union - as western
businesses have appreciated
More details
The seventh SASMA
Business Security
Conference 2015 is
running in Warsaw on
November 26 and 27.
Visit www.sas-ma.org. p
Eastern Europe is a part of our
continent that you can’t ignore,
Peter French of SSR Personnel tells
us ahead of a business security
conference in Poland.
A
nd that need to understand
eastern Europe is as true
for businesses looking for
markets as security departments
looking at risks and staffing UK sites,
he argues. SSR’s been sponsoring
the SASMA conference in Warsaw
each autumn for seven years. He told
Professional Security: “You can’t
ignore it as a market sector.” Indeed
once you, as Peter has, talk to people
in that region, they tell you that they
aren’t eastern Europeans - they are
central Europeans. Further east - such
as Ukraine and Russia - is eastern
Europe.
‘Don’t have to be dour’
For some years now the UK service
sector in general, including security,
has hired and indeed relied on young
people from Hungary, Romania,
Poland and the like: with good and
helpful attitudes. Peter thinks that
the security sector has a great deal to
learn from coffee and sandwich shops
and so forth using central Europeans
behind the counter; why not employ
them in Security, given training on
top of the people skills they already
show? Peter says: “I know some
vendors are now saying, actually I
can teach someone to do security;
you don’t have to be dour to be a
security person.” While shift working
is not suitable for everyone, and the
traditional 12-hour shift might be
the last thing that someone wants to
do, security guarding is a relatively
well-paid job compared with others
in the service sector; those slightly
longer hours, especially if in a four-
day pattern, allow more leisure time,
which might appeal to young people
from abroad in a big English city
that’s new to them.
Risky region
Central and eastern Europe
remains a risky region; with
commercial opportunities
come threats, as Peter sets out.
The civil strife in Ukraine, or
Russian invasion - depending
on point of view - affects both
sides, not least because of
European Union sanctions on
Russia. What was a fairly stable
part of Europe now has areas
of lawlessness, which may
affect the security of travellers
and goods alike. Even before
the Russia-Ukraine conflict,
the region had counterfeits and grey
market goods on the move, as their
makers want nothing more than to
sell them into western supply chains,
typically of cigarettes and alcohol.
Likewise, western brands want
to combat the counterfeits. Also,
organised crime is trafficking in drugs,
people, and guns. As a recruitment
consultancy, SSR has been in the
region for at least 15 years. Peter
says that English is the language of
business in the region, whatever the
company or nation. Interestingly, for
all the talk for years of globalisation,
businesses seek local hires, who have
local or national knowledge, whether
of law or the threats to doing business.
Benchmark
That said, central European businesses
want to know about British Standards
and such international standards
as ISO 9000, to benchmark their
own business. Hence the SASMA
conference, that Bill Butler spoke at
last year while still chief exec of the
SIA. Poland has actually de-regulated
its private security; its guards were
once badged and required training;
now (as the UK would find if it did
away with the SIA?) guarding vendors
are finding themselves under-cut by
the untrained. If a buyer is looking
to squeeze, the cut tends to come in
the officer’s wages. The SASMA
conference, then (it’s in English and
Polish) is also for politicians and
civil servants; to inform that sector
regulation has a point, and private
security is justified. Peter recalls
in Brussels a Labour minister for
Europe replying to a question why
there wasn’t more interaction with
the private sector. “He said, ‘you are
only here for the profit’. Part of what
we are trying to do at the conference
is try to change opinions in central
government, to get them to come
along and understand and hear what
the issues are.”
Ring-fenced Russia
Besides border security, which affects
transport and supply chains for
consumer goods (note UK corporate
security speakers at SASMA have
been from the likes of British-
American Tobacco, Tesco and Pfizer),
central Europe has multi-nationals
that care about security, and quality,
Peter says; and vendors are trying to
keep the standards up. You might take
the view that Poland, Ukraine and
so on are miles from the UK. While
multi-nationals in that region are
Peter French
HAPPY
‘The security industry is
so varied and every day
is different.’
Dawn Holmes, Vice
president corporate
security, at Bank of
America Merrill Lynch.

2. www.professionalsecurity.co.uk SEPTEMBER 2015 PROFESSIONAL SECURITY 105
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Security Management
Employers’ guide
On the SfS website is
a toolkit for employers
as a guide to recruiting
and retaining female
staff. Visit: http://www.
skillsforsecurity.org.uk//
gfx/pictures/1437160578.
pdf. p
looking to ‘ring-fence’ Russia, that’s partly to keep on doing business with
neighbours such as Kazakhstan, where a booming Vegas-style economy is
rich in minerals and a growing middle class that wants consumer products.
Private security here has to protect goods containers besides goods, as the
containers if stolen might be as expensive a loss (in terms of replacement)
as much as what they’re carrying. The trouble in Ukraine only adds to
bright young people with computer skills who may not find a legit job
and who have nothing to do. They may find work as computer hackers,
hijacking and ransoming websites. Likewise Peter points to an insider
threat here in the UK, of intelligent young people in work who maybe
are less than satisfied and may create a security risk. He’s not saying that
central European staff are necessarily a risk, any different from a worker
from Nottingham or Birmingham; but security managers should be alive
to that. Peter points to a generational difference; the 50-year-olds lived
their first 25 years under communism and the last 25 under freedom, and
have seen big rises in income. The 25-year-old, by contrast, your Slovakian
electrician or your Latvian mall security officer, may take freedom for
granted. It all adds up to the reason for the SASMA conference and why
- even if you think the Polish border is several borders away - we are
immersed in central and eastern Europe even if we don’t know it. p
SASMA speakers
SSMA speakers include Godfried Hendriks, the Dutch consultant, a board
member of the US-based security management association ASIS
International; the counter-fraud trainer and investigator Nigel Iyer; Johan
Hartman, the Regional MD for Citi in the Europe, Middle East and Africa
(EMEA) region, responsible for physical security, investigations and fraud
management in 54 countries; Laurence Freeman, the Director Corporate
Protection, Business Continuity and Crisis Management in adidas Group;
and Russ Stewart, Head of Business Continuity, Safety and Security for
audit firm KPMG in the UK. p
FEMALES HAVE A GOAfter Skills for Security‘s schools workshops, most, 88 per
cent, of female students were interested in finding out
more about the security industry and its careers, SfS says.
As part of an Equality and Diversity project with the
Equality Challenge Unit (ECU) and the Skills Funding
Agency (SFA), Skills for Security (SfS) aimed to
encourage females to consider security as a career choice
and set out to tackle some of the preconceptions of an
industry that is 92pc male. By understanding the schools’
thoughts on the industry, SfS says that it has been able
to develop detailed guidance material for schools and
employers. From January to June SfS delivered workshops
with schools and students as an introduction to the
security industry with ‘have a go’ sessions and a guest
speaker. Most students attending reported that they hadn’t
considered the security industry as a career as it was male
dominated and there was of a fear of not ‘fitting in’. SfS
adds that it was clear that teachers and career advisers
were not aware of the range of career routes available in
the security industry, however, students in the workshop
showed more interest in the security industry than they had
before the session. In total 79pc of students were interested
in getting further information about the security industry,
and, out of those students that took part in the
peer focus group, 30pc of male students and 88pc
of females indicated an interest in getting further
information on the security industry after the session.
SfS gathered feedback on student opinions of the
security industry and what employers could do to
attract more students.
‘Security is changing’
One student said afterwards: “The workshop has given
me a greater ambition of working in the industry as I
have learnt there is a lot more to it than just being a
bodyguard.” Dawn Holmes advocates the training and
opportunities available in the security industry as she
progressed from warehouse supervisor to vice president
of corporate security at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
After taking a degree in fine art, she began work at Boots,
and an investigator’s job advertised caught her eye. She
then went to the Britannia Building Society; Experian;
and to her current role at Bank of America. She points
out: “Security is changing and there is strong requirement
for new entrants from a range of backgrounds possessing
varying experiences and qualifications that will strengthen
the team.” p
WORKSHOPS IN SCHOOLS:
Students trying their
hand at installation
Photo courtesy of Skills for
Security