Over the past several years of conducting our annual Fast50 market research, we have discovered that by far and away, recruiting talent is the top concern of a growing security dealer/integration firm. But beyond getting employees in the door and on-boarded, there is a second vital component to the recruiting process: training and education.
“Our biggest challenge is the lack of available talent in the security industry, so we have resorted to growing our own talent because the industry has become so complex,” explains Steve Piechota, Vice President of Netronix Integration Inc., which has been ranked in our Fast50 multiple times. “It takes years for someone to fully grasp the breadth of this business. It spans basic low-voltage electricity, high-voltage electricity, building codes, fire codes, security practices, servers, networks, video and locking hardware – just to name a few areas of expertise.”
When it comes to training your employees and adding the vital "retention" to the recruiting equation, there is certainly more than one way to accomplish the task. Let’s take a closer look at a few of the most popular ways:
The Vendor Comes to You: ASSA ABLOY’s Mobile Training
If you have been to a major security trade show lately, you have probably at least noticed the ASSA ABLOY 18-wheeler. Last year, the company’s Door Security Solutions unit introduced the Mobile Installation Training Showroom to its fleet of vehicles – a blend of the company’s “Innovation Fleet,” which featured a lineup of vehicles that worked as mobile showrooms, and its onsite training and e-learning coursework offered through the ASSA ABLOY Academy.
By combining the two concepts, the Mobile Installation Training Showroom – a full-sized, 53-foot tractor-trailer customized to allow both sides of the trailer to expand outward when parked – brings the classroom directly to an integrator, dealer or locksmith’s front door.
“The Mobile Installation Training Showroom can help anyone interested in improving their understanding of any aspect of door security solutions,” says Sean McGrath, VP of Marketing, Business Development and Training for ASSA ABLOY Door Security Solutions. “With the mobility of the vehicle, we are enabling more people to become security experts. We are truly creating a full training environment that just happens to be in your parking lot.”
The expandable design allows for product offerings – such as full size doors and frames, electronic access control and keying stations – to be presented within the vehicle. The coursework curricula enables students to learn and practice proper installation techniques for products that address the security, life-safety, convenience and aesthetic needs of most any type of facility.
“The application of the university coursework in a space built to teach it means that every student walks away with something new,” says Chad Tibbets, and ASSA ABLOY Training Specialist. “We train and support people who are brand new to sales teams, and when they see the real application for the first time, their eyes open wide. They knew what it was, but now they see the magic of the solution, and they can install it and troubleshoot it and better explain the value to clients. We also get locksmiths who have spent their entire lives in the business, and although they have more experience and knowledge, they still walk away telling us that it was well worth their time.”
One of the Mobile Installation Training Showroom’s first stops was in Kansas City at Midwest Wholesale Hardware. “It was extremely helpful to connect a lot of dots that had, frankly, been gaps for me,” says Randy Hedges, Midwest Wholesale’s Inside Sales Manager, who is an industry veteran but had taken four years off from door security solutions while in another role. “The training brings the solutions to life in a very real sense, because there is a lot of mystery. The industry is complicated, with the nomenclature, codes, requirements and functions – especially for someone who might not be mechanically inclined. A lot of mystery was lifted for me.”
Shane Anderson, General Manager of Business Development at Midwest Wholesale Hardware, says that before the truck arrived on the lot, he was skeptical of the training – he worried there simply would not be enough room to make it effective for his staff. “I was deeply impressed with the showroom and its versatility,” Anderson says. “I thought that being able to accomplish all that we did in one day was amazing. From a guy who has been in the industry (for a long time) to a guy who has been in it for three months, it was versatile and useful across the spectrum.”
The mobile showroom spreads the coursework out across the company’s multiple brands, with hands-on training for Adams Rite, Ceco Door, Corbin Russwin, Frameworks, Medeco, Norton, Sargent, ASSA ABLOY Electronic Security Hardware, and Yale products. Also included are McKinney products from ASSA ABLOY Architectural Door Accessories.
“The advantages here run deeper than simply introducing our products and showing off how they work,” McGrath said. “It also has a huge advantage for us as we actively seek out partnerships with the dealers, integrators, security managers and other security professionals that share our goals. We look at this as a prime example of being partners in innovation. We have a ton of information, expertise and ideas, and so do the people who come into our training sessions. Let’s get together and learn what we all have to share.”
You ‘Go to’ the Vendor: Milestone’s eLearning Program
The video surveillance industry has undergone a significant change over the past several years, as technology has migrated from analog to digital. As such, the need for security dealers and integrators to learn the intricacies of that new technology was vast.
Milestone Systems launched its IP video training program in 2004 with two main goals: to drive sales by increasing the channel’s knowledge of its VMS products, and to increase customer satisfaction by ensuring integration partners had the knowledge to design and install solutions based on Milestone technology. However, despite high acceptance and participation in the initial training program, there was a disturbing overall rise in the number of technical support calls to the company, especially in the U.S., and channel partners were providing negative feedback about the quality of the training.
As the market grew and matured, Milestone realized it needed to transform its training and certification program into one centered on delivering expertise as opposed to classroom attendance. To meet this challenge, the Learning & Performance Program at Milestone was born – and it has evolved over recent years to include a vital eLearning component. Training activities focus on learning the skills needed by role and job function in designing, installing, configuring, operating and maintaining the company’s XProtect video management software.
Sessions are now available in easy modules, online or in-person, self-paced or scheduled, with or without an instructor. Certifications are completed separately from training, and they are actually required every two years for Milestone partners selling the more advanced XProtect portfolio offerings.
“Milestone certifications are a brand promise to our customers regarding the knowledge and skill of any individual partner,” explains Greg Willmarth, Director of Learning & Performance. “The Learning & Development Program is centered on proven, relevant expertise as opposed to one-size-fits-all classroom attendance with a paper-based, multiple-choice test.”
With the new training and certification offering, Milestone made several fundamental changes to the structure of the program. First, it separated training (skill development) from certifications (proving expertise), and today participation in a training class is not a guarantee of certification. The certification assessments are no longer given in class, but instead taken online. Attending a class is no longer required to pass a certification assessment: learners can develop skills in a variety of ways, including in classes, on the job, or through a library of eLearning options.
“We have had a number of our team use this tool, and we were able to learn the products without expending a great deal of valuable resources and time,” says Micheal Saltzgiver, President of HEI Security.
Another fundamental change is the addition of a new design certification program, added to the two levels of technical installation certifications. During analysis when creating the new certification program, it became apparent that gaps in system design skills were often the root cause of technical support issues. The new design class was developed with a corresponding certification assessment.
The Learning & Performance team worked with a host of internal stakeholders, subject matter experts, and external partners, to specify in detail, the knowledge skills required of a designer and technician (at two skill levels). Master competencies were identified and broken down into sub-competencies.
“Role-based training builds knowledge and skills that better transfer into on-the-job performance, and the certification assessments allow partners to prove their expertise and differentiate themselves from the competition,” Willmarth says.
With the documentation of the required job competencies completed, the team created the online certification assessments using a variety of question styles including scenario-based questions and software simulations. The certification assessments can also serve in building knowledge. When an assessment is not successfully passed, feedback is given to the learner outlining which competencies they have mastered and where further study is needed.
“The eLearning is a good tool for people who are already familiar with the product to become up to date, discover new features and refresh their understanding,” says Uzi Grindler of Interceptor Security.
Finally, to provide visibility into the impact of an untrained partner, Partner Expertise dashboards were developed. The dashboards pull together data regarding training and certification completions and technical support calls. Available on computers or mobile devices, these dashboards are very useful to identify individuals in need of additional training.
While it is still too early to see the full impact of the new program, the results after the first 12 months of operation include more than 2,000 certifications passed in 77 different countries and 11 different languages. The frequency of support calls per installation dropped by 20 percent in the U.S. (which has the highest number of new certifications) in 2016, and the results from an annual survey indicate that partners now view the training and certification program as innovative and a competitive advantage.
“eLearning has become an even more popular training delivery format than instructor-led classes, which allows us to cost-effectively expand our global reach,” Willmarth says. “We will continue to expand our eLearning catalog, and are looking at new ways to grow expertise and support job performance globally.”
A Combination of Both: Trade Shows and Events
As an executive in the security and communications industries for decades, Steve Shapiro, General Manager of the Johnson Controls Consumer Group, knows trade shows. And he knows the value of providing conference education sessions in conjunction with shows like the upcoming ISC West (Las Vegas, April 10-13).
“If you don’t attend industry conference education, how do you get your education? Where do you learn about new process and technology, or new competitors,” Shapiro asks. “The security industry appears at times as reusing old technology over and over. Industry education is a way to move forward and lead, and a dialogue with others in a session yields invaluable knowledge due to open question-and-answer periods.”
As a member of the Board of Directors for the Security Industry Association (SIA), Shapiro recognizes the strategic relationship between conference education sessions provided by SIA Education@ISC and the exhibitor hall at ISC West; in fact, there is a symbiotic relationship between the two.
“The conference gives people the opportunity to learn about the products and technologies displayed on the trade show floor,” says Kimberly Roberts, SIA Director of Education and Training. “Instead of getting a sales pitch from an exhibitor on the show floor – which is perfectly fine – people have the opportunity to hear case studies involving products and technologies and learn about them in conference. It is structured to be an educational experience – people become more educated consumers, and they know what questions to ask when they go to the showroom floor.”
Technology changes rapidly in the security industry, and what’s “beneath the hood” of specific technologies may not necessarily be evident at first glance. “The education conference is a great way for people to understand which things are becoming more interoperable and how technology has evolved,” Roberts adds, “and how some solutions – which even two or three years ago might have been out of their reach in cost – have become attainable solutions for their security operations.”
To ensure the education program is relevant, SIA calls for presentations from the industry, asking potential presenters to submit concepts that are timely and that also truly provide knowledge for consumers. SIA’s ISC Education Advisory Board reviews the submissions and rates them to determine which merit inclusion in the program. The board consists of established experts, including past ISC presenters who have scored well on their presentations. Most are veterans who have been in the industry for 10 to 15 years or more, and most have technical backgrounds.
Some education sessions at ISC West and ISC East take the form of hands-on workshops. Instead of a lecture, people interact with instructors on a particular thing and engage in interactive exercises. An example of such a “learning lab” at ISC West would be “Advanced Troubleshooting Issues in Surveillance Networks,” on April 10.
There also are sessions dedicated to soft skills, such as sales tactics. Chris Peterson, author of SD&I’s monthly Modern Selling column, has regularly presented educational workshops since 2014 at ISC West. This year, he will present on topics including strategic prospecting and finding and winning new business at ISC West.
“A lot of the people coming to sessions cannot justify paying a guy like me to come train them, but they can go to ISC West to get that training,” Peterson says. “For people that want to learn, you have it all in one spot.”
Paul Rothman is Editor in Chief of Security Dealer & Integrator (SD&I) magazine. Access the current issue, archives and subscription information at www.secdealer.com or visit us at ISC West Booth #23141.
