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The Global Security Challenge
Stay flexible when creating a security management system across multiple continents
By Tom Asp
United States-based companies may experience significant challenges when they look to secure their operations in other countries. These include the obvious, such as different languages and cultural barriers, and also numerous other issues that can make designing a global security plan a potential nightmare.
In Japan, for example, where lifelong jobs with the same company can engender loyalty and a sense of family, employees may feel as though they are not being trusted when an American company installs an access control system inside the corporate structure.
Video surveillance systems are commonplace in and around most U.S. workplaces. But in Germany, courts have ruled that the cameras interfere with employee rights and put workers under undue pressure. Italian employers, on the other hand, can use cameras to monitor employees only with the permission of unions.
In Europe, there tends to more of a desire to have security systems that place a higher priority on protecting people than protecting property; therefore, there are fewer sprinkler systems in Europe than in the United States. But a European facility is likely to have a more comprehensive fire detection system.
Labor costs are lower in South America, making it less expensive to hire guards than in the United States. Conversely, the costs of maintaining an electronic security system are higher, so it is likely that more guards and less technology are protecting South American facilities.
With just those few thoughts in mind, where does a corporate security officer or director turn when it is necessary to protect company employees and property on another continent?
The Global Security Approach
Realistically, there are two ways to approach global security. A corporation may choose to treat each foreign facility as a stand-alone location. It will monitor its own access control and video surveillance systems and provide reports to corporate headquarters. The local office can work directly with a system integrator in the area to design and install the security system and then provide training and maintenance.
