In search of greater pay

It’s widely acknowledged that the role of the chief security officer is now more important than ever before. The majority of risks faced by major corporate enterprises fall within their remit but, nonetheless, they are still rewarded with lower salaries than other department heads in comparable functions. In truth, this can average 15% for an executive at senior level, or 25% at country executive level. Clearly, some important messages are not being heard in the Boardroom.

It’s not all doom and gloom, though. SSR Personnel Services’ European Salary Survey 2006 shows that senior security executives will have enjoyed salary increases averaging 10% in the current round of wage negotiations. Again on average, new job hires in security departments or those subject to position re-grading will benefit to the tune of 25% of their previous salary level.

The most lucrative sectors for bonuses remain the financial services marketplace, the pharmaceuticals industry and the high tech sector (software development and computing).

Average senior level bonuses are expected to be up to 40% plus of salary for the past 12 months (achieved through a mixture of increased net earnings and cost savings).

Corporations are still complaining that “reliable productivity data” (in other words tangible value to the host organisation) does not exist where the security professional is concerned. This is undoubtedly a perception that will remain until a far greater proportion of security managers have direct responsibility and accountability for what are the key corporate ‘cornerstones’ (namely due diligence, information security, contingency planning and business recovery policies). The distinct lack of ‘job hopping’ among executive security managers is also a significant factor as to why so many corporations do not possess value matrices detailing the ‘productivity’ they can expect from the security function.

Convergence: IT and physical security

The increasing convergence of physical and information security management is also beginning to challenge the core skills of many security managers who, it must be said, have largely ignored this trend. They now risk being subjugated for a number of years by their counterparts in the IT Department unless they can amply demonstrate their business competence across a range of legislative or compliance services.

Immediate concerns for the security professional are facilitating trade in high risk environments, delivering immediate recoverability, protecting and developing corporate governance, demonstrating career path development, managing and improving off-shoring processes and providing so-called ‘plug-and-play’ risk methodologies for business processes

One thing is certain. Next year, skills shortages will be significant when it comes to the middle executive positions. There is now a distinct lack of people with well-developed personal and professional communication skills. Security professionals can be late in developing their business skills outside of the core element of security. In addition, a lack of people moving jobs also prevents experience and acumen from being acquired by a larger cross-section of security practitioners.

In the current climate of globalisation, it must be concluded that the security professional’s remuneration will increase at a greater percentage than the nominal corporate award as corporation Boards of Directors take ever-increasing risks and seek immediate recoverability. This presupposes, of course, that security managers willingly embrace other business threads that help them add value to their own business proposition.

Delivering on business processes

It remains evident that hiring organisations and corporate stakeholders continue to underestimate the degree to which security can genuinely deliver business processes and how individuals might participate as confident business managers in the overall administration of the company.

Immediate concerns for the security professional are facilitating trade in high risk environments, delivering immediate recoverability, protecting and developing corporate governance, demonstrating career path development, managing and improving off-shoring processes and providing so-called ‘plug-and-play’ risk methodologies for defined business processes.

There’s no doubt that the size and shape of the security function can grow quite considerably. The security executive has to be able to persuade its sister business units that sustained investment in security will realise a Return On Investment of 30% and more, even for relatively inexpensive protection programmes.

Strategic alignment, technical awareness and the streamlining of outdated practices will all be essential if efficiencies and cost-effectiveness are to be maximised.