I4S video: SSR Personnel and Temi Group forge partnership

Today’s businesses are under ever-increasing pressure to meet regulatory requirements, maintain strong operational performance, increase shareholder value and – in what remain fiscally difficult times – reduce costs. None of them easy tasks by any stretch of the imagination.

What those same businesses cannot afford to do is saddle themselves with security and risk management measures that are ad hoc in nature.

It follows, then, that preventing the loss of intellectual property, protecting the brand and responding to crisis scenarios must be on the radar all the while. These ‘wish list’ targets will only be achievable, though, through comprehensive risk management strategies closely (and continually) aligned with the host business’ objectives.

One area where security must be watertight focuses on personnel. Here, host organisations’ due diligence procedures in relation to screening and vetting must be absolutely on the money.

Fair to say that this truism is one of the main reasons behind a new strategic partnership formed by security recruitment specialist SSR Personnel and the Temi Group.

What’s the ‘white noise’ around candidates?

“We’re now working in countries as far afield as China and Brazil,” explained Peter French – the well-known managing director of SSR Personnel and former Master of The Worshipful Company of Security Professionals – at the ASIS International 11th European Security Conference, held this week in central London.

“We have to be certain that, when we’re placing individuals in positions of responsibility on behalf of clients, those individuals are who they say they are. What’s the ‘white noise’ on them that you don’t find out about from a CV? This is precisely where Temi Group can assist us thanks to its representatives’ extensive ‘in country’ knowledge.”

The reason clients are seeking local hires to fill so many important job functions in the corporate security space across the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) nations, for example, is pretty simple: there’s a strong belief that risk mitigation success stories can be driven through local talent ‘capture’ as the shift of geo-profit importance continues from West to East

Arguably more than any other recruiter serving the security risk environment over these past 25 years, SSR Personnel has been – and continues to be – an originator of quality standards aligned to quality assurance when it comes to the localised vetting of candidates on behalf of its various blue chip clients.

Founding partners in the Temi Group have been assisting this vetting procedure alongside SSR for a number of years now. The official ‘formalising’ of Temi Group’s global network will allow SSR greater access to regions, help maintain consistently high standards and offer security risk management services in support of both existing and new blue chip clients.

Temi Group began life in 2008. Its band of dedicated advisory professionals leverages a worldwide ‘ecosystem’ populated by security and risk management specialists holding extensive local knowledge. This serves to deliver enterprise-wide security and risk management services focused on four prime areas: business integrity, organisational resilience, brand protection and value engineering.

The Temi Group ‘vision’ is to provide local expertise on a global basis without hierarchical structure “or any individual greater than the sum of the Group’s parts”. This is achieved by the creation of an ‘administrative office’ rather than a headoffice; in turn realising global Temi Group ‘hubs’ where local senior partners manage projects, deliver service and allocate resource on a collaborative basis.

From a logistical standpoint, this enables quick, dynamic and flexible mobilisation to any required solution.

Due diligence based on concrete knowledge

Temi Group senior partner Roger Warwick, who holds responsibility for the Mediterranean region and orchestrates a business in Italy, describes the operation as “the world’s furthest reaching security and investigations partnership”. Warwick has known Peter French for over two decades, and feels Temi Group and SSR are very much complementary.

“SSR will provide recruitment services through Temi,” asserted Warwick, “while we will offer a due diligence service such that SSR’s clients know the people being placed inside their companies are bona fide individuals. Clients in China, for example, want people working for them who are highly respected in the local community. Whether they are or not is the kind of information we can feed through to Peter’s operation.”

Peter French chipped in: “Working with Temi Group means that when we’re conducting background searches on people for clients, we’re truly ‘working local’ and not relying upon anecdotal evidence. The latter would never be satisfactory.”

He continued: “We’re increasing our number of placements year-on-year. On that basis it’s vitally important we have a standard in place that’s both consistent and adaptable to our clients’ needs.”

According to French, recent assignments for SSR have included Chief Security Officer openings in Scandinavia and a director of investigations in Hong Kong (for the luxury brand sector). Two examples of precisely why a global ‘checking’ network is so central to its clients.

“We’re continually building a global capability both in the traditional and BRIC markets,” continued Roger Warwick. “We have a senior partner and an associate partner in Brazil and a major Russian project in the starting blocks.”

Warwick went on to state: “We fully appreciate the outreach SSR has already gained in security risk placements. The Temi Group will be a global player in security risk management over the coming years, with that position leveraged by SSR as a talent provider.”