LinkedIn is one of Securitas’ largest clients and the world’s largest online professional network with offices across the world. The rise of Covid-19 brought updated complex government safety regulations across all industries, including business sectors. These regulations created challenges for LinkedIn that went beyond traditional security needs.
"We have a robust security infrastructure, but security officers were being asked to help configure workplaces to comply with government Covid requirements for re-opening. They just didn't have these skill sets," says Chuck St. Pierre, Director, Global Safety & Security Operations, LinkedIn.
Navigating complex safety regulations
Securitas partnered with LinkedIn to map the scope of a newly dedicated Environmental Health and Safety Team and develop a process to quickly respond to and implement new government guidelines to support LinkedIn's workplace operations. The team’s goal? To meet the client’s needs and ensure 100% compliance.
"We began the conversation by asking how we can do this quickly to support constantly changing Covid requirements. Our best option was to leverage existing staff and, though we didn’t know it at the time, it turned out to be a diamond in the rough. It was a pioneering effort that we hadn't seen before," St. Pierre says.
Expanding support for health and safety roles
The opportunity allowed LinkedIn to meet their compliance needs while expanding their footprint with Securitas to create an essential workforce. Additional security officers were brought in specifically for the teams and in some cases filled new roles, like the health and safety advisor or the site security specialist.
The entire process took about a year to go from ideation to implementation. Now, there is a Securitas Health and Safety Team at all 34 LinkedIn offices. We’ve also created a combined role as a security and safety officer.
These officers and teams received extensive training to help manage and mitigate numerous Covid configuration compliance risks, help manage government-required Covid contact tracing investigations and reporting, and help educate workplace employees about required behaviors, such as mask-wearing, social distancing, and space utilization. They’re doing basic health and safety tasks as well.
Implementing a holistic approach to security
What began as a way to meet compliance needs has developed into a stronger partnership and a new security model, one with global reach focused on a more holistic solution.
“We hope to see more from our partnership in the future as we continue to grow together. We're looking at implementing more technology into our security footprint. If we can centralize more functions that make sense, we get one big team all with the shared purpose. That's the benefit of holistic security,” St. Pierre says.
A plan to implement Health and Safety teams into LinkedIn’s data centers is in progress.
Custom solutions for the modern security landscape
The days of one-size-fits-all security are over. To continue to help keep people and assets safe in a dynamic world requires new solutions and new ways of looking at things.
"With this partnership, we’re creating a client journey mindset where we strive to build strong client experiences. We do this by exploring our best solutions, offering our expertise, mapping out all of our client touchpoints, and collaborating purposefully," says Bert den Hartog, Global Account Director, Securitas.
The partnership between LinkedIn and Securitas redefines the traditional boundaries of security. Rather than determining how the client's needs fit into a predefined box of services, both companies began by looking at the needs and then together leveraged their assets and strengths to create a solution.
Security and safety – how it should be.
