April 2009

Andrews International 1st Quarter Growth and New Hires

Andrews International gained $15 million in new organic growth revenue in the first quarter 2009, with awards concentrated in high-tech and public sectors, including a multi-million dollar government contract in Los Angeles. In addition to revenue growth, Andrews International has also expanded its geographic footprint, opening a new Pacific Northwest regional office in Seattle, Washington.

To lead the Pacific Northwest Region, Andrews International hired Executive Director Mike Kolatski, CPP in February 2009. Based in Seattle, Washington, Kolatski has oversight of business development and operations throughout the Pacific Northwest. Kolatski reports to Ty Richmond, Chief Operating Officer of Andrews International.

Kolatski most recently served as security manager for the City of Seattle, with responsibility for all City facilities including City Hall, the Municipal Court and Seattle Police Department headquarters, as well as a 62-story Class A high rise building. Previously, he was security manager of the Washington State Convention and Trade Center and had oversight of event security staffing for the 1989 baseball World Series. Originally from Wisconsin, Kolatski began his security career with the Milwaukee Brewers baseball club in 1978.  He also has experience in the public sector, as a law enforcement officer for the City of Milwaukee from 1982 to 1988.

Andrews International also recently hired John Petruzzi, Jr., CPP, CISM as senior vice president of operations and business development for the Northeast Region. Petruzzi also reports to Ty Richmond, and is based in the company's New York City/Manhattan office.

Petruzzi has more than 18 years of security experience in both the public and private sector.  Previously the vice president, corporate security management for Simon Property Group, Petruzzi has extensive experience as the CSO and leader of progressive corporate security functions. During the past 10 years, he has held leadership positions with direct responsibility for managing physical and information security programs in investment banking, public utilities and commercial real estate.

"We have expanded our leadership team with strategic hires that bring significant experience in enterprise risk management in both public and private sectors to our Pacific Northwest and Northeast Regions," said Ty Richmond, "John and Mike have diverse backgrounds and expertise that add value to our operations in both areas and enhance our support structure for stronger client-focus."

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Andrews International Partners with Brightfly for Enterprise Risk Management

In February 2009, Andrews International announced the formation of a strategic partnership with Brightfly, an information security and compliance research and advisory services firm, to provide comprehensive risk management services that bridge the gap between physical security, information security and enterprise risk governance. 

The partnership is an endeavor to offer clients a more holistic and cost effective approach to enterprise-wide security solutions, encompassing both physical and information technology protection strategies. The alliance offers assessment of the risk profile across customers' entire enterprise. The process combines thorough consultation of customers' information technology and security systems to provide solutions to mitigate and manage identified risk.  Intelligence gathered provides customized, expert risk analysis and planning to clearly evaluate, rank and respond to risks within physical and technological environments. 

"We have partnered with Brightfly to close the gap in the industry between physical and IT security with experienced and highly-skilled consultants and analytic processes," said Ray O'Hara, Senior Vice President of Andrews International's Consulting and Investigations Division."More than ever in this current climate, organizations must view security as an essential part of their entire operating philosophy, not a commodity. Focus should be placed on protection of people, assets and information with clear and informed planning that integrates all aspects the security posture. Not only is this critical to reducing the overall risk profile, but to creating a security program that provides the best value to the enterprise."

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Andrews International's Speaking Engagement at IMPACT 2009!

Andrews International executive, Fredrick Foster, will be participated in the 24th annual symposium of the National Security Institute on April 7, 2009, with a presentation on "Workplace Violence: What Every Security Manager Needs to Know". Part of IMPACT 2009!, the symposium will be held at the Hilton Tysons Corner in McLean, Virginia. Approximately 400 attendees are expected, most of them security directors and managers from the US government and defense contractor communities.

Workplace Violence: What Every Security Manager Needs to Know

Tuesday, April 7 10:45am-11:45am

Workplace violence becomes a greater risk in a weakening economy as workloads rise and budgets shrink.  Stress-triggering events such as terminations, lay-offs, downsizings and restructurings are increasing the risk of hostility in 2009.  One in every 20 employers around the United States will deal with violence in the workplace this year. Astonishingly, many U.S. companies still remain complacent about dealing with workplace violence.

While there is no foolproof way to prevent workplace violence threats, you can learn to control these risks by recognizing the warning signs and enforcing proven policies to keep your employees safe while they work. This session will teach attendees the do's and don'ts of preventing workplace violence and will provide hands-on advice for safeguarding your workers against violent crimes.

Attendees will learn:

• How to prepare for workplace violence
• Proven techniques for recognizing the threats
• How to deal with hostile employees
  
  

Presented by: Fredrick Foster, Vice President, Andrews International

We encourage you to attend this educational session to learn more about workplace violence prevention. To request an appointment with an Andrews International security, consulting or investigation professional please call Olivia Castille at 713.961.7670 or email ocastille@andrewsinternational.com.

More information can be found at: http://nsi.org/Impact_2009/

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Workplace Violence: A Research-Based Approach

Author: Chris Meisenhalder, MBA, Executive Director, Andrews International Consulting and Investigations

While violence overall has been studied for many years, the specific study of workplace violence is relatively recent.  Much of what we believe about workplace violence is a result of the limited exposure to it on the news, leading to common misconceptions, such as the belief that workplace violence is predominately physical aggression. When studying workplace violence, there are two areas that merit attention: The first is accurate research-based facts about physical aggression in the workplace and the second is consideration of a cooperative relationship between HR and corporate security in prevention of workplace violence and reaction to nonphysical workplace violence incidents.

Who perpetrates workplace violence?

Studies show no gender or age differences in the profiles of perpetrators or victims of workplace violence. However, there is evidence to show that the perpetrator and victim are most likely to be of the same race and to spend a significant amount of time working together.  There is limited evidence for lower socioeconomic level being linked to aggression against a supervisor.
Personality factors of workplace violence perpetrators seem to have little predictive value when compared to management behaviors and quality of work experiences involved in incidents, which have a significantly higher predictive value.  Reviews suggest that a focus on training managers and supervisors in effective leadership skills and interpersonal communications would be a more successful method of prevention than an exclusive focus on employee screening methods. 

Workplace violence is target specific and not random or unpredictable. Aggression can be perpetrated by an external source, such as an employee's personal relationship; or internal.

1. Internal – range of misconduct among co-workers at their place of employment which may be preventable by proactive involvement from a policy and awareness perspective
2. External – incidents that take place in or around the workplace but are committed by outside threats which must be approached as a more traditional security threat

What are causes and who are victims of workplace violence?

Layoffs and employee terminations have long been considered a primary instigation of workplace violence.  Research shows that the termination of employment itself is not the cause; however, may act as the catalyst for violence triggered by perceived injustice for the termination. 

Studies differ in their assessment of whether hierarchical status in the corporation has any effect on victimization.  There are, however, organizational factors that have been found to increase workplace victimization:  role clarity, higher workloads, and task fragmentation.  Weak leadership has also been shown in areas of increased victimization, resultant of situations of workplace conflicts that go unresolved or leadership failing to establish policy for acceptable and unacceptable patterns of interaction.  Conversely, highly authoritarian or bureaucratic leadership styles also are more likely to result in victimization episodes.

Research has also shown that people who have low emotional stability are more likely to be victimized in the workplace; however, they are also more likely to perceive others' actions as hostile and are more likely to selectively remember the negative rather than the positive interactions with others. 

Protecting employees from verbal aggression and bullying behaviors has not been an area of concern for security personnel in the past; however, this has become a new concern for corporations and should be paid attention to, as verbal abuse is also a method of workplace violence and potentially leads to physical threat. 

What is the effect of workplace violence?

Victimization in the workplace, whether actual or perceived, has a ripple effect, negatively affecting the individual's relationships outside the workplace and potentially leading to aggressive situations outside of work as well.  Private interpersonal aggression can become aggression at the workplace, becoming a security issue.  Individuals who are victimized at work tend to see retaliatory aggression as a legitimate action.  While physical or fatal harm is the most serious of workplace violence effects, workers who feel victimized may also respond with dysfunctional resistance, such as poor quality work, absences, and victimizing others.  No matter what the vehicle for workplace violence, the costs of workplace victimization are high – affecting employee morale, production, safety and the liability of the corporation.

What is the best way to prevent and respond to workplace violence?

Corporate security is most often assigned the role of responding to workplace violence, but prevention should begin in the HR department, with cooperation and open communication between security management and workforce management, as well as effective leadership training of managers and supervisors.  Notification to corporate security of high risk incidents of victimization could be a preventive step, in addition to the notification of high risk interpersonal violence.  Developing a corporate protocol in which supervisors and employees notify corporate security of any incidents of violence, or threats of violence, also facilitates prevention.  Finding a way to enact policies that reflect effective, research-based prevention strategies may be a difficult task, but an important one that will result in a more secure environment for all employees and save the corporation cost and repercussions in the long run. 

Sources:

• Aquino, Karl , Thau, Stefan.  2009.  Workplace Victimization:  Aggression from the Target's Perspective.  Annual Review of Psychology, 60:  717-741.
• Barling, Julian, Dupre, Kathryne, Kelloway, E. Kevin. 2009.  Predicting Workplace Aggression and Violence.  Annual Review of Psychology 60: 671-692.

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Andrews International's Proprietary Training Center Offers Diverse Customized Training to Clients

The Andrews International Training Center has in-house capabilities to produce customized, client-specific training material.  We believe that tailoring the training material to include custom graphics, images, and video of the client's location, services, and people adds to the educational value of the material and makes the officer feel as they are central to the organizations' ultimate success. 

Andrews International provides training not only to our own employees, but to private and corporate security personnel, law enforcement personnel from municipalities across the nation, and other professionals in the field. A rigorous curriculum includes firearms training, emergency management, and a host of other areas, including academic training, field operations, and simulated situations. We have capabilities to design and develop training based on topics of interest to our client's. Specialized training techniques and programs, based on a thorough needs assessment, can be available to our clients' employees. 

Andrews International Training Center instructors are industry experts with years of experience in the fields of Law Enforcement, Military, and Private Security; and the Training Division's professional production team can offer:

• In-house video production crew
• In-house graphic arts team
• 3D animations
• Customized computer programming for material delivery
• Multiple delivery content options including customized "paper" manuals, VHS/DVD/Blu-ray to Web Delivery
  
  

Examples of recent and ongoing projects conducted by the Training Division include:

• In January 2009, Andrews International's Training Center produced a custom video module for a prominent New York City skyscraper that focuses on their loading dock screening procedures.
• The AI Training Center firing range recently had a renowned celebrity train one-on-one with our firearms trainers for an upcoming movie part.
• AI Training Center is working on production of a customized sexual harassment training module in English, and one in Spanish, for a client in the aero space industry. The Training Division will also be producing a training module to show their employees how to properly solder wire connections to military specification for use on vehicles such as the space shuttle and B-1B bomber.
  
  

Andrews International Offers Driver Training Courses Through Crossroads Training Academy

Crossroads Training Academy, an Andrews International company, will be offering three-day comprehensive Emergency Vehicle Operations Programs in Texas this spring.

• Houston, Texas, April 13 through April 15, 2009
• Dallas, Texas, April 20 through April 22, 2009
  
  

Crossroads trains students to recognize problems when they are behind the wheel, before they become unsolvable emergencies. Geared toward the security driver, participants will learn how to optimally handle a vehicle in emergency and performance driving situations through a series of carefully designed classroom lectures on the theory of vehicle dynamics and security, plus hands-on protective and defensive driving exercises. Please visit  www.crossroadstrng.com for more information and to register for these courses, or contact Jerry Yoakum: T: 269.925.8111; jyoakum@andrewsinternational.com.

Crossroads Training Academy is committed to bringing clients intensive world class driving and security training customized to their unique environment and security exposures. If you are interested in a custom driving course in your city or location, please contact us. 

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