The 4 reasons training matters to executive protection programs

By Christian West

Training in executive protection is a little bit like flossing your teeth. Everyone knows it’s important and that they should do it regularly, but many people don’t get around to it enough. In this blog, we examine the many reasons why good, regular training is a critical element of executive protection program success.

As I’ve said many times before, executive protection is a people business. The bulk of what we sell is agent hours, and the quality of those agents and how they work is what makes or breaks executive protection programs.

Of course, many factors that contribute to the quality of agents’ work. Some folks are natural-born protectors and team players; others aren’t. Good managers will get more out of their teams than poor managers. Programs that strike the optimal balance between people, procedures, physical protection, and technology will yield better results than those relying too heavily on just one or two of these four pillars.

Still, it all depends on people. More specifically, it all comes down to people’s personalities, experience, and training. When those responsible for building and maintaining executive protection teams appreciate the importance of all three of these critical aspects, good things are more likely to happen.

Personality and experience are primarily in focus when we recruit people, but training can also play a role in attracting the right talent. As we’ll see, training is also absolutely critical to maintain and improve the quality of our people after they are hired – and to protect the program from liabilities and non-compliance.

1. Training is necessary to ensure protective readiness

First and foremost, we train to get better at what we do: protecting our principals.  Training is a necessary – but not sufficient – component of team readiness and ensures this in several ways:

Training enables agents to acquire new skills: Everything changes – including the skills executive agents need to acquire and master. New tech brings new vulnerabilities and new opportunities. Our principals pursue new interests and add new family members. Training makes it possible for agents to add to their repertoire for the benefit of their program – and for themselves – as new protective needs and possibilities arise.
Training keeps perishable skills fresh: Use it or lose it. Sustainment training is essential to keep some skills usable.  These include first aid, security driving, defensive tactics, and firearms, but others might be relevant depending on the nature of the program.
Training keeps standard operating and emergency procedures sharp: Having SOPs for everything is great, but if they are in a binder that no one ever sees and never get trained, they really aren’t of much practical use. Training makes them present and lets managers know just how “standard” they actually are.
Training combats complacency: Fortunately, emergencies are a rare occurrence for most protective teams. Among other things, that’s what makes them emergencies. What’s not so rare is complacency: When nothing much extraordinary usually occurs, it’s easy for teams to think they are prepared even if they are not. Training keeps complacency at bay by forcing teams to stay on their toes.

2. Training improves compliance and reduces liability in executive protection programs

Just what legislation executive protection teams need to comply with will vary greatly depending on where they are. Laws are different country by country state by state – but the need to comply with them is always the same.

The same goes for contractual compliance. In some cases, training will be included in RFPs and stipulated in scopes of work; unfortunately, it often isn’t.

No matter what, training still matters to the performance of protective teams, and whether or not teams receive good training can quickly become a legal issue.

3. Training is essential to attract executive protection talent

Finding good talent is already difficult in many circumstances and will only get harder. The industry is growing, but the talent pool isn’t. The availability of quality training matters to quality candidates. It’s a reliable indicator of an employer’s professionalism and willingness to help employees build careers.

When demand for good agents is greater than supply, the best agents will look at a job’s training opportunities and include these in their decision-making. What about the not so good agents? They might be happy with a job that doesn’t put much emphasis on training.

4. Training is key in retaining and developing executive protection talent

Once candidates join an organization, training is just as essential to retain them and help them develop.

Training helps good agents get better. It also helps them move up the career ladder, for example, from a residential to a traveling team or from team member to team lead. The ability to recruit supervisors and managers from within depends directly on training.

Of course, training takes both time and money. Tuition and travel costs are one thing, but making time in rotational schedules for training can be an even greater challenge than out-of-pocket expenses.

Yes, training requires resources. But so does backfilling open positions and replacing agents who have moved on to greener pastures. Managers responsible for executive protection need to understand the opportunity costs of not providing their staff with quality training and the direct costs of training them.

None of our principals want second-best protection

Last but certainly not least, let’s consider our clients. They need our services so that they can get on with their lives safely and productively. Of course, budgets always matter, and all EP companies face competition. But unless we are putting our clients’ needs at the center of what we do, we’re not doing our jobs.

Ultimately, executive protection training is all about providing our clients with the best possible protection within the given frames. No principal is interested in second-best protection. Training helps executive protection practitioners work as effectively and efficiently as possible.

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