One of the priorities of the Security Industry Association (SIA) is to increase our collaboration with other security associations. SIA and groups such as the Central Station Alarm Association (CSAA) and the Electronic Security Association (ESA) share so much common ground and have so many of the same members that it is counterproductive for us not to pool our resources and work collaboratively.

SIA board of directors chairman Jay Hauhn has been one of the leaders behind this push. Noting that he also serves on the CSAA Executive Committee and on the Electronic Security Association’s Government Relations Committee, Hauhn recently observed that “Working together makes each of our organizations a stronger resource for the industry.”

This fall, SIA, CSAA and ESA are jointly launching one of the most visible products of the enhanced collaboration among the organizations: the Security Industry Recruiting Center (www.securityindustryrecruitingcenter.com) — a job board exclusively for security industry professionals. Through this resource, job seekers can post resumes, search for positions and apply for jobs at no charge, and employers can advertise job openings at a substantially lower rate than is charged on other recruiting sites. SIA, CSAA and ESA members will, of course, receive discounted rates when posting to the board.

With all three organizations promoting the Security Industry Recruiting Center, we expect it to grow rapidly and quickly attain the critical mass that will make it the go-to site for employment opportunities in the security industry. Even for companies that do not belong to any of the three associations, the large pool of qualified applicants on the site will be a major draw, and job posting prices are competitive even for non-members.

“The security industry is rapidly changing and needs employees who are interested in being a part of this high-tech world,” said Merlin Guilbeau, executive director of ESA. “We’re excited to offer an online resource to our member companies and to men and women seeking employment in the security industry. We encourage anyone looking for interesting employment to post their resume on our job board.”

CSAA executive director Stephen Doyle, meanwhile, said he expects the board to “attract a very comprehensive listing of potential employees and employers.”

Doyle continued, “We’ve wanted a job board for our members, and joining forces with ESA and SIA will allow us to have an even greater impact than we might have had on our own.”

The combined strength of the associations is formidable, and this resource provides a great example of why collaboration among our organizations is so valuable and so important. Any one of the three associations could have launched a job board on its own, but one association by itself would not have had the credibility, the outreach capability, the pool of members or the instant widespread good will that all three have by working together.

So, as excited as we are about the job board, we are even more pleased about what the teamwork that produced it means for the future. SIA, CSAA and ESA are very successful organizations, and this new opportunity to build on each other’s strengths creates the potential for even greater achievements, member services and advancement of security company priorities in coming years. This is exactly what we had in mind when we began our efforts to bring the associations closer together — a partnership that is not only good for each organization but that also provides benefits to the industry as a whole.