ASIS International and the Security Industry Association (SIA), membership associations for the security industry, have announced a partnership to produce an event designed to help security organizations and businesses around the world develop and implement diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) strategies. The free virtual event, titled “Global DE&I Strategy: Policy and Practices that Produce Positive Business Outcomes,” will be held Dec. 10, 2020 from 11 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.

Diversity, inclusion and bias are critical topics that have generated important conversations in recent months. SIA and ASIS have joined together to create a learning experience for the security profession to focus on specific and practical resources that enhance the effectiveness of security enterprises.

“This event’s program will help move the industry’s discussion about diversity forward,” said SIA’s CEO Don Erickson. “Creating a more diverse, equitable and inclusive culture can help attract the next generation of employees to the security industry. Moreover, making these types of changes has been shown to improve an organization’s productivity, and that is why this event is focused on actionable learning.”

The focus will be on a strategic approach to diversity and inclusion, with the emphasis that a DE&I program can strengthen and deepen hiring practices by growing the pool of candidates, while increasing retention and engagement of team members and customers.

“We believe that bringing together leading security membership associations to address diversity, equity and inclusion issues is not only a step in the right direction, but behavior that could, and should, be modeled in other industries as well,” said Peter O’Neil, CEO, ASIS International. “By addressing these systemic issues collectively, we hope to dramatically expedite informed discussions and actions taken to advance DE&I throughout the security profession. When it comes to DE&I, we believe in leading by example.”

The event begins with a session designed to help leaders baseline current diversity related language and allow attendees to understand and “speak the same language.” The event then turns to three current pain points facing security industry professionals, and these challenges will be addressed within individual breakouts designed to facilitate deeper conversations and action plans:

• Hiring Policies and Practices to Create and Retain a Diverse Candidate Pool
• Best Practices for Facilitating Difficult Dialogues
• How to Create a Diversity Program in Your Organization

To learn more about the “Global DE&I Strategy: Policy and Practices that Produce Positive Business Outcomes” event from ASIS International and SIA, and to register, please visit: https://www.asisonline.org/professional-development/webinars/asis-sia-diversity-equity-inclusion/. Registration is free.