Raines International and The Lake Forest Group spoke with numerous security executives from major global companies in industries ranging from oil and gas to technology to discuss the trends and new issues chief security officers (CSOs) are facing in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This is part of a thought-leadership report series. In the first report, titled "The Chief Security Officer in the Post-COVID-19 World: Lessons Learned From Security Leaders," the report covers areas the security professionals need to focus on in a post-COVID-19 world, along with finding CSOs to meet these needs.

While protecting staff’s health and wellness may have previously fallen under human resources, health, safety, and environmental, or corporate social responsibility departments,since the pandemic started, nearly all of the security leaders that were interviewed for the report have assumed handling virus-related concerns and procedures as they saw their roles change significantly. "Many security leaders assumed responsibility for ensuring that workers knew how to transition to work-from-home and coordinated company-wide directives for COVID-19 response plans. Other organizations including government contractors balanced security needs by having employees focus on administrative or training tasks during remote work and instituting alternate in-office days to work with classified information," according to the report. 

In addition, Raines International found that one important area organizations need to focus on is the impact the shift of the home has on its employees, and ultimately the organization. The report says executives need to prepare for rises in domestic violence and addiction issues, as well as preparing to identify the warning signs of these and other issues. "Possible solutions include frequent video conferencing to physically lay eyes on employees and increased support for resource groups that employees can access. This challenge presents an opportunity for progressive business leaders to thoughtfully prepare procedures for handling the inevitability of domestic stressors spilling into the workplace, since the definitive line between home and place of business has considerably blurred," the report states.

Read the full report here.