Director, Public Safety & Security

This position oversees Public Safety & Security for Houston Methodist Hospital in the Texas Medical Center and corporate facilities.

At Houston Methodist, the Director Public Safety and Security position is responsible for providing the vision and leadership necessary to ensure a safe and secure environment, for all persons at the designated entity level of Houston Methodist. This position has a defined vision and actionable plans, to achieve short and long term goals, while maintaining a consistent level of service with the priorities established by executive leadership and will demonstrate operational efficiencies and improve overall staff effectiveness through the professional and prudent management of all departmental resources provided. The Director Public Safety and Security position disseminates necessary information, resolves conflicts, builds cohesion, maintains a clearly defined and achievable end state, and confirms that Public Safety and Security's strategy and goals are in alignment with the organizational strategic areas of focus. This position will provide oversight, guidance and career development to managers, supervisors, and staff, with emphasis on assuring an orderly management succession plan, maintaining staff performance readiness through training, and high employee job satisfaction. The Director Public Safety and Security position will proactively set and effectively manage the department's operating and capital budgets. This position continually emphasizes HM Mission and Public Safety vision with 4 key values of: knowledge, training, teamwork, and technology, overseeing the security management plan of the entity and driving the Workplace Violence Prevention and Intervention program.

The Director position responsibilities include overseeing the activities of the department staff, ensuring quality, productivity, functional excellence and efficiency to accomplish strategic and operational objectives. In addition, this position is accountable for employee engagement, adequate staffing levels, budget development and compliance, staffing decisions such as hiring and terminating employment, coaching and counseling employees on work related performance, and developing and implementing policies and procedures to ensure a safe and effective work environment. This position also ensures training, monitoring and operations initiatives are implemented which secure compliance with ethical and legal business practices and accreditation/regulatory/government regulations.

FLSA STATUS
Exempt

QUALIFICATIONS

EDUCATION

• Bachelor’s degree
• Master’s degree e.g. Security related, Business Administration, Human Resources, or Management preferred

EXPERIENCE

• Seven years of people management experience in corporate security, law enforcement, or a military environment; for internal employees, six years of people management experience in corporate security, law enforcement, or a military environment

LICENSES AND CERTIFICATIONS
Required

• SECUR-C - Security Officer Commissioned - State Licensure - Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation_PSV Licensure by the Texas Department of Public Safety, Bureau of Private Security Agencies

Preferred

• Certified Protection Professional (CPP) within 6 months or
• Certified Healthcare Protection Administrator (CHPA) other relevant certification within 6 months

KNOWLEDGE AND ABILITIES

• Demonstrates the skills and competencies necessary to safely perform the assigned job, determined through on-going skills, competency assessments, and performance evaluations
• Sufficient proficiency in speaking, reading, and writing the English language necessary to perform the essential functions of this job, especially about activities impacting patient or employee safety or security
• Demonstrates the ability to interact with others in a way that gives them confidence in one’s intentions and those of the organization
• Ability to use appropriate interpersonal styles and techniques to gain acceptance of ideas or plans; modifying one’s own behavior to accommodate tasks, situations and individuals involved
• Demonstrates leadership qualities and critical thinking through self-direction initiative and effective interpersonal skills and oral/written communication skills
• Ability to identify and understand issues, problems and opportunities, comparing data from different sources to draw conclusions; using effective approaches for choosing a course of action or developing appropriate solutions; taking action that is consistent with available facts, constraints and probable consequences
• Extensive knowledge of regulatory and accreditation agency requirements that impact department; stays abreast of industry changes
• Demonstrates highly effective communication skills—strong written communications and platform presentation abilities
• Ability to work effectively in a fast-paced environment
• Demonstrates flexibility and adaptability in the workplace
• Capable of leading teams/facilitating groups, building consensus and garnering highest confidence in professionalism and work product by senior leadership
• Ability to work under pressure and balance many competing priorities; highly responsive and solution/action oriented
• Proficiency in spreadsheet, word processing, and presentation software
• Maintains a positive and supportive attitude and demeanor
• Professional handling of exposure to confidential/sensitive information
• Lead all elements of Public Safety and Security operations to mitigate identified risks
• Plan, implement and evaluate all aspects of organizational, technological, and environmental (i.e. physical) security
• Develop organizational security strategy/plan to support business goals
• International travel and experience dealing with foreign governments and healthcare officials

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS

PEOPLE ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS

• Directs, develops and implements strategic and operational/high level projects and processes either through independent/highly autonomous work or through the facilitation of work teams to enable the effective and efficient completion of objectives.
• Oversees management of and ensures development for staff to meet overall objectives in terms of quality, service and cost effectiveness. Provides timely guidance and feedback to help others strengthen specific knowledge/skill areas needed to accomplish a task or solve a problem. Directs management responsibilities of selection, scheduling, supervision, retention, and evaluation of employees.
• Meets or exceeds threshold goal for department turnover and/or system metrics on employee engagement indicators.
• Provides leadership and communication to maintain a competent and engaged employee group by conducting regular department meetings to review policies and procedures and operational matters, rounding on all employees, completing performance appraisals, conducting new hire feedback sessions, coaching/corrective counseling, and providing recognition/commendations to achieve desired outcomes.
• Identifies opportunities and takes action to build strategic relationships between one’s area and other areas, teams, departments, and units to achieve business goals. Drives the promotion of teamwork within and between departments; participates and/or leads and facilitates department process improvements as needed.
• Reviews actions related to personnel matters of department employees, including training, counseling, and enforcement of disciplinary actions.
• Identifies, develops, and utilizes the necessary relationships with internal and external key stakeholders to ensure all Public Safety and Security departments are working towards systems integration or maintaining a system focus.
• Develop and maintains collaborative relationships with the key hospital leaders, MOB leadership, clinical staff, administrative services, outside vendors, subcontractors, and local, regional, state, and federal law enforcement agencies.
• Oversees Public Safety and Security staff and law enforcement officers to ensure that all aspects of security operations for the entity, IT Security, and Security Dispatch are conducted in accordance with hospital policies and procedures.

SERVICE ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS

• Oversees department operations, designated projects, schedules and activities as needed to ensure that goals or objectives are accomplished within the prescribed time frame. Sets priorities and functional standards, giving direction to staff as necessary to ensure the best possible delivery of service and high customer/patient satisfaction.
• Drives department service standards and activities to impact department and/or system score for patient/customer-based satisfaction, through role modeling and fostering accountability. Serves and actively participates on various entity committees as a voice for the department.
• Acts as the subject matter expert for areas of security operations, investigations, and emergency preparedness activities. When directed, serves as Hospital Security Officer on the incident command committee during all designated hospital emergencies. Acts as liaison with law enforcement and all other public officials regarding investigations and other areas of mutual concern.
• Adheres to policy, procedures, and plans that are in place to prevent workplace injury, violence or adverse outcomes to patients, guests, and staff.
• Fosters communication and collaboration with security leaders across Houston Methodist. Confirms the efficient flow of information and communication to ensure applicable persons are informed, involved when necessary, in all security matters.

QUALITY/SAFETY ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS

• Ensures a safe and effective working environment; monitors and/or revises the department safety plan and/or any specific accreditation/regulatory required safety guidelines. Responsible for staff maintenance of credentials and competencies, per accrediting/ licensing agency and/or department guidelines as applicable.
• Employs a proactive approach in the optimization of safe outcomes and information systems by monitoring and improving the department workflow and enhancing operations, using peer-to-peer accountability and identifying solutions via collaboration. Implements process improvements utilizing tools such as lean principles. Role models situational awareness, using teachable moments to improve safety.
• Responsible for employee compliance to policies and procedures and performs associated actions upon non-compliance (i.e., licensure/certification compliance, focal point review requirements, disaster plan, in-services, influenza immunization, wage and hour, standard hours, timely termination submission, timely timecard approval, etc.).
• Create new reporting formats or promote existing ones that reflect security trends (e.g., workplace violence or percentage of staff aware of respective security policies).
• Reviews and approves Security Services policies and procedures to ensure they are consistent with hospital and system policies, procedures, and goals. Identifies and implements the use of appropriate metrics and tools, consistently used across the system to measure levels of effectiveness, to allow the development of performance improvement activates, thus increasing the results for desired outcomes.
• Provides oversight to ensure regular periodic audits, drills and testing of all security related systems are done and documented in proper format.
• Notifies relevant hospital leadership (i.e. Administration, Business Practices or Risk management) of all incidents or threats that may have impact on the hospital financially, legally, publicly or impact the safety and security of the facility.
• Analyzes organizational security trends and maintains Uniform Crime Reporting statistics, as required by the Crime Awareness and Campus Security Act.
• Serves on committee or groups with other hospital/MOB leadership to collectively identify areas of improvement and produce action plans to address them effectively.

FINANCE ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS

• Develops and manages department operational and capital budgets, approvals, and ongoing maintenance of the department(s), ensuring operation in a cost-effective manner. Proactively identifies and plans for capital needs related to current equipment and future department projects. Ensures staffing plans and schedules meet department needs that reflect understanding of the importance of cost-effectiveness.
• Creates department strategies to achieve financial target and staffing needs, through optimizing productivity, supply/resource efficiency, minimizing incidental overtime and overtime percentage, and other areas according to department specifications.
• Seeks process redesign for identified opportunities in cost savings by providing impact analysis (i.e. white or point paper format) to proposed changes for leadership.

GROWTH/INNOVATION ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS

• Identifies and implements innovative solutions for practice or workflow changes to improve department, entity or system operations by leading unit projects and/or other department/ system-directed activities. Proactively leads task forces and committees. May represent HM at assigned community or professional organization meetings.
• Drives change initiatives, maintaining effectiveness when experiencing major changes in work responsibilities or environment; adjusts effectively to work within new work structures, processes, requirements or cultures. Partners effectively with stakeholders as appropriate.
• Ensures own career discussions occur with appropriate management. Completes and updates the My Development plan on an on-going basis. Conducts conversations with staff on their development and My Development plan.
• Continually monitors the healthcare environment and security industry to identify areas to increase efficiency and effectiveness, thus improving the provided response for patients, guests, and staff.
• Explores areas to maximize the use of technology to provide unwavering coverage of identified areas of risks, to provide a safe and secure environment.
• Analyzes and assesses present and future needs, trends, challenges, and opportunities related to security operations.
• Expands and optimizes security expertise in areas throughout the patient experience to provide the highest level of safety and security.

SUPPLEMENTAL REQUIREMENTS
WORK ATTIRE

• Uniform: No
• Scrubs: No
• Business professional: Yes
• Other (department approved): No

ON-CALL*
*Note that employees may be required to be on-call during emergencies (ie. Disaster, Severe Weather Events, etc) regardless of selection below.

• On Call* Yes

TRAVEL**
**Travel specifications may vary by department**

• May require travel within the Houston Metropolitan area Yes
• May require travel outside Houston Metropolitan area Yes

QUALIFICATIONS

EDUCATION

• Bachelor’s degree
• Master’s degree e.g. Security related, Business Administration, Human Resources, or Management preferred

EXPERIENCE

• Seven years of people management experience in corporate security, law enforcement, or a military environment; for internal employees, six years of people management experience in corporate security, law enforcement, or a military environment

LICENSES AND CERTIFICATIONS
Required

• SECUR-C - Security Officer Commissioned - State Licensure - Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation_PSV Licensure by the Texas Department of Public Safety, Bureau of Private Security Agencies

Preferred

• Certified Protection Professional (CPP) within 6 months or
• Certified Healthcare Protection Administrator (CHPA) other relevant certification within 6 months