Professional Distinction

Certification programs are nothing new in the information management and security industries. From the National Association for Information Destruction’s (NAID’s) AAA Certification to the Certified Records Manager (CRM) designation offered by the Institute of Certified Records Managers (ICRM) to the various credentials offered by the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP), these programs were designed to establish a bar for monitoring the professional performance.

NAID has developed an accreditation program, known as the Certified Secure Destruction Specialist, that is designed to apply to individuals working in the information destruction sector. Unlike the association’s AAA Certification, the applicant does not need to belong to NAID to enroll in the program, according to Bob Johnson, NAID CEO.
 

Continuing Education

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NEED FOR PROFESSIONALIZATION
“If forced to identify a single reason NAID created the Certified Secure Destruction Specialists (CSDS) accreditation program it would be the association’s general multi-year and multi-pronged strategy of ‘professionalizing’ our industry,” he says. “Industry participants should not expect to differentiate themselves as professionals and earn the respect and the service margins of a professional if they don’t approach it like a professional.”

Johnson adds that a professional designation sends clients of secure destruction firms a message. “It lets them know that there is more to what we offer than just owning equipment,” he says. “It, therefore, increases the chance that they give more importance to the process of destruction and more importance on selecting the service provider.”

In addition to this goal of professionalizing the information destruction industry, Johnson says NAID also hopes to use the accreditation program as another way to introduce its members to the particulars of the industry. “By creating a professional accreditation, NAID has provided an incentive to learn these principles with the end result of creating a better sales person,” he says.

The confidence CSDS accreditation provides to a recipient, Johnson adds, could be a sales asset. “From a sales perspective, there is no substitute for the confidence that comes from someone knowing what they are talking about,” he says. “The CSDS training and exam were not designed to be a differentiator as much as they were designed to be a delivery method, a way of delivering confidence.”
 

AREAS OF EXPERTISE
NAID has been offering a series of training webinars to individuals interested in the CSDS accreditation, and the first exams were scheduled for Jan. 21 in Chicago and Jan. 28 in Phoenix. The association also has arranged a training seminar March 9-10 at the Gleacher Center at the University of Chicago in advance of the CSDS exam that will take place in conjunction with the NAID 2011 Annual Conference in Orlando. Individuals can register for the Chicago seminar at www.naidonline.org for a fee of $149 for one attendee or $99 for multiple attendees from the same company.

Individuals interested in registering for the March CSDS exam can do so at www.naidonline.org/forms/csds/CSDS_Registration.pdf. A fee of $179 applies.

“The training course is not required but it is strongly encouraged,” CSDS Task Force Chair John Mesrobian says in a press release on the NAID website. “Even with the list of CSDS training resources provided last July, the training really distilled the ‘body of industry knowledge’ into a concise, comprehensive and understandable format.”

The training seminars and the exam will cover the general categories of information security, records management, data protection legislation, risk management and secure destruction operations, Johnson says. “Within each of the major subject-matter areas there are five or six subsections,” he adds.

NAID created most of the training materials internally, and they are available for free through the association, with the exception of books or guidelines created outside of the association.
 

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COMPLEMENTARY COMPONENTS
Johnson says the primary difference between NAID AAA Certification and the CSDS accreditation is that the certification applies to the organization while the accreditation applies to an individual. “NAID certification has a recognizable logo and stays with the company as long as it successfully passes its announced and unannounced audits on a regular basis,” he says. “There is no logo or annual audit for CSDS, just the set of initials that will follow someone’s name that are earned by passing a one-time test.”

After an individual has obtained his or her CSDS accreditation, he or she will not be subject to further testing; however, Johnson says, those individuals who achieve accreditation are expected to stay up to date regarding their industry knowledge. If an accredited individual completes his or her continuing educational requirements under the program, the CSDS designation will follow that person throughout the course of his or her career.

“There are currently a significant number of trainees who do not work for a destruction service who are taking the training,” Johnson says. “NAID membership is not a requirement, since only a company can join the association, and the accreditation belongs to the person.”

Johnson says he sees NAID AAA Certification and the CSDS accreditation as complementary. “From the goal of ‘professionalizing’ the secure destruction business, NAID certification and the CSDS accreditation are extremely complimentary, and we see very little risk of confusion or conflict arising from the two programs.”
 

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AN OVERWHELMING RESPONSE
Bob Johnson, CEO of the National Association for Information Destruction (NAID), Phoenix, says the association is used to slow starts. In the first year NAID introduced its certification program for information destruction companies, only a handful of companies were certified.

However, according to Johnson, the response to the association’s recently introduced Certified Secure Destruction Specialist (CSDS) accreditation program has gone counter to that trend.

Nearly 100 people are participating in the first set of training webinars NAID is offering, Johnson says. “Of course, we don’t yet know how many will take the exam in January or how many of those will pass,” he adds. “Still, given that we only had six NAID certified companies at the end of the first year, we consider the current interest in the CSDS accreditation to be overwhelming.”

While NAID plans to promote each graduating class, Johnson says its efforts won’t be able to match those of the accredited individuals. “We will arm them with information that helps them explain what their accreditation means, and I am guessing that they will use that information to its fullest in the marketplace.” He adds, “It will likely unfold in a manner reminiscent of NAID certification, where the members who achieved it also were its leading proponents in the marketplace.”