The Security Leadership Research Institute (SLRI) has released the results of its 2021 corporate security organisational structures, cost of services, and staffing benchmark.
Highlights
- 41% of respondents operated at the Director level
- The average security budget reported was $13,254,850
- On average, respondents reported one security employee for every 93 employees
Security leaders have used the budget, title, and reporting data provided by this benchmark to avoid budget reductions and secure job title changes to better reflect their level of responsibility. The 2021 results include a more detailed data breakdown and more comparison data than previous versions of the benchmark. The full report includes:
- Report-to level by organisation revenue
- Domains managed compared to security budget
- Report-to function vs. reporting level
- Budget by square footage
- Budget as a percentage of revenue
- Budget by sites covered
- Budget per employee
- Uniformed security vs organisational employees
- Personnel cost as a percentage of the budget
Reliability and accuracy
The report also details security’s responsibility and accountability by the programme (e.g., supply chain security, IT forensic investigation, business continuity, asset protection), broken down by revenue, number of employees, budget, and more.
The SLRI carefully vets responses and respondents to ensure a high level of confidence in the reliability and accuracy of benchmark data. No other organisation focuses exclusively on quality, meaningful research specific to the corporate security function.