Last month’s assassination of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson sparked a new wave of anxiety for corporate leaders, prompting many executives to think twice about their safety and reevaluate their existing security protocols.
Some data does exist about how much money companies spend on protecting their top people, especially when it comes to the most famous CEOs in the world. But how lower-profile companies think about security is still relatively mysterious.
A new survey conducted shortly after Thompson’s killing, and shared exclusively with Fortune, sheds some light on how what security steps major companies are taking towards and growing trends within the corporate world.
Around 73% of companies have specific security arrangements for their executives or senior leaders, according to a new report from HR Policy Association, based on 180 responses from CHROs from large public companies spanning a variety of industries between Dec. 16, 2024 and Jan. 2, 2025. Of companies that do provide security to executives, 76% use third party vendors or consultants to do so.
“Even if you're not extremely in the public eye, you can still be a target,” Ani Huang, senior executive vice president and chief content officer of HR Policy Association, tells Fortune.
When it comes to who these companies are protecting, a surprising number think about more than just the chief operating officer. Around 37% reported having security measures solely for their CEO. But 68% reported providing security arrangements for all C-suite executives, 51% said they provided security to board members, and 12% said they provided security to “other senior leaders.”
As for what triggers even thinking about security in the first place, around 91% of companies said their choices were based on a given job role. Another 75% said it was based on a risk assessment, and 66% said decisions were based on a specific incident or other threats.
Experts have previously told Fortune that exploring corporate security options should begin with a risk assessment, which is a general analysis about threats to the organization, often conducted by a third party. Around 64% of companies surveyed by HR Policy Association said they conducted these assessments on an “as-needed” basis but a significant amount (19%) do them annually, followed by quarterly (4%) and monthly (5%).
When it comes to the toughest challenge implementing and maintaining their executive security plans, 70% of CHROs said it was the evolving threat landscape and 30% blamed budget constraints. But ironically, 30% of CHROs said executive buy-in or compliance was the biggest obstacle to protecting these same executives.
“Executives often underestimate the threat,” says Huang. “Some executives can be very humble in feeling like ‘I'm not a target, like nobody's going to come after me.’”
Moving into 2025, companies say they’re prioritizing travel security (54%) and physical security (53%) this year. That’s followed by cybersecurity measures (39%), residential security (38%) and personal use of private jet (16%).
But Huang believes that Thompson’s death has been a wake up call for executives and companies that previously thought they were immune to violence—something she doesn’t expect to wear off anytime soon.
“I do think it will probably have a longer tail,” Huang says. “It may be more similar to what we’ve seen with elected officials, where there’s just been a gradual increase in required security that has really gone up.”
