Edition 32 - 22nd April 2024

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Let's work together to make the workplace a safer place.

Attending the Association of European Threat Assessment Professionals annual conference this week for the second time, and delivering a talk on both occasions, is an honour.

Last year, I had the pleasure of conversing with global security managers from some of the biggest US brands. They visited the European and UK offices to understand why companies here don't have an internal threat management team, unlike their US counterparts.

The reason? Companies in Europe and the UK don't recognize the issues in the same way and rarely use the same terminology, despite experiencing serious violent and sometimes firearms-related incidents.

The UK definition of ‘work related violence’ is any incident in which a person is abused, threatened, or assaulted in circumstances relating to their work. Despite this, many wrongly dismiss this as they focus on the word ‘violence’ and feel that it doesn’t relate to their experience of harassment, bullying, and other concerning or threatening behaviours.?

Let’s put this in context, workplace conflict costs the UK economy ￡28 billion a year. Just under 30% of UK employees have been the victims of workplace bullying and harassment, that is 9.1 million people! Another statistic of concern is that nearly 70% of women have been a victim of sexual harassment at work.

What makes these statistics even more concerning is that nearly 80% of incidents at work go unreported.

Why is that? There are four reasons.

Those affected:

• don’t know what to report.
• don’t know who to report their concerns to.
• don’t trust the process to be acted on professionally.
• fear that they will face reprisals or be exposed.

We all deserve to feel safe in our workplaces. Unfortunately, many people experience threats and abuse, yet fail to report it. That's why we propose a process to change this.?

One success story comes from my work in Parliament, where I increased reporting by 400% in under a year. As a result, crucial information was shared, and we were able to prevent a planned attack on one of our Members of Parliament.?

Reporting incidents is the first step towards a safer environment for everyone.?

Our process involves Detecting, Reporting and Acting, and is managed by a designated person who assigns responsibilities, defines criteria for reporting, and disseminates researched behaviors of concern.?

The process encourages a multidisciplinary approach to triage reported concerns, ensuring that supervisory or management issues are handled appropriately and more significant issues are addressed quickly with an evidence-based response. This approach delivers greater confidence to the workforce while managing any identified risks.?

We believe that transparency and accountability are essential to creating a safe and productive work environment.

By implementing this process, we are taking proactive steps to address concerns and maintain the trust of employees.?

?Let's work together to make the workplace a safer place.

Click here to establish how safe you are at work.

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?https://www.defuseglobal.com/

15th Association of European Threat Assessment Professionals (AETAP) Conference

Looking forward to presenting 'The Inside Threat' Exploring the link between the economic downturn and concerning and threatening workplace behaviours, a research piece Defuse has produced in collaboration with The Student Consultancy (TSC) at the University of Oxford, at the annual conference of the (AETAP) on 22nd April 2024 in Paris, France.

?The white paper is available to download on our website.

The Defuse Podcast – Behavioural Threat Assessment – a political and commercial insight with Bill Zimmerman

Bill Zimmerman has spent over 35 years analysing and managing threats. He started out in the fledgling Threat Assessment team of the US Capital Police shortly after its creation and, having spent over 20 years there, moved into the private sector on his retirement from law enforcement, where he continues to be a leader in the field of Behavioural Threat Assessment. Despite his long career, Bill is one of the humblest men you will have the pleasure of meeting. He is a fountain of knowledge and expertise, and in this podcast, he shares some of that wisdom.

Key Points:

• Behavioural threat assessment has evolved to focus more on identifying concerning behaviours early on rather than just reacting to direct threats. This allows for more options to address issues.
• Practical threat assessment requires communication and information sharing between different protective teams and agencies that may deal with the same individuals.
• The rise of social media has made it easier for people with extreme views to find communities that validate those views, which can encourage more dangerous behaviours in some cases.
• Workplace violence and threat assessment are recognised concepts in the US, but there is no agreed terminology for these issues in the UK and Europe yet. This hinders the recognition of toxic behaviours like bullying as serious problems.

Available on all of your favourite podcast platforms.

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Click here to listen to Bill's podcast

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If anything in this newsletter has caused you to think you may benefit from our help, please don't hesitate to contact us.

Remember, if you want to feel safer, choose Defuse!