Workplace Violence Prevention

Workplace violence should be a concern for every company where employees gather to work; workplace violence includes physical assault, sabotage resulting in injury and in the worst-case homicide. On average, 50,000+ injuries occur annually due to assaults in the workplace and out of those incidents over 500 became fatalities.

Workplace violence can happen anywhere to anyone, here are some best practices to help prevent violence from occurring:

The company's leadership team need to all be aligned and committed to providing a safe and secure work environment for all of their associates. It must be clear that there is a zero-tolerance policy against violence, direct and indirect threats made against employees, just like you can't joke around about a "bomb" in an airport, you can't threaten another employee even in jest. There cannot be any variation from this standard or a permissive attitude will permeate throughout your company and red flags will get missed.

A Zero Tolerance Policy: Is when violence or threats of violence on any level are not tolerated and they are reported immediately so corrective action can be taken swiftly!?

Next, develop a formal Workplace Violence Policy with the collaboration of a cross functional team that includes, Human Resource, Environmental, Health & Safety (EHS), Security, Legal & Union Relations Management

Then train your employees on the policy which should include the most common pre-cursers & red flags to violence; listed are some of those warning signs: (the risk increases exponentially if multiple of these are observed with the same person)

• Direct Threat: (Verbal or Written) "I am going to kill everyone in this office someday"
• Veiled Threat: (Verbal or Written) "Yeah, well you might not be alive to see tomorrow"
• Signs of Depression (Suicidal): "Life just isn't fun anymore" "what's the point"
• Behavioral Changes: They once were social, talkative, engaged, now they keep to themselves
• Relational Conflict: Marital Problems, Divorce, Family Arguments, Custody Battles
• Life Events: Divorce, Death of a Loved one, Getting Fired, etc.
• Overall, the person's life seems to be unraveling and getting out of control...

The only Reason for Human Intra-Species Violence is to Establish (or Re-establish) Control

When you train your employees on how to identify the basic warning signs you will see an increase of reporting, this isn't because threats have gone up, this is because they are now trained to proactively identify red flags and they know what department to report them to for investigation & resolution.

Employees who are trained properly will no longer ignore threatening, harassing, intimidating or disruptive behavior and they will feel empowered to report these concerns to their manager or human resources to help maintain a safe environment.

Myth: "There were no red flags, he just snapped!" This is a myth, there are always warning signs prior to a violent event, some might be subtle, some are very obvious, when in doubt, report the concern!

Within the Workplace Violence Prevention Policy, it needs to be clear who or what function(s) employees can report their concerns too, this can be Human Resources, Direct Manager, Ombuds, Union Rep, or all of the above. Then there needs to be a clear process to follow once the concern is raised, this usually includes an investigation to determine validity, risk and corrective actions. Corrective actions can include suspension, termination, employee assistance program (EAP) clearance before returning to work, etc.

Finally, your office, building or facility needs to have solid physical security controls to include:

• A requirement that all employees & visitors wear a company issued ID badge
• Access controls are in place where a badge or staff are needed to gain access into the building
• CCTV Cameras that are able to be viewed remotely and monitored if a threat is imminent
• A cross functional emergency management team that can be convened to handle an incident, drills & tabletop drills should be conducted with this group and law enforcement to test the response process and continuously improve
• There also needs to be the ability to quickly communicate employees all at once (phone, text, e-mail, loudspeaker, etc.)
• There should be adequate lighting around the perimeter and parking lot of the office or bldg.

• Awareness posters like this one: "how to respond to an active shooter " posted in high traffic areas

Key Takeaways: Maintain an unwavering culture of safety and security, empower employees to proactively report threats of all kinds and have good physical security controls in place; with these best practices in place, you will significantly reduce the likelihood of your company ever becoming a victim of workplace violence!

Next Week's Newsletter: How To Handle High Risk Terminations

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