Nothing is more important than the safety of your employees! Without them, we could not continue in our respective businesses. Some employers have programs or systems in place to ensure the work environment is safe. Sadly, others do not. As business owners we should all strive to look for new and innovative ways to keep your staff, and quite frankly, ourselves, even more secure.
In the last few years, and most recently San Bernardino, California and Orlando, Florida, both businesses experienced the loss of human life. Both of these events and others, less tragic, underscores the need for readiness.

You must (required by law) develop a violence in the workplace preparedness program to protect your employees. Employers must conduct a site assessment, prepare a workplace security plan, and educate employees on the preparedness in the event that your workplace is confronted with an active shooter or even a less violent individual but one who intends harm to one or more. These individuals can be in the form of current or former disgruntled employees, customers, irate husbands, wives or significant others, or a lone wolf simply seeking to hurt people. In either situation, your employees should be trained on the proper procedures to follow which would hopefully avoid injury.

Recently, though, the opportunities for workplace violence has to take into consideration international and domestic terrorism. The times are changing. Employees, as well as supervisors and managers, have become all too frequent victims of assaults or other violent acts in the workplace which entail a substantial risk of physical or emotional harm. Many of these assults result in fatal injury, but an even greater number result in nonfatal injury, or in the threat of injury, which can lead to medical treatment, missed work, lost wages and decreased productivity.
Unfortunately, these events seem to arise more specifically from employment-related problems. Now, we have to consider the lone wolf extremist, the mentally ill, domestic violence, disgruntled employees both past and current, and disgruntled customers.

What can be done to prevent workplace violence? Any preventive measure must be based on a thorough understanding of the risk factors associated with the various types of workplace violence. And, even though our understanding of the factors which lead to workplace violence is not perfect, sufficient information is available which, if utilized effectively, can reduce the risk of workplace violence. However, strong management commitment, the day-to-day involvement of managers and supervisors, is required to reduce the risk of workplace violence.

Here are the types of workplace violence events. It is important to keep in mind that a particular occupation or workplace may be subject to more than one type. Type one the agent has no legitimate business relationship to the workplace and usually enters the affected workplace to commit a robbery or other criminal act. Type II the agent is either the recipient, or the object, of a service provided by the affected workplace or the victim, e.g., the assailant is a current or former client, patient, customer, passenger, criminal suspect. Type III the agent has some employment-related involvement with the affected workplace. Usually this involves an assault by current or former employee, supervisor or manager; by a current/former spouse or lover; a relative or friend; or some other person who has a dispute with an employee of the affected workplace.

Many workplaces are at risk for workplace violence, but certain workplaces are recognized to be at significantly greater risk than others. Therefore, every employer should perform an initial assessment to identify workplace security factors which have been shown to contribute to the risk of violence in the workplace. If you have one or more of the following factors present in your workplace, you should consider your workplace to be at potential risk of violence. Have you ever had any concerns?

Exchange of money;
Working alone at night and during early morning hours;
Availability of valued items, e.g., money and jewelry;
Guarding money or valuable property or possessions;
Working with patients, clients, passengers, customers or students known or suspected to have a history of violence; or
Employees with a history of assaults or who have exhibited belligerent, intimidating or threatening behavior or others.

These are just some of the major factors that contribute to workplace violence. If you have identified one or more of these, or other recognized indicators of violence in the workplace, then you should perform further evaluation.

Email me at brenda@pottsandassociates.com or call me at 626-396-1070 at extension 226 for information about a tool that may save your life and that of your family. “Don’t just get ready, be ready!” Share with a business friend.

Potts & Associates, Inc. has more than 37 years dedicated to the enforcement of employer’s rights. We are always looking for ways to improve the value of our relationship with the business community. Therefore looking at ways to keep your employees safe in the workplace is another part of our business solution. www.pottsandassociates.com