Today’s Safety Daily Advisor Tip:

Dec 132013
 

Just Say NO! to Workplace Violence

Topic: Safety Management
It takes effort on the part of every member of your organization to combat workplace violence, starting with safety personnel.
A former employee with a grudge against his supervisor enters the workplace armed with a gun and kills his supervisor and three other employees before turning the gun on himself. After the incident, co-workers said that when the employee was fired, he threatened to “get” the supervisor. Unfortunately, nobody took him seriously.You’ve heard stories like this one on the evening news no doubt, and maybe there’s even been an incident in your area.No one should have to feel threatened by violence when he or she comes to work. Workers want to feel safe on the job. In fact, feeling safe at work was ranked third among the top five priorities of job satisfaction by employees polled by the Society for Human Resource Management.Your organization can help prevent violence and make workers feel safe by:

  • Communicating and enforcing a zero-tolerance violence prevention policy
  • Providing effective security procedures such as access control, employee photo identification, sign in and badges for visitors, and readily available security personnel
  • Making it easy to report violence-related problems
  • Promptly and firmly responding to threats and violent incidents with appropriate counseling and/or discipline

Policy

Your policy should include examples of behaviors that will not be tolerated such as:

  • Bringing into the workplace any kind of weapon or other objects that could be used in a threatening or violent way
  • Assaulting or threatening to assault someone
  • Throwing things, destroying property, or similar hostile behavior
  • Focusing obsessively on a grudge, a grievance, a romantic interest in another employee, or other offensive behavior, such as stalking

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Disciplinary Action

If an employee violates any part of your violence prevention policy, the situation should be thoroughly investigated, and if appropriate, disciplinary action should be taken. Discipline could include termination, depending on the severity of the incident.

However, except in severe cases where termination is required, counseling in addition to discipline may be more effective in resolving the problem than discipline alone. Employees who need help dealing with personal or work problems that are generating anger or hostility should be able to take advantage of an employee assistance program to help them deal with their problems.

Reporting Procedures

It should be easy for employees to report threats or incidents of violence. Employees should understand that anyone who comes forward or who participates in any investigation of workplace violence will not face any adverse treatment and will be protected from predators.

Employees should be encouraged to report threats or incidents, whether they involve co-workers, customers, suppliers, visitors, or even people unrelated to the workplace—for example, a violent spouse or partner who comes into the workplace to act out domestic violence.

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Options for Employees Who Feel Threatened

If an employee feels threatened, is a victim of violence, or witnesses a violent or potentially violent situation, there are several options.

If there are immediate safety concerns, the employee or a co-worker should call 911.

Otherwise, employees should be encouraged to first approach their supervisor or manager. If that person is unavailable, employees can go to Human Resources or the head of company security.

Tomorrow, we’ll continue with the topic of workplace violence and talk about violence prevention training for all levels in the organization.

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