"What can you do to help protect your workers?"

By R. Bruce Wright, CPCU

As we visit systems in this program we often get into discussions of crime, security, and violence prevention. While one element of this concern is the provision of security for your property and our interest in helping you deter theft, we are increasingly hearing questions about workplace violence. Many systems have begun to see that even in areas where robberies are rare, there is a growing concern among employees (and employers) about workplace violence, often linked to emotional conflicts that can and do occur everywhere.

Every organization needs to be concerned about protecting employees. Just to give one obvious reason, the Occupational Safety and Health Act’s General Duty Clause requires employers to provide a safe and healthful workplace for all workers covered by the OSH Act. Employers who do not take reasonable steps to prevent or abate a recognized violence hazard in the workplace can be cited.

To start with what do we mean by workplace violence? Simply put, it is violence or the threat of violence against workers that can occur either at work or outside the workplace. The range of severity runs the gamut from threats and verbal abuse to physical assaults and even homicide, which is among the leading causes of job-related deaths! Workplace violence is a growing concern for employers and employees nationwide, with some 2 million American workers falling victim to workplace violence each year. While workplace violence can strike anywhere, and no one is immune, some workers run a heightened risk. Among them are workers who exchange money with the public and those who work alone or in small groups, during late night or early morning hours, in high-crime areas, or in community settings and homes where they have extensive contact with the public. Sound like anyone you employ? (I thought so.)

So, what can you do to help protect these office and field workers? For a start, you should implement a zero-tolerance policy toward workplace violence against or by employees and establish a workplace violence prevention program. It can be a stand alone document or be incorporated into an existing accident prevention program, employee handbook, or manual of standard operating procedures. Regardless of how you create it, it is critical to ensure that all employees know the policy and understand that all claims of workplace violence will be investigated and remedied promptly. If you want to go further, you can offer additional protections such as the following:

• Provide safety education for employees so they know what conduct is not acceptable, what to do if they witness or are subjected to workplace violence, and how to protect themselves.
• Secure your workplace. A place to start is by keeping all side and rear doors secured throughout the day as well as at night. Other steps can include installing video surveillance, extra lighting (especially in parking areas and walkways) alarm systems, and restricting access by outsiders through identification badges, electronic keys, and in some cases, guards. (Some systems use guards during high case flow weeks or during widespread outage situations.)
• Provide drop safes to limit the amount of cash on hand. Skim cash drawers and make daily bank deposits to minimize the amount of cash on hand.
• Equip field staff with cellular phones and hand-held alarms or noise devices, and require them to prepare a daily work plan and keep a contact person informed of their location throughout the day. Keep employer provided vehicles properly maintained. Some systems are even using GPS devices on all company vehicles for real time location data.
• Instruct employees not to enter any location where they feel unsafe. Introduce a “buddy system.”
• Address the issue of entering customers’ homes, the presence of others in the home during visits, and the worker’s right to refuse to enter potentially a hazardous situation.

Employees can take steps to protect themselves too. While nothing can guarantee that an employee will not become a victim of workplace violence, here are some ideas to help reduce the odds:

• Learn how to recognize, avoid, or diffuse potentially violent situations by attending personal safety training programs.
• Alert supervisors to any concerns about safety or security and report all incidents immediately in writing.
• Avoid traveling alone into unfamiliar locations or situations whenever possible.
• Carry only minimal money and required identification into community settings.

If, despite your best efforts, an incident occurs that affects your workers, there are some basic steps you should take in response. You should:

• Encourage employees to report (and you should record and track) all incidents and threats of workplace violence.
• Provide prompt medical evaluation and treatment after an incident.
• Report violent incidents to the local police promptly.
• Inform victims of their legal right to prosecute perpetrators.
• Discuss the circumstances of the incident with staff members. Encourage employees to share information about ways to avoid similar situations in the future.
• Offer stress debriefing sessions and counseling services to help workers recover from a violent incident.
• Investigate all violent incidents and threats, monitor trends in violent incidents by type or circumstance, and institute corrective actions.
• Discuss changes in the program during regular employee meetings.

If you already have a comprehensive workplace violence prevention program in place, congratulations. If not, the ideas above should spark some discussion with your management. If you need a template to get you started on developing a program of your own, and you are using MS Internet Explorer as your browser (it will not work with any other browser, including Netscape) and you have MS Word installed on the computer you are using to read this article, you can immediately download a clean copy of this guide. Click here for a generic outline that you can adapt to meet your system’s circumstances.