Workplace violence can range from threats and verbal abuse to physical assaults and homicide, one of the leading causes of job-related deaths. Fortunately, there are steps you can take to reduce the likelihood of violence in your workplace.

Who Is Vulnerable?

According to the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), some 2 million American workers are victims of workplace violence each year. Workplace violence can strike anywhere, and no one is immune. Some workers, however, are at increased risk. Among them are workers who:

• Exchange money with the public.
• Guard valuable property or possessions.
• Deliver passengers, goods, or services.
• Work alone or in small groups.
• Have late night or early morning work hours.
• Work in high-crime areas.
• Work in community settings and homes where they have extensive contact with the public. This includes healthcare and social service workers such as visiting nurses, psychiatric evaluators, and probation officers.
• Have jobs out in the community, such as gas and water utility employees, phone and cable TV installers, and letter carriers.
• Have jobs in retail settings.
• Have a mobile workplace such as a taxicab or police cruiser.

What Can You Do to Help Protect These Employees?

The best protection employers can offer, says OSHA, is to establish a zero-tolerance policy toward workplace violence against or by their employees. Typically, such policies also have a zero-tolerance toward threats of violence.

You should establish a workplace violence prevention program or incorporate the information into an existing accident prevention program, employee handbook, or manual of standard operating procedures.

Train all employees about the policy and be sure that they understand that all claims of workplace violence will be investigated and remedied promptly.

Develop an effective workplace violence-prevention plan: Webinar on 2/28!

In addition, you can offer protections such as the following:

• Encourage employees to report and log all incidents and threats of workplace violence
• 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 the workplace. Where appropriate to the business, install video surveillance, extra lighting, and alarm systems and minimize access by outsiders through identification badges, electronic keys, and guards.
• Provide drop safes to limit the amount of cash on hand. Keep a minimal amount of cash in registers during evenings and late night hours.
• Equip field staff with cellular phones and handheld 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.
• Instruct employees not to enter any location where they feel unsafe. Introduce a “buddy system” or provide an escort service or police assistance in potentially dangerous situations or at night.
• Develop policies and procedures covering visits by home healthcare providers. Address the conduct of home visits, the presence of others in the home during visits, and the worker's right to refuse to provide services in a clearly hazardous situation.

How Can Employees Protect Themselves?

Nothing can guarantee that an employee will not become a victim of workplace violence. However, these steps can 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.

What Should Employers Do Following an Incident of Workplace Violence?

• Provide prompt medical evaluation and treatment after the 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 employees. Encourage employees to share information about ways to avoid similar situations in the future.
• Offer stress debriefing sessions and posttraumatic 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.

Workplace Violence: Prepare an Effective Violence Prevention Plan Using the Plan/Prevent/Protect Model

Workplace violence continues to be a problem in the American workplace, and sadly, California typically has been one of the states with the highest rates of workplace homicides. Consider the following recent events:

• 12/18/11, Irwindale: An employee walks into his company complex armed with a semi-automatic handgun and kills two employees and wounds two others before turning the gun on himself.
• 10/31/11, Seal Beach: A shooting at a hair salon claims the lives of eight victims, with a ninth critically injured.
• 10/5/11, Cupertino: A disgruntled employee accused of killing three co-workers and injuring six others at a Northern California limestone quarry draws SWAT teams in armored vehicles to the normally quiet streets of Silicon Valley.
• 9/26/11, Yuma Sun: An employee is arrested for alleged threats at the Quechan Tribal Office.
• 6/7/11, Irvine: A woman is killed by her estranged husband in the parking lot of the daycare center where she worked.

Cal/OSHA requires you to provide your employees with a safe and healthful workplace. Are you doing everything that’s required of you?

Join us for an important webinar on February 28—specifically for California employers— where you’ll learn:

• Who’s most likely to cause violent acts in the workplace, and why it’s important for your organization to know which types of acts are most likely to occur at work
• How to proactively focus on reducing workplace violence through counseling, respectful termination policies, and pre-employment and infinity screening
• The importance of conducting risk assessments to identify workplace security factors that contribute to the risk of violence in your workplace
• How to make prevention the focus of your workplace violence program by targeting injury prevention
• How to identify the early warning signs and patterns in behavior that may lead to violent incidents so you can intervene before incidents occur
• Tips for training staff to report problematic behavior and training supervisors how to intervene
• What your workplace violence prevention plan should include
• Why you should consider integrating workplace violence prevention into your business continuity program
• How to build a security-conscious work environment that embraces predictive management techniques
• The liability you could face if you ignore warning signs and fail to appropriately respond to threats of violence in your workplace

As an added bonus, register for this webinar and get the National Institute for the Prevention of Workplace Violence’s 2011 Workplace Violence Factsheet!

This webinar is free of charge and available exclusively to our CEA Online subscribers. Not already a CEA Online subscriber? Sign up now for a free trial, 100 percent risk free!

Download your free copy of 7 Steps for Preventing Workplace Violence today!