Workplace Violence Prevention – Can Your Company Pass an OSHA Inspection?

OSHA’s new enforcement Initiative against Workplace Violence is designed to examine how employers respond, monitor and resolve at risk situation in preventing violence. Could your company withstand the impact of an OSHA inquiry? How prepared are you in coping with the threat of employee and non-employee violence?

According to the latest statistics, an astounding two million workers in America are victims of some form of violence at work each year, and violence at work now ranks among the top four causes of worker deaths. As reported in 2010, 18% of U.S. workplace fatalities were the result of violence related to the workplace. Compare that to 14% of U.S. fatalities caused by falls. Of alarm is that the number of incidents involving multiple fatalities by the lone gunman has increased. This is a concern associated with School Violence, Domestic and Partner Violence and Armed Robbery that should be addressed in your violence response plans and training. The Department of Homeland Security has recently issued some instructions on preparing for and responding to the threat of violence by a hostile intruder.

The first six months of 2012 has already shown us that the threat of homicidal violence has no boundaries; a family dispute in a family owned SPA in Georgia, a domestic violence matter in a Beauty Salon in California, a disgruntled current employee in a Lumber Company in North Carolina, a disgruntled person in a Office Building in Ohio, a disciplinary issue in a Rehab Hospital in CT, a severance pay issue in VT and a performance evaluation involving federal agents at a federal office building. This June a young Soldier killed his Commander at Fort Bragg, North Carolina proving that false assumptions contribute to poor prevention and response plans. No employer is immune from the threat of violence.

What are your capabilities? What is your violence response plan? Are your efforts a joint human resource – security collaboration or believe your culture more than adequately averts such potential disaster?

In an effort to address the increasing number of workplace related deaths due to incidence of violence in general, and to protect workers from preventable incidents of violence at work, OSHA has identified several industries and businesses with a high potential for people violence. Such businesses include those where workers exchange money with the public, workers who work at night, and health care and social workers who deliver services to the public. These categories are pretty self-explanatory.

What does your workplace violence prevention efforts look like?

Are you coordinating your effort or leaving it to chance that it won’t ever happen at your workplace?

In accordance with the new directive, OSHA plans to conduct inspections of these businesses to determine whether employers are taking sufficient preventive steps to reduce the risk of worker violence in minimizing risk. Under the new ruling, OSHA will entertain anonymous file complaints against employers who fail to provide for safe and secure workplaces. To address and prevent potential incidents of workplace violence, OSHA recommends that employers that the following actions:

• regularly conduct hazard analyses,
• implement engineering controls (e.g., alarm systems, metal detectors, closed -circuit video recording, lighting, etc.),
• enforce policies that require employees to use proper personal protective equipment in appropriate circumstances, and;·
• establish written programs to protect employees from workplace violence.

Under the new OSHA Directive on Workplace Violence employers will be cited if they do not take precautionary steps to protect their employees from the potential harm of workplace violence or when known correctable hazards have not been resolved. As such, all employers should evaluate their own potential for workplace violence and consider the feasibility of the following preventive steps:

• create and communicate a written policy on workplace violence and procedures to be followed in response to a violence incident,
• complete a workplace hazard assessment and security analysis,
• create a complaint mechanism for reporting threats or concerns of violence, and,
• develop a response team for immediate care of victims of workplace violence.
• develop appropriate training, and;
• develop new employee orientations on workplace violence prevention.

To insure your organization can pass any OSHA Inspection and to resolve any doubts of your current posture and capabilities, I recommend you begin an internal review process your workplace settings. Conduct a security assessment and seek input from employees in your various settings. Having the value of a critical review of your internal capabilities allows you to form your workplace violence prevention implementation plan around known hazards, security gaps, prevention measures and training. Do it NOW when you are in control.

Minor incidents of workplace violence occur daily in every type of business whether you know it or not or care to know about it. Workplaces experience varying levels of verbal abuse, name calling, harassment and intimidating behavior by employees on employees, non-employees and others. The concern is whether the workplace has policies and procedures in place to handle such incidents and reports.  When organizations fail to implement proactive workplace violence prevention policies and response plans or adopt changes in their approach to worker security or workplace security posture will ultimately invite other relative inhibitors.

When these incidents occur, they usually  go unreported. Whether reported or not, they affect employee morale, production, performance, attendance, labor and legal cost and even medical cost.

Surely you are aware that TODAY, violence can affect any workplace. No workplace setting or situation is immune. On February 16, , 2012 a Long Beach, CA federal immigration agent was shot and killed by a coworker at the workplace, after shooting and wounding his supervisor. On February 22, 2012 a New Britton, CT hospital maintenance employee shot and wounded two co-workers. On February 20, 2012,  Norcross, GA a family owned SPA erupted into gun violence leaving 5 dead at the Sunjung Beauty and Health Sauna.

A recent survey by Allied Barton Security Services entitled “Violence in the American Workplace” revealed that 52% of Americans working outside their home have “witnessed, heard about, or experienced a violent event or an event that can lead to violence at their workplace.” The survey also linked the likelihood of workplace violence to low employee morale. Low morale is the outgrowth of perceived or real outcomes. Swift intervention can identify contributing factors and risk indicators.

Is there an organizational workplace violence prevention plan and violence response plan for when violence happens where you work? Does your Workplace Violence Prevention Policy include plans and procedures for reporting and handling minor incidents of harassment, intimidation, verbal abuse, name calling, bumping and shoving that frequently escalates to physical altercations and ultimately threats of bodily harm? Are supervisors aware, connected? Are they listening and observing and taking corrective actions? Are supervisors trained in inspecting the employee’s work environment to make note of potential at risk situations requiring additional care and attention?

Is there a Workplace Violence Prevention Reporting System for employees to report incidents of workplace violence? Or, are you a victim of the myths of workplace violence that it won’t happen here or workplace violence is not preventable? Is your investment in workplace violence prevention based on the above myths?

Just having a written document is not enough. Is your organizations engaged in addressing reported incidents of workplace violence to avoid conflict and correct known hazards? Is the effort coordinated between Security and HR and other departments?

Are there procedures in place for the sharing of information to insure risk minimization efforts are effective? Are the results of assessments and investigations filed away in “a blackhole” without the benefit of sharing lessons learned or informing victims of the outcome?

Does your company offer Workplace Violence Prevention Training? How frequently? On a 1 -10 point  scale, how effective do you believe that training is? If you want to know how immaterial training really is, ask the employee six months later what he or she learned and has it made a difference in their outlook?

Does your organization include immediate protective measures? Things like movement to safe harbor rooms, movement to escape and evade the threat or your first encounter with police searching for the shooter? Your initial exposure to the police in an active shooter incident could be traumatic. Is the workplace violence response plan considered a part of your organization’s emergency preparedness posture? How is the threat of violence in the workplace communicated? How is information conveyed during an incident? How would you know the threat has been cleared. How is that communicated?

My experiences is in alignment with the Allied Barton survey. Low morale is a risk indicator that contributes to employee disputes, argumentative and confrontational employees, disruptive behavior and disgruntled relationships. These indicators become apparent during an incident assessment. Often, participants and witnesses disclose the cause of violence is a part of management’s failure to identify, address or correct on-going issues. Some examples of management’s contributory factors include favoritism by supervisors, failure to recognize the impact of workplace policies on organizational effectiveness, unfairness in the disposition of grievances and untimely resolution of employee conflicts.

The transition from the Disgruntled Employee to Hostile Intruder (Active Shooter) isn’t an apparition, it occurs over time right under your eyes. And, most likely you were surprised at the outcome. Don’t BE surprised! BE prepared. Proactive Workplace Violence Prevention is a workplace force multiplier.

Considering the severity of the risk, don’t you agree that employers should focus their energies on taking proactive measures to aggressively address risk factors, and warning signs. This effort must be a part of an ongoing process. Climate assessments should focus on factors that impact low morale to identify the root cause. Annual Workplace Violence Prevention Assessments should be designed to take advantage of employee concerns and the workplace’s capability to address the threat of the hostile intruder. Assumptions lead to the perception of insensitivity leading to additional assumptions that when left uncorrected fester and escalate into irreconcilable differences.

To mitigate the risk, employers should conduct annual assessments to evaluate their capability to respond to a hostile threat but also take aggressive intervention action before an incident becomes an unmanageable one. This is precisely why I offer “Tiered Segmented Training.” Supervisors and employees must become cognizant of responsibilities at each level. Remember, just having a zero-tolerance isn’t enough. Using the zero tolerance policy as a threat to disciplinary action is an irresponsible tactic when not incorporated as part of a larger workplace violence intervention strategy. Discipline without  corrective action is shortsighted.

Maintaining and enforcing tough anti-violence policies that places employees on notice that violent behavior will not be tolerated alone, doesn’t improve morale NOT without correcting the contributing factors or risk factors.

Employers should avoid the temptation of relying on termination as the solution to the problem. Improperly resolved issues are exacerbated during the terminations process. Organizations must strive to identify contributing factors, risk factors and root causes if they are to provide for a safe / non violent workplace. Intimate Partner/Domestic Violence should be integrated under the workplace violence prevention umbrella for maximized and effective communication and coordination.

Organizations that implement proactive workplace violence prevention programs tend to have credible reporting measures in place, have some form of access controls, employees are aware of their mutual responsibilities, training is relevant and appropriate, there’s accountable and responsible supervision manage the potentially hostile workplace. For greater value,  assign workplace violence prevention to a program manager.

Risk Management has to be a higher calling because those who are involved are truly blessed with insight and the patience of Job. I would imagine their mantra being a persistent one that’s based on saving an organization mandated impositions and wasteful costs associated with civil liability and negligent management. Yet failure to anticipate or plan continues to be the C-Suite’s greatest shortcoming when it comes to understanding that the operative word in workplace violence is PREVENTION. Often time employers are victims of the two greatest myths; Workplace Violence is not preventable and it won’t happen here. Well, let me help you see the other side of the coin.

A homicidal event being the driving motivator. My question is – when will they learn that on ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure or pay me now or pay someone later much more? Though FEAR should not be the motivation in considering investments in Workplace Violence Prevention it often is. The reality is that such investments typically occur on the incident side of the equation where the investment is much more expensive, less customizable and hastily delivered. Decisions to invest in workplace safety and security measures and practices should be predicated on the notion of practicality, researched best practices and making the solution relevant and appropriate to your workplace setting. Such investments should be considered in preparation for an event but certainly as part of proactive risk mitigation FIRST and not as a cost avoidance effort. Though researched best practices are recommended as a cost effective model in avoiding unnecessary costly re-inventions, the decision should not interfere with the need to address the unique aspects of your workplace specific environments. The decision to invest in workplace safety and security is one that should be weighed against your unique organizational risk assessment and not a cookie-cutter reactionary response in the aftermath or to a news event. We are now seeing an increase in workplace shooting incidents involving multiple victims by a lone shooter. FEAR as the motivating emotional contagion results in hasty decisions with adverse outcomes. My question is WHY make any move without a thoughtful security assessment and/or risk assessment?

Consider risk mitigation in helping you manage and reduce at risk situations by allowing you the flexibility now to apply appropriate measures to minimize risk before escalation and controlling response measures. Providing for a safe and secure workplace in preventing workplace violence should consider a prepared response to possible situations or events that can be addressed in situational exercises. While it is virtually impossible to defend against every scenario, training can help in preparing a response that’s directed at a particular problem, anticipates the need, change or improvement and not a reaction. I refrain from using REACTIONARY as it relates to emergency response situations, simply because employees will REACT out of fear and not out of training. I prefer training that helps employees see a RESPONSIVE approach they control under general situations. That’s why when we address risk mitigation as it relates to workplace violence prevention, the need for training should derive from a known possibility that it could happen and what are the Immediate Protective Measures to be taken. Or to avoid minimize risk even before they occur recognize existing hazards by conducting security assessments and/or risk assessments at least annually or as circumstances dictate. An example of risk mitigation is training in response to the disgruntled person with a gun in the workplace. The response should be a trained one rather than a haphazard reaction to danger and fear alone.

Proper training that focuses on reducing and managing risks can help organizations better prepare to respond to unexpected situations when they occur. Organizations should not be afraid of conducting annual or as frequently needed internal ” workplace violence prevention security vulnerability assessments” as part of a risk management process and they should make the training as realistic as possible. Use experts who specialize in workplace violence prevention and who can share analysis of recent and past events as lessons learned. Design training centered on multiple learning modalities such as scenarios and small group discussions.

Remember as we’ve all seen and hear in recent public events that those who engage in acts of violence reflect a microcosm of our societies and as quietly as it may be kept, generally emanate as a result of a workplace event, situation or circumstance. As such, these individuals their issues and concerns are our employees whose complaints fall on deaf ears. Investing in Workplace Violence Prevention is GOOD Risk Mitigation and is a litigiously sounder strategy to preventing, managing and reducing incidents than Cost Avoidance, which equates to being a penny wise and a pound foolish on the wrong side of the ledger. Don’t take my word; ask the Risk Management Professionals, they are more equipped than I.