Workplace Violence - Will Your Plan Fail When You Need It Most? | Human Resources

By JeffreyM.Miller
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You have your company's workplace violence plan all finished. It's loaded with all of the preventative and reporting procedures you think you need. You're all prepared, but...

...for your people to protect themselves if something actually happens and they find themselves being violently attacked by an enraged attacker?

When I review a company's workplace violence prevention plan, I find that they usually read more like any other policy. They're filled with front-end, preventative policies and "rules," and the company's required back-end, reporting and disciplinary procedures. But rarely do I see a plan that fills in the center - the details regarding policies, procedures, action plans, and training - for how employees will deal with an actual attack. It's this missing piece - this critical element of any emergency action plan - which is what a workplace violence plan should be seen as - could actually leave a company with the exact same liability and loss issues that the plan was originally written to avoid.

The truth us that, prevention is great and certainly necessary. So, a plan's "zero-tolerance" statements, banned weapons lists, or employee interaction policies should be included in a well-designed one. Likewise, you'll need to make sure that your reporting and disciplinary procedures are there to cover your company and to comply with some government rules and regulations. But, a good plan will be focused on the reason that we bothered to create a workplace violence prevention policy in the first place. And that reason is...

...liability control, crisis management, and loss control.

Isn't that right?

Unless you're in the habit of making up policies for your company just because you attended a seminar or read an article about it and some so-called expert said you needed it, your workplace violence management policy should be seen for what it is - a critical, potentially life-saving, part of your company's overall liability-management systems.

I say "life-saving" in the sense of your company's financial life, of course, because a major incident happening in your organization can literally wipe you out. But, when I say "life-saving," I'm also referring to the lives of everyone who is covered by your workplace violence plan. Because, an attacker intent on doing harm, regardless of whether he or she is one of your own employees or an outsider, as is almost always the case in incidents involving nurses and the medical care industry, doesn't care one iota about your zero-tolerance, about what you consider to be a weapon, or what you're going to do to them afterwards.

There is, however, a growing host of lawyers who do care whether or not your plan includes the same elements that I focus on. They are, quite literally, standing by and willing to represent any of your employees injured in a workplace violence incident. Some of these missing elements include:

* Escape and evasion tactics during an attack

* Attack evasion tactics

* Assault prevention training, and of course...

* Physical self-defense skills

These are just some of the important elements that, if missing from your plan, could spell financial disaster for your company and jeopardize its future existence and long-term survival. I'm not exaggerating when I say that, these are the only elements in your policy that are specifically designed to save the lives of...

* your employees and managers - literally

* you're business' financial state, and maybe even more importantly...

* ...it's legal position should there be the threat of post incident action by injured employees making the company liable for not providing this type of training in the first place.

I'm sure your policy looks great. I'm sure it looks complete. But, the reality is that, most people charged with creating these plans - whether or not it's you, a committee, or a specialist you brought in - lack the necessary experience in crisis management - especially with physical violence - to even begin creating such a policy. You owe it to yourself, your company, and the people who depend on you, to insure that your company's workplace violence plan is more than just a "feel-good" policy that might instill nothing but a false sense of security.

It's up to you to make sure it won't fail when you need it the most!

About the Author

Include the absent violence in the workplace training which will make your plan solid. Before you contact another expert, you owe it to yourself and your organization to get the information on workplace violence at wcinternational.com

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