On January 11, 2023, I had the opportunity to hear Brigadier General, Beth Salisbury present on workplace violence. The information that she provided was so critical and relevant that I wanted to get some of that information out to you. The following blog is highlighting some of the key points that she delivered. Being prepared for an incident is absolutely crucial.
Can you say that your business is prepared to handle a violent incident on your premises? Workplace violence issues can arise from many different areas. You can have an altercation between two employees. You can have a disgruntled employee come back to your office, store, or facility and inflict serious injury as an active shooter. You can even have a customer get into an altercation with one of your employees or even engage in a shooting. The point is, workplace violence is a serious issue and can appear in many different forms.
An act of aggressive behavior should never be taken lightly.
Is your business prepared to respond in the event a threat or an incident occurs?
Here are some tips that you can implement to make your business safer.
1. Ensure your facility has locked doors in all of the appropriate areas. How many businesses have a rear entry point that is un-secured that someone can enter in from? Do your employees prop a brick between the door and the building when they are on breaks? Creating good habits of keeping doors locked that should be locked is a simple easy step.
2. Be aware of any bullying or hostility that is going on amongst employees in your various business units and take appropriate action.
3. When terminating a hostile employee, contact your police department and have them on standby at entrance or exit you will be walking that employee out of.
4. Practice, drill, and rehearse what to do in an incident. We run fire drills regularly so people know what to do in the event of a fire. Let’s expand this preparedness to workplace violence incidents.
5. Sign in rosters will allow you to be aware of ho is in your facility at any given time.
Please research this topic deeper so you can begin to develop your workplace violence plan. Preparedness is key.
