It’s critically important for you to review your workplace violence issues. An important thing to note is the fact that most of these crimes go unreported and therefore undetected by administration. Just because it didn’t get reported to you doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.
It’s been reported in this study that more than 1.7 million employees fall victim to workplace violence every year. It can be chilling to consider that some organizations spend less than $4.50 per employee each year on prevention of violence in the work place, this is very low number indeed.
In this update we’re going to talk about 5 important strategies that you can implement and focus on to help your work force be safe and secure and in turn keep your liability down at the same time. Don’t forget your employees and guests are your greatest asset and you can’t afford to leave them without the security they need to work safely and securely each day.
Communicate
It’s a pretty simple one but you’d be surprised at how often we simply don’t communicate with each other, especially from workers to management. If your employees don’t feel like you have open lines of communications these crimes can go un reported or under reported.
This will take a huge toll on your victim, you have a duty of care to provide the protection needed to be safe and secure at all times at work. Hopefully you never have to deal with a problem of violence within your workplace but if you do having your staff know they can talk and communicate about the problem will go a long way in ensuring it doesn’t happen again.
Be Proactive
Be proactive as an employer and look for the warning signs within the behaviour of your employees. It’s better to prevent than to have to react to an incident of workplace violence. It’s worth noting that random acts of violence are extremely rare in the workforce.
This means you should be able to spot the warning signs well in advance, aggressive behaviour by an employee would be a key behaviour to keep an eye out for.
Deploy Security Officers
This is a major part of securing the premises and the people on it, having Grade-A certified security on the ground will go a long way to prevent workplace violence. The last thing a criminal will want to do is tangle with your security officers.
Having BOS Security on board will provide benefits extending well beyond workplace violence prevention so check out the services offered page here to see what else we can do for you.
Review Your Policy
Ask your administration team to take a good look at the company policy and procedures around workplace violence.
When were they last updated? Are the information channels still viable? Do your employees have easy access to the services offered should a workplace violence event occur? Is there an avenue of reporting problems discreetly?
These are all areas of the policy you need take a look at. In-line with being proactive this is a relatively easy and small step to take in being proactive about workplace violence and it doesn’t hurt to show you care.
Background Checks
One of the best ways to keep your risk of workplace violence low is to keep a very close eye on employee’s history checks before they even start with your company.
Employees with a temper problem will probably have a track record of it from previous employers and more common is asking potential employees to submit to a police check to see if there’s any history of violence.
It’s far better not to have taken the risk on-board than to have to deal with it after the fact.
Now To Call In The Experts
Just click here to talk to us about our obligation free security needs assessment, at BOS Security we can provide the security officers you need to keep the facility safe and deter different forms of crime be it internal workplace violence or external security risks.
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