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Tragedy of Workplace Violence
Some would argue that we are in danger of accepting workplace violence as a social consequence of graphic violence in the movies, cross-cultural differences between workers of differing ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds, and America's general acceptance of violence as a method of personal expression. Experts agree that social issues, including drug and alcohol abuse, work layoffs, and poverty issues, play a major role in these incidents. The statistics surrounding workplace violence are awesome indeed. The U.S Occupational Health & Safety Administration (U.S. Dept. of Labor) reports that in it's most extreme form, homicide is the second leading cause of fatal occupational injury in the United States. More than 1,000 workers are murdered, and 1.5 million are assaulted in the workplace each year. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI), there were over 1,000 workplace homicides last year, accounting for 12% of the fatal work injuries in the United States. As security and business professionals, we are tasked with the management of a problem that may have dire consequences for employers and their employees. Additionally, workplace violence is now being recognized for the ensuing business risk and potentially serious financial considerations that so often follow an incident. The impact on a corporation's bottom line may be devastating. The U.S. Department of Justice reported that victims of workplace violence lost nearly two million days of work last year, an average of 3.5 days per incident of assault. The missed work resulted in lost wages in excess of Fifty Five million Dollars, not including days covered by sick leave that resulted from these assaults. Lawsuits alleging negligent hiring and retention and are skyrocketing. Incidents of workplace violence require Government intervention and follow-up. There is great peril for businesses and institutions that ignore the need for a comprehensive program to prevent and deal with workplace violence. WHAT YOU CAN DO Every company needs to have a plan to reduce workplace violence, and a Professional Investigative Company like SSC can be a critical component of a workplace violence plan. Persons charged with developing a workplace violence plan need to realize that the critical periods for preventing workplace violence are during the initial hiring phase, when an employee is subject to company discipline, and when the employee is terminated from employment. There is ample literature available on this difficult topic to assist every company with the development of a meaningful workplace violence program. There are, quite literally, thousands of websites and pages devoted to this topic; we have included links to some of the best at the end of this article. SSC has the experience to perform the most detailed employment verifications and backgrounds. Keeping unstable persons from your payroll in the first place is of primary importance. Individuals who have displayed dangerous behaviors in previous employments can often be screened out with proper pre-employment checks. Letting applicants know that they will be thoroughly screened is a warning to applicants and may keep those inclined to dangerous behaviors from pursuing employment. Our real world experience as a provider of background verifications for many of the nations most prestigious company's has shown that over forty percent of applications have an intentional misstatement with regard to work history or qualifications. Depending on the sensitivity of the position, a thorough interview by an experienced outside investigator may provide the detail necessary to determine an applicant's fitness for employment or dissuade them from further interest. To reduce the likelihood of violence resulting from terminations and layoffs, SSC has the capability to provide a visible deterrence to such events. Our highly professional and experienced teams have the maturity and skill to assist Human Resource and Security Departments with this difficult task. SSC'S professionals always strive to preserve the dignity of employees who have been (terminated or laid off) from their positions. If a violent reaction can be reasonably anticipated, our training in the management of aggressive behavior may readily defuse the situation. To protect their employees from workplace violence, as well as to limit their exposure and liability, many businesses are taking proactive steps toward tighter security measures such as professional pre-employment background investigations and on-site security surveys. SSC stands ready to assist in providing detailed employment backgrounds, workplace anti-violence plans, employee support teams on the occasions of terminations and lay-offs, as well as recommendations regarding implementations or upgrading facility security. Additionally, we can help with the development of an employee "hotline" to provide employees a way to "vent" frustrations in a non-violent way, or report suspicious or dangerous behaviors by co-workers. SSC stands ready to serve security and business professionals in developing a company posture that will protect their company's image, while taking a proactive response to the safety of your most valuable assets, your employees.
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Few images are seared into
our minds by the evening news more graphically than the devastation, in
human terms, wrought by deranged or vengeful former and present employees
in America's workplaces. Media reports and the all-too-real news video
and photographic evidence of these events are now so commonplace as to
have become part of our daily lexicon. Terms like "going postal" and "I'm
fired, but you're terminated!" have become signposts attesting to the
prevalence of this tragic phenomenon, which is now occurring with mind-numbing
regularity.