Never assume that violence will never happen at your own workplace. Worse, don’t assume that violence is biased towards only a certain class of workers, ethnicity or a group of people. The simple fact is that workplace violence can happen anywhere, including your office. The only question is – Are you prepared to deal with such scenarios?
If you hope to run a successful business, you have to ensure the safety and security of every individual in the workplace or office area. You need to structure office policies and plans for dealing with violence and conflict resolution.
Triggers
One of the key things to understand about workplace violence is the trigger. Most violent actions at a workplace are due to an extreme response to a particular situation, usually by a person who is fairly unstable.
A trigger could be anything like terminations, bad evaluation, being passed over for promotion or firing from a superior. It can also be due to issues outside work like physical and substance abuse. Furthermore, anger that manifest outside or inside office can be triggered and transform into violence at the workplace. All it takes is a spark.
Additionally, it can come from anyone – employee, client or customer.
Response Group
Do you have a response group structured for such situations? A response group can include people from HR, management and security. This way you don’t have to form a team to deal with this situation.
Some violent situations will be crystal clear, while others could be muddled. Your response team has to be ready for both as long as the truth comes out.
Keep an Eye for the Signs
The best way to prevent any person from exploding with a violent response is to catch it before hand. You want to build a team and an office culture where every person is aware of each other. You don’t want an office of drones where people just come in, get the work done and people walk out. Create a wonderful work culture where people invest in each other.
Look out for behavior like aggressive agreements, constant conflicts and sudden isolative conduct.
Deal with the Employee
Your response group needs to deal with the person before things get out of hand. Decisions have to be made like suspending or firing the person.
Good Security at the workplace
Good security at the workplace involves two things.
This way everything is caught on camera and your response team knows the truth.
– Security Guards
From breaking up fights to ensuring more of them don’t happen, a security guard is trained for all kinds of scenarios. Having professional security guards who can handle sticky situations is what you want at the office.
Zero Tolerance Policy
If workplace violence is a growing problem, then you have only one option – zero tolerance. This way, you nip it in the bud and prevent it from becoming a problem you have to face on a daily basis.
Workplace violence and the safety and security of your employees are not something you should ignore. Utilizes these steps and ensure your office is ready for such a situation.
