Employers develop strategies to fight workplace violence

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As violence in the workplace becomes more commonplace in America, employers are becoming more vigilant and more needful of strategies to protect themselves and their employees. |ret||ret||tab|

Several organizations in the Springfield area, both for-profit and nonprofit, are teaching companies ways to prevent the violence and also to rebuild if violence does take place. |ret||ret||tab|

According to its mission statement, The Safety Council of the Ozarks has as its purpose "to significantly reduce human suffering and associated personal and economic losses resulting from preventable causes."|ret||ret||tab|

Jane Collins, council director of occupational programs, said, "We do customized training on workplace violence based on a company's needs and situation." The point of the training, she said, "is to teach companies to decrease their vulnerability."|ret||ret||tab|

The program focuses on "structural issues," she said. "This includes the way they arrange the reception area so that no one can physically get to a plant manager if they're not supposed to, and how to terminate employees and make sure they don't have access to the facility after they leave. ... If people know managers aren't an easy target, they may think the company isn't an easy target."|ret||ret||tab|

Other ways of preventing violent workplace acts, according to the council, include conducting background checks on all employees including criminal, credit, employment history and driving record checks. Employers also are encouraged to provide an effective forum for airing employee grievances and to put in place a violence prevention program with a zero-tolerance policy regarding threats or intimidation, and a committee to investigate any such threats or actual acts of violence. These conditions should be clearly stated in the company's policy, and enforced.|ret||ret||tab|

A common profile of someone who is likely to commit workplace violence is, according to the council, a man between the ages of 30 and 50, a loner in the workplace, a man who talks about guns or weapons a lot, one who has a military background and who doesn't take responsibility for his problems or mistakes.|ret||ret||tab|

The Safety Council charges companies it counsels an hourly fee based on the size of the facility, how much time they spend with the client, and the amount of training necessary to fit the client's needs.|ret||ret||tab|

Stacy Poynter is the human resources and safety coordinator for ReGen Technologies, a company that remanufactures John Deere engines. The management of the company, which employs 94, went through the Safety Council training. "I thought it was crucial for management to go through the training because they're the key personnel, the leaders in the company," Poynter said.|ret||ret||tab|

The training allowed Poynter to think about issues she hadn't thought about before. "Most people know what they would do after a workplace violence situation," she said. "They would call the police and an ambulance. But what do you do after? How do you get people back to work? How do you get the company up and running again? How do you deal with the people that witnessed this situation and their families? During the training we went through different scenarios to help teach what to do after the fact."|ret||ret||tab|

ReGen Technologies is now putting together a crisis plan and has a three-member crisis emergency management team that includes Poynter.|ret||ret||tab|

She would recommend the training to other companies. "It's very informative. I learned things I had never thought about before. I hope that our company now knows what to do before, during and after a crisis."|ret||ret||tab|

Wanda Clifton-Faber is the president and chief executive officer of the Faber Group Inc., which offers training in workplace violence. She said workplace violence is not just when an employee comes into a former place of employment and kills people. |ret||ret||tab|

"The Oklahoma bombing and the bombing of abortion clinics are also considered workplace violence," she said. "Workplace violence is when any violent crime occurs in the workplace, This includes robbery, rape and assault."|ret||ret||tab|

Clifton-Faber believes there's been an increase in workplace violence over the years because society's attitude toward the crimes has changed,|ret||ret||tab|

"Violence isn't considered an aberration anymore," she said. "In the movies, if you have a problem, you beat someone up or kill them."|ret||ret||tab|

Clifton-Faber said the crime of workplace violence isn't spontaneous, "it's something that happens over time," she said. "Maybe the employee has said something to give other employees a clue that he's disgruntled. Do not ignore this. Someone needs to step in right away and solve this,"|ret||ret||tab|

Like the Safety Council of the Ozarks, Clifton-Faber charges companies a fee based on the size of the company and the time involved in the training.|ret||ret||tab|

Collins said that six or seven years ago, workplace violence was often a case of domestic violence following someone to the workplace.|ret||ret||tab|

"But now we're having two or three situations a year where there are multiple casualties," she said. "With every case an employer hears about workplace violence, it increases their concern. Employees still have the attitude that these are my friends' or that there's no one working here that would commit a crime like that.'"[[In-content Ad]]