Building an Effective Workplace Violence Prevention Program
Table of Contents
What’s the definition of workplace violence?
A workplace violence program for your team
Download SafetyLine’s Workplace Violence Prevention Program Assessment Template
Create a workplace violence policy
Provide safety training, Provide an effective communications system
Perform regular violence and safety hazard assessments
Build a positive work and safety culture
Develop an emergency response plan
Worker wellness does not include workplace violence
Have you, your coworkers, or a team of employees ever experienced workplace violence before? Or are you worried about the potential for violence in your workplace and would like to know more about what to do about it? Chances are you can say “yes” at least one of those questions or the words “workplace violence” wouldn’t have caught your eye.
Unfortunately, workplace violence is increasing, especially with healthcare and community workers, and but the number of technologies is also increasing that can help protect the worker from serious harm. With Covid-related workplace violence, employees are experiencing horrible instances of slapping, spitting, and even shootings. With more and more employees returning to the offices, at least part-time, some experts are concerned that workplace violence may increase. Even prior to the pandemic, industries were experiencing an increase in workplace violence, which some believe is because of work-related stress. According to the 2019 Bureau of Labor Statistics, more than 20,000 US employees in the private industry experienced trauma from nonfatal workplace violence, 68, 68% of whom were female. during the year before, 453 US workers, mostly male, were victims of workplace homicides.
If you feel that violence is or could be an issue in your workplace, you absolutely need a workplace violence prevention program that can significantly decrease the likelihood of you and your team being assaulted by another coworker or member of the public. But before we show you how to develop an effective workplace violence program, we need to look at what workplace violence is first.
What’s the definition of workplace violence?
So what is workplace violence? A common misconception is that violence is an act that’s only physical. However, it can be emotional and psychological as well. The Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS) says workplace violence can include any behavior “that demeans, embarrasses, humiliates, annoys, alarms or verbally abuses a person and that is known or would be expected to be unwelcome.” They also break workplace violence into four categories:
Threatening behavior – such as shaking fists, destroying property or throwing objects.
Verbal or written threats – any expression of an intent to inflict harm.
Verbal abuse – swearing, insults, or condescending language.
Physical attacks – hitting, shoving, pushing, or kicking.
A workplace violence program for your team
Alright, now that we’ve established what workplace violence is, you can start putting together your workplace violence program. Depending on your industry and local legislation, your workplace violence program may look different from ours, but regardless, there are key areas that are needed for a truly effective workplace violence program.
Download SafetyLine’s Workplace Violence Prevention Program Assessment Template
A fundamental factor in a successful workplace violence prevention program is ongoing assessment of its impact and challenges and if it requires any updates (staff and work environment changes, new safety hazards, and risks). In this template for assessment of your workplace violence program, we will guide you, step by step, through evaluating your program's impact and efficacy.
Create a workplace violence policy
The backbone of any solid workplace violence program is a well-developed policy to support it all. The policy should, in writing of course, make a verbal commitment to preventing workplace violence, stating in some way that the organization will not tolerate violence of any kind. The workplace violence policy will also include definitions of violence within your particular context and circumstances, as well as clearly stated objectives, and specific strategies to combat these incidents and behavior.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that the first step in developing a workplace violence policy is “to establish a system for documenting violent incidents in the workplace. Such data are essential for assessing the nature and magnitude of workplace violence in a given workplace and quantifying risk. These data can be used to assess the need for action to reduce or mitigate the risks for workplace violence and implement a reasonable intervention strategy.”
Provide safety training
There are general strategies that any kind of organization can employ to prevent violence from hurting their team members and operations. The most effective is (ideally) in-person training sessions in which employees can learn about how to deal with and react to potential violent interactions while performing their jobs. Not only do training sessions provide face-to-face instruction, but they also facilitate some valuable team-building engagement which will result in a safer work environment as well.
Provide an effective communications system
If in a violent situation, the worker needs to request help ASAP, an effective communications system with clearly defined safety protocols is essential for your workplace violence program. Because the physical and emotional welfare of employees is at stake, employers must provide the needed devices and technology that make up an impactful communications network that can support each other in an emergency. Examples of this include panic buttons and automated check-in systems.
Perform regular violence and safety hazard assessments
When we talk about “workplace violence,” it’s a fairly broad term that can include a wide, wide range of different safety hazards and risks. In order to determine which violent safety hazards the team is facing, safety hazard assessments must be performed regularly, documenting any ongoing or new threats the workers are facing. It is important to perform such hazard assessments with both the employee and manager as they can bring different perspectives of the work environment and which dangers exist there – or could develop in the future.
Build a positive work and safety culture
Because managers and employees of all levels can offer different viewpoints on different safety hazards, it is incredibly valuable to promote a positive safety culture where employees feel safe enough to speak up about any potential for violence or other safety hazards. Workers should be encouraged and even rewarded for recognizing new safety risks that could result in violence. Not everyone will feel comfortable enough to address a safety hazard in front of everyone at a meeting, so provide discreet channels to report concerns where their anonymity is secure.
Develop an emergency response plan
Last but definitely not least, your workplace violence program must have an emergency response plan (there might be some overlap with your policy but that’s normal). A well-planned emergency response plan will help the team respond to an emergency so that the worker or workers are as safe as possible. Because time is of the essence in a dangerous situation, an emergency response must be quick and straightforward, creating a roadmap that gets help as soon as possible.
Worker wellness does not include workplace violence
Yes, we’re sure you know this, but a happy and productive team does not experience violence at work and feels supported by their managers and leaders. Therefore, in order to ensure your people are happy and productive, you must spend the time and effort to develop an exhaustive workplace violence program that involves everyone, at all levels. Regardless of where you work, it takes an entire coordinated team to defeat workplace violence and for them to do that, they need an effective workplace violence prevention program.