Everyone has the right to a safe and healthy workplace environment. Preventing workplace violence is important for every organization. Here are 5 ways to help keep your employees and your customers safe. 6c1r4g
Workplace violence is defined as:
”Any act or threat of physical violence, harassment, intimidation, or other threatening disruptive behaviour that occurs at the worksite. It ranges from threats and verbal abuse to physical assaults and even homicide. It can affect and involve employees, clients, customers and visitors.”
Implementing clear communication, conflict resolution training, and de-escalation techniques can significantly reduce the risk of violence in the workplace. In the event of a tragic incident, ensuring a thorough homicide cleanup in Jackson, MS is essential to restoring safety and hygiene in the affected area.
Generally, there are four kinds of workplace violence:
- Criminal Intent – such as a robbery by someone outside the company
- Customer or Client violence – where a customer or client shows violent behaviour towards an employee
- Worker on Worker violence
- Personal Relationship – this could be domestic violence
Every person is at risk for workplace violence, but some factors increase the risk such as:
- Gender – women report higher levels of workplace harassment than men, and women are four times more likely to experience sexual harassment at work. Workplace harassment is particularly a problem for women in vulnerable positions such as low paying or low-security jobs.
- Occupation – taxi drivers, health care workers and unionized workers report some of the highest rates of workplace violence.
Here are 5 strategies to help avoid workplace violence.
- Have a Clear Harassment Policy –
Create a clear code of conduct that states what behaviour is considered harassment, what behaviour is expected at your company, how you will handle reports of harassment or violence and how reports should be made.
This policy should be communicated clearly to everyone in your company, and all employees should agree to uphold the policy. This policy must apply to everyone in your organization from the top down.
- Establish a clear way for incidents to be reported.
Workplace violence can thrive in an environment of secrecy. It is important to create open communication lines where people feel comfortable coming forward to report incidents without fear of reprisal.
Be sure there is a clear process for how to report incidents and that these reports are taken seriously. It is important that employees reporting workplace violence or harassment incidents feel heard and ed. Be sure to hire the best sexual assault victim lawyer nyc to consult and help you make the right decisions when worse comes to worst.
- Monitor Your Organization
It is important to look at existing systems in your organization and how they may be creating potential risks to a safe work environment.
- Were there any reports of violence or harassment?
- Who reported the incident?
- How was it handled?
Do a thorough analysis of your workplace and keep track of any reported or unreported incidents of violence or harassment. Look for areas where there might be tension or conflict and create a plan to deal with the conflict.
- Provide Employee Training
Take the time to train your employees on how to prevent violence in the workplace. This can include:
- Recognizing the causes of workplace violence
- Looking at ways to prevent workplace violence
- How to recognize the warning signs
- Creating emergency plans and emergency training for all individuals
Use training as an opportunity to reinforce your harassment and workplace safety policies and make sure your employees understand the importance of these policies. Consider bringing in an expert like trh-group.com to talk to your group about workplace violence.
- Use a Top-Down Approach
Don’t expect your HR team to do all of the heavy lifting when it comes to implementing your new policies. Organizational change needs to come from the top and it is important that your entire team takes a leadership role in understanding and preventing workplace violence, including management.
With these 5 strategies, you can help create a safe work environment for everyone in your organization, and prevent violence in the workplace.