You may have heard the adage that “guns don’t kill people, people kill people.”
In fact, you may have strong feelings one way or the other in terms of the issue of gun control or gun rights in the United States. Be that as it may, it is important to distinguish between your opinions as to what would constitute good national policy and the vulnerabilities that your organization may confront at a specific time in a specific society. Regardless of how you may feel about the gun debate in the United States, the reality is that we live in a society which has many firearms available to many people, and, unfortunately, at given moments has experienced terrible incidents of workplace violence. The combination of guns and distraught individuals has, unfortunately, proven deadly at times.
Securing a Workplace Violence Risk Audit and Assessment: The Time is Now
However, you as an organization cannot just put your head in the sand. The time to think about workplace violence in your office place, your factory, or other facilities which your organization may have either here or abroad is now. Whether you are a university with a public campus, a corporation with employees and visitors, or some other type of organization that may have a completely closed off environment or a completely open environment outside visitors, you may be at risk for the terrible tragedy that is workplace violence.
Too often, the news media is surprised by the latest tragedy of workplace violence. By now, many of us have become hardened to the narrative of an unhappy or disgruntled employee, who then takes matters into his or her own hands, ending in a terrible tragedy of violence, bloodshed, and even death. We need, however, to look beyond the headlines at those risk factors that may predict the possibility of workplace violence, and those procedures and protocols which may do a lot mitigate workplace violence before it occurs. Some of these may be psychological, such as assessments of key employees. Others may be technological, such as installing metal detectors at key entrances into a building.
Our experts can help conduct a workplace violence risk audit and assessment for your organization. No two organizations are the same, and no two organizations face the same threats of workplace violence. However, working with you, our experts can conduct a detailed workplace violence risk audit and assessment that will pinpoint those areas of vulnerability for your organization and give you practical to do’s to mitigate that risk. While no one can guarantee that your organization will be immune from workplace violence, a risk audit and assessment can go a long way towards reducing that risk and, should a workplace violence event occur, mitigating the damage during an event.
The time to conduct a risk audit and assessment is before the tragedy strikes. If you’re interested in speaking to one of our experts on workplace violence, please reach out for a consultation on a possible workplace violence risk audit and assessment.