Corporate Workplace Violence Plan - Will Yours Fail When You Need It Most?

You have your company\'s workplace violence plan all finished. It\'s loaded with all of the preventative and reporting procedures you think you need. You\'re all prepared, but...

...what are your people to do if something actually happens and they find themselves face-to-face with an attacker?

The problem that I\'ve found with most workplace violence plans is something that is often invisible to most managers responsible for the development of these policies. In fact, the missing piece is rarely, if ever, covered by even the most expensive of consultants. And yet, this missing piece could actually leave you and your company holding the proverbial bag, liability-wise, should the unthinkable happen to, or by, one of your employees.

As I tell all of my clients, prevention is great and necessary. So, don\'t get rid of your \"zero-tolerance\" statements, banned weapons lists, or employee interaction policies. Likewise, you\'ll want to make sure that all of your hard work that went into developing those reporting procedures doesn\'t go to waste either. But, let\'s not forget why we bothered to create a workplace violence prevention policy in the first place. And that reason was...

...liability control, and loss management.

Right?

Well, that should be the reason. So, unless you\'re in the habit of creating policies for your company just because you read an article about it somewhere, and the writer said you should have one, your workplace violence policy should be seen as a life-saving part of the overall liability-management systems you already have.

I say \"life-saving\" in the sense of your company\'s financial life, of course, because a major incident happening in your organization can literally wipe you out. But, when I say \"life-saving,\" I\'m also referring to the lives of everyone who is covered by your workplace violence plan. Because, an attacker intent on doing harm, regardless of whether he or she is one of your own employees or an outsider, as is almost always the case in incidents involving nurses and the medical care industry, doesn\'t care one iota about your zero-tolerance, concern for what you consider to be a weapon, or what you\'re going to do to them afterwards.

However, I can assure you that the new breed of lawyers who are standing by, waiting to represent any of your employees injured in a workplace violence incident, care about the same missing elements to your plan that I am. And these missing elements include:

• Escape and evasion tactics during an attack

These are the elements that could make or break your company\'s survival and future existence. The only elements that are designed specifically to save the lives of...

• your employees and managers - literally

I know your policy looks great. But whether or not you\'re the one who put it together, you owe it to yourself, your comapny, and the people who depend on you for proper decisions, to make sure that it\'s more than just a \"feel-good\" policy that put a feather in somebody\'s cap.

Make sure it won\'t fail you when the worst happens - when you need it the most!

Jeffrey M. Miller is the founder and CEO of Warrior Concepts International. He is a consultant and trainer in the area of workplace violence defensive tactics training and liability-conscious, conflict resolution. He is the author of several self-protection books and videos, including\" Danger Prevention Tactics: Protecting Yourself Like a Pro. He can be reached through his website at http://www.wcinternational.com. Media and corporate inquiries should call (in the US and Canada) (570) 988-2228 or 988-1989.

Coping With Change in Your Workplace - Be Proactive, Not Reactive
Admit it, you like things to be constant. When things are constant you are in control. Being in control feels good. But sometimes there are external f...

Training to Use the Six Sigma Principles
In the workplace, there are numerous practical principles that are aiming to further improve and boost corporate performance. While Japanese manufactu...

Generation Gap
I'm hearing a lot about the generation gap in business; that young people are not working well with their elders, and there may very well be a lot of ...

Why Most Network Marketers Fail
Many people have heard about Multi-Level Marketing (referred to as MLM, or Network Marketing throughout this article). I've been in the MLM industry ...

Two Major Reasons Why Businesses Fail
There are some businesses that don't do well. Why is it that over 90% of businesses fail? What's the rationale behind it? The first major reason why m...

Shady Care From Desert Lane And Valley hospital Vegas
My grandmother was staying here and she was bleeding from an aggravated ulcer that was caused due to too much medicine and she was bleeding from 5pm t...

Violence and Drug Abuse in South Africa
Alcoholism and multiple drug abuse have been associated the alarming rate of crime and violence in South Africa. There has been an increase in access...

Diversity Training - How to Identify and Resolve Unconscious Discrimination in the Workplace
The Changing Face of Workplace DiscriminationIt seems that the face of workplace discrimination is changing into a less easily recognizable one. Worke...

Using Cultural Models for Changing Corporate Culture
Corporate culture is a label often used to describe the "what" about "why" something cannot be done. Peter Drucker is often quoted as follows; "Compan...

Three Major Trends In The Workplace
The workplace as we know it is changing. Employers will need to adjust how they conduct business in order to better recruit and maintain qualified can...

4 Simple Planning Tips To Save Your Travel Business Time, Money, and Energy
The tourism industry is constantly changing, and if you want to compete in the marketplace and reach potential customers, then you must plan according...

Plan Your Carpet Cleaning Business for Success
If you fail to plan, you plan to fail. You don't begin a journey without a goal in mind. Otherwise, how will you know when you've gotten to where yo...

The 4 Qualities of Australia’s Best Coaches
At the moment Australian organizations are being flooded by many people that claim to be corporate coaching and executive coaching experts. They are p...

Islam in the Workplace
At the turn of the last century, 80% of the Arabs that immigrated to the United States were Christian. Today, more than 60% of Arab immigrants are Mus...

Employer Drug Testing What The Employers Need to Know About Workplace Drug Testing
Employer drug testing has become an important safety issue in the workplace not only for employees, but for human resources and safety professionals a...