WORKPLACE VIOLENCE PREVENTION

Violence in the workplace has gained increased scrutiny from both the media and regulatory agencies over the last several years. Recommendations from OSHA and others tells us that the best way to prevent violent incidents in the workplace is by having a formal and well developed workplace violence prevention program that receives leadership buy-in, educates employees, and defines a clear process for managing the threat of violence.

While many companies treat them as separate subjects, our philosophy is that an active shooter or active threat incident is simply an extreme type of workplace violence incident. With the motivations and prevention strategies for both extreme and less severe workplace violence incidents stemming from the same causal factors, many of the same mitigation strategies can be applied to prevent these horrific incidents before they occur. Nearly all active shooter or active threat incidents, and many other incidents of workplace violence, follow a set pattern of stages of pre-attack behaviors. Research has found that during each of these stages there is invariably some "leakage" signs from the perpetrator that they are contemplating or actively preparing for violence. If recognized this leakage provides they opportunity to intervene and de-escalate the situation before violence occurs.

Extreme Workplace Violence Escalation Continuum

Graphic outlining the escalation of pre-attack behaviors from normal behavior to an active shooter attack for behavioral threat assessment

Perpetrators rarely engage in extreme workplace violence without progressing through several stages of pre-attack behaviors. Their "leakage" of intent during these stages offers the opportunity for intervention and de-escalation.

Our Situational Threat Awareness Assessment & Action Training program (STAAAT) provides your employees a structure to recognize these signs of impending violence, evaluate them, and react if necessary with the goal of identifying indicators of potential extreme violence early in its lifecycle and alerting proper internal or external personnel who can work to mitigate the risk before it reaches the level of an active shooter or other workplace violence incident.

Our Consultants at Security Advisors Consulting Group are nationally recognized experts in workplace violence prevention, both Drew Neckar and Bob Nordby have assisted organizations in developing workplace violence prevention programs, have written articles and presented at conferences on workplace violence program design, and are graduates of the prestigious Gavin de Becker & Associates Threat Assessment Training Academy. We are particularly well suited to conduct an assessment of your current workplace violence prevention program and help your organization design and implement a workplace violence prevention program that meets established best practices and the unique needs of your business. Some of the services we provide are:

Workplace violence prevention program design
Workplace violence prevention training
Threat Assessment Team development and training
Active shooter / active threat recognition and response training
Development of confidential reporting policies and processes
Assessment of physical security elements conducive to a violence free workplace
and others...