Emergency Preparedness and Response

Click, Don’t Panic: Violence Protection on the Job

Although overall rates of workplace violence have declined in the past decade, homicides associated with customers and clients have increased. Employees who deal with the public are especially at risk.

Johnny Lee, founder of Peace at Work, a nonprofit organization that focuses on violence prevention "in and through the workplace," notes a growing risk for those who serve the public, including employees in social services, health care, retail, and government.

For example, in the 10-year period between 1997 and 2007, homicides associated with customers and clients increased from 25 in 1997 to 74 in 2007. That’s an increase of nearly 200 percent!

Many work-related homicides are associated with robbery. However, there are other scenarios as well, such as the 29-year-old retail employee who was shot and killed by a customer dissatisfied about a clothing purchase. Then there are the numerous employees over the years who have been gunned down in the workplace by disgruntled co-workers or former employees.


Great news! BLR’s renowned Safety.BLR.com® website is now available in Version 2.0. Take our no-cost site tour! Or better yet, try it  at no cost or obligation for a full 2 weeks.


Concerned about this trend, Johnny Lee invented an electronic panic button that can send e-mail alerts from a worker’s computer. The ePanic Button is a software program he developed that allows workers to call for help if they are confronted by a threatening or violent individual.

An employee in trouble, or anticipating a problem, can send a pop-up instant message, e-mail, or text message to a cell phone or mobile device. The button is located on the lower right of the computer screen, near the clock.

The device is scalable and permits a variety of messages to be programmed, each to a predetermined recipient list. Lee says the ePanic Button software has been embraced widely, not only by lone workers, but also by schools and all kinds of workplaces.


Now there’s much more of a good thing! Try the new Version 2.0 of Safety.BLR.com. Go here to take a no-cost site tour or here to try it in your own office!


Stay on Top of Developments

Whether it’s information and solutions concerning workplace violence, new safety technology, regulatory reform, federal and state OSHA enforcement, or some other vital safety and health issue, you’ll find it all reported and interpreted for you by our safety experts at Safety.BLR.com—24/7.

What’s more, this one-stop safety website is a fantastic resource for safety training materials on just about any topic you can imagine.

Training responsibilities become a snap with the website’s thousands of audio presentations, PowerPoint® presentations, prewritten safety meetings, toolbox talks, trainer’s guides, and much, much more. You’ll find training tools on more than 120 safety topics along with plain-English compliance analysis and other resources.

At a time when budget considerations are paramount, what makes more sense than an all-in-one safety training and compliance solution?

And BLR recently revamped Safety.BLR.com to meet your needs even better. Those of you who used the site in its original version will be amazed by all the new features and functionality. Highlights include:

  • Side-by-side state/federal compliance. By placing our state and federal regulatory analysis side by side, you easily see how to fully comply with both governmental entities.
  • MSDS Library expansion. The site now provides an immense library of 3.5 million MSDS forms, with about 10,000 more added or changed every week. Need one? Just call up the chemical by name, manufacturer, product group, or CAS number, then print it out.
  • Newsletter Wizard. If you’ve ever wanted to publish a safety newsletter but felt lacking in editorial skills, this new addition is for you.
  • Plan Builder. Select from our library of safety plans, customize them to suit your company’s needs, and assemble them into collections you can save in our personal library.

We’re very excited about Safety.BLR.com and all of its recent enhancements, and we’re eager for you to experience it, too. That’s why we’ve created a complimentary site tour, available here. It takes just 5 minutes.

If you like what you see, you’re invited to try the site at no cost and with no obligation. We’ll even give you a complimentary special report for doing so. Go here to take a 5-minute tour of the new Safety.BLR.com. It may be just what you’re looking for.

More Articles on Emergencies

Print

1 thought on “Click, Don’t Panic: Violence Protection on the Job”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.