Yesterday we looked at the tragic but all too frequent problem of domestic violence manifesting itself in the workplace. Today we look at steps you can take—including training your employees—to short-circuit all types of workplace violence.
There are many basic steps employers can take to lessen the risk of violent workplace incidents. We hope your organization has already implemented many of these measures, but it never hurts to review them:
- Provide good lighting throughout your facilities, especially in hallways and parking areas.
- Install silent alarms where appropriate.
- Use drop safes to minimize the amount of cash on hand.
- Provide bulletproof barriers or enclosures for people who work with cash and are visible to the public.
- sk police to check the facility when people work late.
BLR’s Safety Meetings Library suggests that you might also want to implement these other workplace violence-reducing measures:
- Employ security guards.
- Keep doors to the building and certain sections locked.
- Install security cameras.
- Require employees to wear name tags
- Provide employees with coded door entry cards.
- Require employees to turn in badges, entry cards, and other company identification when they leave the company.
- Ban former or off-duty employees from the workplace.
- Require visitors—including former employees or employees’ family members, if permitted—to sign in and wear name tags.
Whatever safety meeting you need, chances are you’ll find it prewritten and ready to use in BLR’s Safety Meetings Library on CD. Try it at no cost or risk. Here’s how.
It is essential that you train your employees in steps that they can take to lessen their risk of becoming involved in a violent workplace incident. Safety Meetings Library recommends that you tell workers to:
- Keep the numbers for security and the police near their phones.
- Create a signal with their co-workers that they can use to alert others to possible danger.
- Meet visitors in the lobby and escort them to their work area.
- Not handle any unusual packages; contact security immediately to report them.
- Know how to send an alarm to alert security if they’re worried about potential violence.
- Keep purses and other personal belongings locked in a desk or locker.
- Report any signs of a break-in, or any missing items, immediately.
Your employees have to be especially careful if they work at night, or any- time when there are few or any other people in the building. Here are some precautions they can follow:
- Let someone know you’re working late.
- Keep the door to your work area locked if you’re alone.
- Stay close to a phone.
- Turn on the lights; avoid using dark stairways or halls.
- Let the guard on duty know when you’re leaving.
- Leave along with anyone else who’s working late; walk to the car or public transportation together.
- Avoid leaving work alone on an elevator or a stairway.
- If possible, ask a security guard to walk with you to your car or bus stop.
- Have your car keys or public transit fare ready as you leave the building.
- Check under and inside your car before you unlock it; lock the car as soon as you get in.
- Sit near the driver or conductor on public transportation.
- Be alert for unusual noises or movements.
- Walk confidently and quickly to show you know where you’re going and what you’re doing.
- Avoid dark areas and unpopulated places like alleys or parks.
Our editors think Safety Meetings Library is an ideal answer to your training needs because it contains a wealth of workplace violence-related training materials.
Among the relevant prewritten meetings available to you are sessions on “Preventing Workplace Violence,” “Security,” and “Working Alone.”
All told, the CD-ROM provides you with more than 400 ready-to-train meetings on more than 100 key safety topics. The in-depth meeting outlines are supplemented with quizzes and handouts, as well as with regulations (OSHA’s CFR 29), a listing of the most common safety violations cited by OSHA, and case studies of actual OSHA cases and their outcomes.
We challenge you to NOT find a safety meeting you need, already prewritten, in BLR’s Safety Meetings Library. Take up our challenge at no cost or risk. Get the details.
Safety Meetings Library lets you choose from a variety of training approaches, including:
- Mandatory – Sessions that are OSHA-required
- Comprehensive – Sessions with the broadest coverage of a topic
- 7-Minute – Short, simple, targeted sessions to fit tight schedules
- Initial – A session used as introductory training on a topic
- Refresher – Sessions that follow up on or reinforce previous training
- Tool Box Talks – More informal reinforcement of a topic
- PowerPoint® – Graphic presentations for comprehensive initial or refresher training
- Hands-on – A session in which there are training activities
- Spanish – Including Spanish language handouts and quizzes coordinated with English sessions
You can get a preview of the program by using the links below. But for the best look, we suggest a no-cost, no-obligation trial. Just let us know and we’ll arrange it for you.
Download document type list
Download product sample
Download table of contents