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

Finally, your company's new workplace violence plan is complete. It contains all of the preventative and reporting procedures your research and consultants have told you that you need. You're all prepared, but have you included the one section that's missing from most plans? Have you outlined and detailed the policies and training necessary...

...what about that hole in the middle of it? What hole? The one that answers the question, "what training will you be providing to teach your people what to do if they find themselves actually being confronted by an attacker?"

The problem with the majority of workplace violence plans today is probably invisible to the individuals responsible for writing them. In fact, the missing part is conspicuously missing from most of the training programs and advice offered by even the most expensive consultants. And yet, it's this critical element that, if missed, could leave you and your company with the very same liability issue that you originally implemented your plan to handle in the first place.

The truth us that, prevention is great and certainly necessary. So, a plan's "zero-tolerance" statements, banned weapons lists, or employee interaction policies should be included in a well-designed one. Likewise, you'll need to make sure that your reporting and disciplinary procedures are there to cover your company and to comply with some government rules and regulations. But, a good plan will be focused on the reason that we bothered to create a workplace violence prevention policy in the first place. And that reason is...

...liability control, and loss management.

Isn't that right?

Well, that should be the only logical reason. So, unless a company's standard operating procedure is to create policies just because somebody in management or leadership read an article or safety bulletin about it somewhere, a solid, reliable, workplace violence policy should be seen as an important, life-saving, part of the overall liability-management and control systems already in place.

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, about what you consider to be a weapon, or what you're going to do to them afterwards.

There is, however, a growing host of lawyers who do care whether or not your plan includes the same elements that I focus on. They are, quite literally, standing by and willing to represent any of your employees injured in a workplace violence incident. Some of these missing elements include:

* Escape and evasion tactics during a violent attack

* Attack evasion tactics

* Assault protection techniques, and...

* Self-Protection skills

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 management staff - literally

* your company's financial standing, and perhaps even more importantly...

* ...it's legal position should there be the threat of post incident action by injured employees making the company liable for not providing this type of training in the first place.

I know your plan looks great. But whether or not you're the one who put it together, you owe it to yourself, your company, 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!

Article Source: http://www.search4allinfo.com

Include the missing violence in the workplace training that will make your plan complete. Before you hire another consultant, you owe it to yourself and your organization to get the information on workplace violence at wcinternational.com

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