What is Workplace Violence?

Workplace violence is a blanket term that refers to all acts or threats of physical harm, harassment, intimidation, or other threatening disruptive behavior directed to persons at work sites. 

Workplace violence refers to all forms of malicious acts or threats (verbal and physical) that could be suffered by an employee while at a workplace. These harmful acts or threats majorly stem from social relations between workers and their employers and relations among workers themselves. In some instances, third parties like business clients or intruders in a work environment could also initiate Workplace violence.

As mentioned, different acts — subtle or overt, can amount to Workplace violence. Say you have a diligent female employee who reportedly receives sexually inclined remarks from her male co-workers often; that qualifies as Workplace violence. Another scenario – imagine a Starbucks employee of African descent has racial slurs hurled at them by an angry co-worker or pissed customer; that also translates to Workplace violence. 

These examples showcase the verbal aspect of Workplace violence, and already, it’s pretty apparent how crude it gets; cut to when Workplace violence is physical, and your business has to deal with the aftermath of physical assaults on an employee or client in your work environment. These scenarios cause losses for your business — financial or otherwise.

What is Workplace Violence Training?

Understanding what Workplace Violence training means will require looking at what it’s based on. Every worker has the right to a workplace free of known health and safety hazards; as such, it’s your duty as an employer or personnel at the helm of affairs to uphold this right for your workers. One of the ways you get to do this is through Workplace Violence Training.

Workplace violence training is the medium through which your company gets to access and integrate preventive and mitigative measures against — you guessed it — any form of violence in your work environment. 

Workplace violence training teaches employees to identify risks of violent acts so they’re prevented before initiation. It also teaches mechanisms through which workers can de-escalate already occurring violent acts at the workplace. 

Say, for instance, you have an angry customer who threatens to damage company property if they don’t get what they want — that signals an incoming violent act that would disrupt your company’s workflow. Now, if you and your staff have Workplace violence training, you would know specific de-escalation mechanisms you could use to prevent your customer from carrying out their intended act like acknowledging their frustrations, asking for help from your team, exploring solutions to your customer’s problem even if you know these solutions are unavailable.

This is an example of what Workplace violence training is all about — programming brown and white-collar workers with the requisite knowledge they need to be safe and protect themselves from hazards. 

Why is Workplace Violence Training important?

Statistics have shown the constant rise of violent acts in the U.S. over the years, and the workplace isn’t excluded from the ‘wheres’ related to these worrisome statistics. For primary context, there are roughly two million victims of Workplace violence each year in the United States. Also, a SHRM research on Workplace violence in 2019 showed that up to 30% of employees in the U.S. feel ill-equipped to deal with Workplace violence.

Resultantly, Workplace violence training has taken an unprecedented seat of importance in corporate affairs because it’s a program that every corporate establishment looking to protect its employees from dangers of any kind should jump on as quickly as possible; because, as mentioned earlier, it’s only through Workplace violence training that you get access to measures, strategies, and tools that can help ensure a safe working environment for your employees. 

Even from a self-ish perspective, it’s easy to see why Workplace violence training is essential — it saves your company a ton of revenue by preventing and mitigating situations that typically lead to property damage, physical harm, corporate litigation, and other kinds of gloom-ridden problems you can imagine.

If your company’s undergoing recurrent risks of violent action in the workplace or these acts are already occurring in real-time, Workplace violence training would be the proper antidote to that poison. There are many advantages you get with Workplace violence training that we’ll still mention, but the point here is it’s a ‘can’t-miss’ for a company that wants to ensure a physically and mentally safe work environment for its employees.

If you’re still unsure about how relevant Workplace violence training would be for your company (large or small-sized), we’d be happy to help quell your uncertainty any time through a brief (and free) consultation, which you can schedule with us anytime you please. 

You can also contact us anytime to learn more about our tip-top services and how they translate into providing you with the country’s best Workplace violence trainers. 

What to expect from Workplace Violence Training

First, the professionals we connect you with will obtain background information on your company. The info gotten will form the basis of the customization of your training. Some of these questions will include the following:

1. Has your company experienced Workplace violence before?

2. What kind of violent act was involved, and how was it handled?

3. Were any systems put in place afterward to prevent future reoccurrences of that violent act?

4. Does your company have a policy against Workplace violence?

5. Are there gaps in your company’s Workplace violence policies? What are these gaps?

Once these questions are answered, the professionals we have in store at Security Pro will provide your company with a training and Workplace violence prevention program that details the dos and don’ts of handling Workplace violence. These will be in addition to the assisted establishment of a zero-tolerance policy for your company (if desired) on Workplace violence.

These measures, once executed, will yield unprecedented benefits for your company’s reputation based on its attained work safety levels. But the expectations don’t end there.

Based on inside scoops from the training professionals in our network, you can also expect your Workplace violence training program to majorly feature custom training activities across a variety of Workplace violence training topics, including active shooter preparedness, employee harassment, armed robbery safety, and handling incensed customers.

Also, you can expect access to various training and reference materials, including presentations, publications, and handouts that teach you how to recognize the elements of Workplace violence and the skills you need to prevent and respond to Workplace violence effectively. These training materials will also inform you about methods through which you can successfully recognize, evaluate and respond to risk factors related to Workplace violence.

How to get Workplace Violence Training

So, we know what Workplace violence training is, why it’s relevant and what to expect when you access Workplace violence training. Here’s the central part you should be looking toward — getting the training.

You need to be sure you’re hiring competent training professionals to facilitate a well-customized program that caters to your company’s unique needs; how do you achieve this seamlessly and with zero struggle? The ‘how’ is Security Pro.

What we do is simple — research, identify and connect you with the industry’s best security professionals. These are cream-of-the-crop experts at diagnosing and managing violence that we have thoroughly examined and reputably have a knack for going the extra mile to ensure their clients get the greatest value for their money.

We’re in the business of connecting you with these people who can cater to your unique training needs, as proven by their exemplary track records.

So, where do we start? We start by running a brief (and free) consultation with you to discuss your training needs and if there are any particular subjects you’d want your training program to cover. Then you can lay back and let us do the rest — the hard work that involves sieving through the high-profile products the security industry has to give that can provide you with the help you need.

Once this is done, we’ll connect you with options you can pick from per your specific taste, and voila, your training regimen is set to begin in no time!