Better Safe Than Sorry: Workplace Violence Prevention

Violence in the Workplace

Violence is the highlight of the majority of mainstream news broadcasts, especially in this day and age. School shootings, hate crimes, terrorist attacks, etc., seem to be happening more frequently. This overwhelming exposure of violence worldwide has left many of us traumatized, in fear and feeling concerned for our safety.

The last place we want to feel unsafe at or experience violence, is our place of employment, where most full time employees’ spend most of their days at. Therefore, it is important for employers to recognize the importance of workplace violence prevention and take action.

Prevention

According to the Internal Risk Management, Inc., effective pre-employment screening programs have significantly decreased the number of workplace homicide. In an article in the IRMI (Internal Risk Management, Inc.) website, the following was stated:

“The number of workplace homicides has dropped from 1074 in 1993 to 609 in 2002, due in part to effective pre-employment screening programs. Since problem individuals tend to make trouble wherever they go, background checks, reference checks, pre-employment interviews, and drug testing are key to ferreting out troublemakers before they become employees.”

Those statistics demonstrate how much pre-employment screening programs can positively impact workplace violence prevention. Therefore, all employers should not be thinking twice about implementing these pre-employment screening programs as a part of their hiring process requirement.

Times have changed and with the media putting violence in the spotlight, it has changed our outlook on safety not only in the workplace, but everywhere.

In conclusion, it is important to not only keep employees happy, but more importantly, to help them feel safe & be safe. As the popular saying goes, “Better safe than sorry.”