Putting Workplace Violence In Perspective Following September 11, 2001...

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The Security Consultant's Perspective...Putting the threat of violence and security in the workplace following September 11, 2001 in perspective has a broader meaning and greater appreciation.
The pri... The Security Consultant's Perspective...Putting the threat of violence and security in the workplace following September 11, 2001 in perspective has a broader meaning and greater appreciation.
The price of Workplace Violence has a physical, emotional and financial toll on the victims, witnesses and the businesses. While worst-case scenarios are not the norm, incidents of assaults, homicides, threats and acts of sabotage are real in the typical workplace.
However, the simple but equally annoying and escalating hostile conduct creates emotional contagions and spontaneous responses. When thinking of workplace violence one should consider situations and events of any type that if left uncorrected could escalate into a violent response.
Service employees being harassed on their routes, nurses fearful of conducting home visits, plant employees taunting another, use of increased resources to protect threatened employees and salesmen who resign rather than do business in certain neighborhoods are all realities at work. Even though reported incidents of violence are down for 2003 according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics security awareness should continue to remain high on the prevention category.
Some Statistics About Workplace Violence... According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), 11% (631) of the 5,559 fatal occupational injuries in 2003 resulted in homicide (mostly by shootings).
A March 2004, FBI Report estimated that nearly 80% of these workplace homicides are committed by criminals with no other connection to the workplace, who have committed robberies or other violent crimes. In the areas of Non-fatal occupational injuries, BLS reported that 18,104 such incidents in 2002 resulted from assaults and violent acts by person, representing nearly 1.3% of the 1.4 million reported occupational injuries and illnesses.
According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, (BJS) US Department of Justice, in 2002 nearly 750,000 crimes of violence were committed each year against people at work or on duty and another 170,000 against people traveling to and from work. In January 2004, the Society of Human Resource Managers reported the results of their own internal survey on workplace violence.
Roughly, almost two-thirds of HR Professionals who responded reported that at least one incident of 'violence" had occurred since 200o. Most common were incidents of inappropriate language, verbal abuse or verbal threats.
In May 2004, the American Society of Safety Engineers' (ASSE) survey on workplace violence reported that 44% of 750 respondents had indicated that their place of work had been victim to incidents of violence since 1998. While threats do not harm victims, the mere utterance damages perceptions of management's ability to provide for a safe workplace if no corrective action is taken.
The risk of violence comes in a variety of different forms. Following September 11, 2001 threats escalated to the use of potentially harmful chemical and biological agents, directed targets of violence, bomb threats and an increase in threats against businesses.
The ASSE survey also revealed that 74% of the 750 respondents had not under-gone any formal risk assessment or management of the potential for violence in the workplace. To keep it simple and for a later discussion, if you work in an electrical or gas plant you should know the risks.
What Others Are Saying About Workplace Security... The landscape of workplace security has changed following September 11, 2001 and the subsequent threats.
Once relegated to the back room of IT and facility management departments, corporate security issues have risen to such prominence over the past three years that security concerns now have truly become corporate concerns. Robert Hahn, VP, Strategy & Secure Mail for Pitney Bowes Management Services, asks, "how does one calculate the loss to a company if an office building is shut down for two to three days due to a false alarm?".
For example, to clean buildings like in the case of the two Anthrax infected Post Offices on the east coast required $150 million dollars and 30 months-time during which the facilities were shut down to all but the clean up crews and law enforcement, said, Robert Hahn. The threat is real along with a host of other potential threats; Terrorist demands, Business discontinuance, Theft of sensitive data and intellectual property, malicious computer viruses and intranet attacks, Key personnel taken hostage, Travel security concerns and Sabotage by disgruntled employee.
In a July 2004 on-line survey conducted by Pitney Bowes, they asked the participants to define what the term "security" meant to them. 89% of the 409 respondents viewed security in broad based terms: protecting company information, protecting business systems and competitive intelligence.
Between 65 - 71% viewed security as issues of physical and people security and privacy of employee information. Only 31% believed that their security was connected to neighboring facilities, roads or telecommunication systems.
The responses in this particular survey correspond to the ASSE Survey wherein 44% or 335 of the 750 respondents said they had established or changed emergency response procedures. I can not reflecting on my age old adage that "Security is everyone's business and that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound in cure".
Article Tags: Workplace Violence, Following September, Occupational Injuries, Asse Survey Source: Free Articles from ArticlesFactory.com .