Predicting & Preventing Violence in Your Business (Doug Elms Commentary)

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She hung up the phone, crying. He’d threatened her again and this time he sounded serious. If she didn’t meet him for lunch, he said, he’d come into the building with a gun. Her co-worker noticed the tears and could see the fear in her friend’s eyes.

Some version of this scenario may be playing itself out in your business today. The rate at which intimate partner violence affects women across this country (1 in 3 in their lifetime) means it almost certainly will at some point. To keep yourself and your people safe, you’ve got to know the answers to these four questions:

► Will the victim speak up and tell someone? The first step in surviving a threat is knowing it exists. If one of your employees is a victim but doesn’t trust her boss or HR enough to speak out, you won’t know that a violent act is imminent until it’s too late.

► Will one of her co-workers speak up if she won’t? In my experience, the domestic violence victim is often too embarrassed to speak up. She may also fear getting labeled or even terminated. But one of her friends at work usually knows what is going on. Will she have enough trust in your organization to make you aware?

► Do your leaders know what to do in such a scenario? Your managers may know how to run the business and HR may be great at performance metrics, but do they understand how to avoid a violent act? We generally see two extremes in this regard. People overreact and blow a small thing out of proportion, or they underreact and people die.

► Do your people know who to call for help? I don’t mean 911 when the attack is underway. I’m referring to an expert who can accurately assess the threat and work to de-escalate it so that violence never occurs.

If you can’t answer a resounding “yes” to each of those questions, your business is extremely vulnerable.

Here is how to make it less so:

► Ensure that victims of violence know they are supported. Recognize that domestic violence is a cultural issue and make your organization an advocate for victims. Put it in policy and encourage victims to come forward.

► Develop a policy that mandates reporting of potential threats. Do you realize an employee could have a protection order, right now, that includes your campus and you wouldn’t know it? Fix that by building trusting relationships and adopting mandatory reporting.

► Instruct your leaders to take all threats (or rumors of threats) seriously and not to assess it themselves. They should always seek assistance to avoid liability and protect lives.

Don’t let domestic troubles become violence at work. Take action today.

Doug Elms is a principal consultant with Safe Haven Security Group of Rogers. Email him at doug.elms@safehavensecuritygroup.com.