Solutions to Workplace Violence
Workplace Violence is a common problem in many sectors and costs businesses in the UK hundreds of millions of pounds every year. The negative effects of workplace violence on business is still not always well understood. Employees whowork in vulnerable situations and whose role places them in direct contact with members of the public can face harrassment, aggression and violence.
Much of the cost of workplace violence is difficult to evaluate; the consequences of violence in the workplace include; increased stress level, reduced productivity, increased levels of employee absenteeism and high employee turnover.
Some employers have taken a 'simple' route to resolving these problems and put physical barriers in place to protect their employees such as Perspex screens. While these may prevent physical attack towards employees, it does not address the fundamental stress related issues. Customers can respond badly to the feeling of isolation and mistrust such screens produce and employees will actually experience a rise in the number of reported acts of aggression, threats and violence. This increase in incidents of aggressive behaviour, takes place because of the depersonalisation of your workforce with the customers they are serving and the sense of mistrust they generate. So the causes of stress increase rather than being resolved and the associated costs will escalate.
So although screens may prevent physical violence they can sometimes increase other forms of 'workplace violence'; described by the Health and Safety Executive as 'Any incident in which a person is abused, threatened or assaulted in circumstances relating to their work'. For many workers, especially lone workers, screens or other physical barriers are not even an option, due to the nature of their work. Screens may be part of the solution, but our approach is more comprehensive, innovative and multifaceted.
When resolving problems of workplace violence for our clients we use a combination of different approaches and we never disregard any possible measures or ideas which may resolve your problems. Because we work in many different sectors, we have the advantage of bringing solutions from one sector to another (where appropriate), rather than relying on the 'industry standard' solutions or 'off the shelf, one size fits all' solutions. We always take a fresh innovative approach to solving the issues of Workplace Violence.
Our solutions include considerations such as:
• Training • Technology • Premises design • Workplace layout • Support services • In-House or Contracted-Out Security •Co-operation with police, emergency services or private security companies • Team building • Work systems • Reporting structures • Access control • Employee confidence •
We take a co-ordinated approach to our consultancy projects, working with our clients at every level; from managers to front-line employees. To ensure the success of our programmes to prevent workplace violence, we have to generate a sense of ownership of the project from your whole team. Our success is demonstrated by the improvement in productivity and reduction in levels of workplace violence following the implementation of our solutions.
Our aim is to empower you and your employees to manage harassment, aggression, threats and violence, in a manner that reduces their frequency and gravity. Most importantly our solutions reduce or eliminate the impact workplace violence has on your organisation and your employees.
Our training solutions include our Conflict Management and Resolution course (CMR) and for higher risk working environments our Physical Intervention course (PI) allows individuals to protect themselves using our low-impact, break-away and disengagement techniques that require neither strength nor force to be effective.
For more details on our consultancy service, please call us on 0845 602 55 95 or Contact Us and we will be delighted to discuss how our services can provide solutions for your business.
We provide a number of different training solutions to help our clients deal effectively with the level of violence that they face in their workplace, these include;
- Conflict Management & Resolution
- Physical Intervention
- Personal Safety
- BIIAB Award in Conflict Management
Our long association with the Universities and Students' Unions allows us to provide consultancy specifically for this unique sector. This includes:
- Security Industry - Universities & Students' Unions
- Licensed Retail Sector - Universities & Students' Unions
- Event Manager - Universities & Students' Unions
Please also visit our National Press Archive and MD Blog for relevant industry news, our comment and advice or join us on our Facebook Page and our Facebook Group.
Other useful pages in this section of our website include:
• Consultancy Service (Home Page) • Workplace Violence Consultancy • Security Industry Consultancy • Licensed Retail Sector Consultancy • Event Management Consultancy • Event Security Consultancy • Event Licensed Bars Consultancy • Fire Safety Consultancy • Fire Risk Assessment •
