Contents 1. Making a 2006 Commitment to Preventing Workplace Violence... 2. Why the Concern...? 3. Developing Your Workplace Violence Prevention Program... 4. Conferences & Seminars 5. About Nater Associates, Ltd. 1. Making a 2006 Commitment to Preventing Workplace Violence... Workplace Violence Prevention continues to remain on the top three lists of concerns for executives, security directors and those responsible for its prevention. The other two concerns are Phsyical Security and Business Continuity. I define all three and inseparably linked to the other yet businesses do not prepare properly for such events. In the Business & Legal Report, September 21, 2005 edition, Paul Viollis, President of Risk Control Strategies made a presentation at the National Safety Council's Congress & Expo on the topic of Workplace Violence. He said, "With all the available data on workplace violence, no employer can claim credibly that it had no idea of the risk of workplace violence, including domestic violence." He further said, "Employers and safety managers must mitigate the risk of workplace violence by maintaining a "standard of care," which includes having a comprehensive policy on workplace violence, training employees on what is acceptable and unacceptable behavior at work and adhering to best practices of security and access control." Because of these concerns, I got all or most of my gray hair worrying about Mr. Viollis' very points and the little to no attention it seems to receive in the small to midsize business community until something happens. Therefore, in this edition, I will offer suggestions on Developing Your Workplace Violence Prevention Programs. 2. Why the Concern...? From a business perspective, Workplace Violence is debilitating at minimum and disastrous at worst. Once the contributory factors are identified, one needs to look at how the behavior adversely affects the businesses bottom line. Therefore, a disruptive act of violence can literally put a business out of business. The metrics I consider in arriving at my conclusions are based on lower productivity, reduced profitability, poor morale, reduced performance, increased absenteeism, higher sick leave costs and faster personnel turnover, increased employee grievances, investigative resources and time spent and an increase in compensation claims. Of critical concern is the affect of business interruption and continuity related to the crime scene and the possibility of a civil court award for failing to provide a safe workplace. 3. Developing Your Workplace Violence Prevention Program... When developing your workplace violence prevention program, certain steps in the suggested process are required if one is to validate the actions to be taken. - Identify a need for the workplace violence prevention policy. - Form a committe to collect all of the security related business requirements that affect the business. - Use the committee to create the written security policy to include hiring, termination, rules for acceptable behavior. rules for progressive disciplinary action and the role of leaders in the process. - Conduct a Critical Vulnerability Risk Assessment of the business requirements and practices. - Publish and implement the security policy. - Train the workforce on workplace violence prevention, security awareness and accountability. - Create your threat assessment and crisis management teams. - Test, improve, measure compliance and measure the program's effectiveness. It is important to note that a lack of compliance leads to security lapses that could create the negative factors cited above. 4. Conferences & Seminars AIT's latest Comprehensive Information Security and Business Continuity Conference, on January 31, 2006, at Madison Square Garden, NYC. Register Now: http://www.aitglobal.com/theform.html The Conference will detail Alternative Solutions and Best Practices on, Information Security's Strategic Impact on IT, Business Applications, and Convergence, for Business & Government. Executive Presenters will represent the US Small Business Administration, IBM, BT, Configuresoft, InfraGard (FBI), and more. There is no charge to attend and the Conference and Exhibits, and there is a complimentary continental breakfast for all. Register Now: http://www.aitglobal.com/theform.html Schedule and Presenters: www.aitglobal.com 5. About Nater Associates, Ltd. Felix P. Nater, President of Nater Associates, Ltd., 116-03 Parkway Drive, Elmont, New York 11003, (Office) 516-285-8484, (Toll Free) 1-877-valu101, (Cell Phone) 516-946-8416, (Fax) 516-285-0880, (Email) nater@naterassociates.com & (Website) www.naterassociates.com. |
