Workplace Violence

THE REASON FOR BACKGROUND INVESTIGATIONS.

THE REASON WHY A BACKGROUND INVESTIGATION IS MORE THAN JUST A CRIMINAL RECORD CHECK

Excerpts from local newspapers

http://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/stories/2009/01/19/daily50.html?ana=from_rss

“A former Bank of America Corp. employee has been arrested and charged in connection with a multimillion-dollar scheme to misappropriate funds from customer accounts, according to the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida”

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From Business Insurance

Stricter company policies help lower number of homicides in workplace

ROBERTO CENICEROS

Training, early intervention can keep violence from escalating

Workplace homicides have declined in the United States since peaking in 1994, but employer vigilance is still necessary, experts say.

Workplace homicides decreased to 516 in 2006, down 9% from 2005 and 50% lower than 1994, according to the latest data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Homicides are one form of workplace violence that affects approximately 2 million U.S. workers each year, according to the Occupational Health and Safety Administration.

Following high-profile workplace shootings in the 1980s and 1990s, the concept of “going postal” emerged and human resources personnel began implementing policies that trained supervisors to recognize warning signs and manage disgruntled employees, experts say.

Declining workplace homicide numbers since then reflect company adoption during the 1990s of zero-tolerance policies of employee violence, said JoAnn M. Sullivan, a senior vp and risk consulting manager for Marsh Inc. in Phoenix. “A lot of human resource people took to heart the fact that they put into their policies appropriate behavior and they got much better about being forthright that inappropriate behaviors won’t be tolerated,” she said.

Other factors, such as a changing workforce, also reduced homicides, added Ms. Sullivan, who has written studies on the subject for the Risk & Insurance Management Society Inc. and the American Society of Safety Engineers.

Young people now entering the workforce are more likely than older employees to confront unacceptable behavior early on, Ms. Sullivan said. Intervening early can prevent problem behavior from festering into violence, observers agree.

Yet workplace violence has not gone away, nor will it, experts say.

“We are always going to have people among us that are not well and react inappropriately and have access to weapons,” Ms. Sullivan said.

Employer preparation for potential violence remains important because nearly two workplace homicides still occur each day in the United States, said Enid Reiley, partner at Emerald Training Consultants, a Syracuse, N.Y.-based firm with a specialty in workplace violence prevention.

Oak Brook, Ill.-based Advocate Health Care Network has a policy against workplace violence, but also is developing a response plan for a possible shooting or hostage incident that is part of its emergency preparedness and business continuity planning, said Scott H. Beckman, Advocate’s vp of risk management and insurance.

Mr. Beckman said Advocate hopes to have the plan in place by fall.

Other violence such as threats, harassment, assaults and rapes also remain a workplace problem, according to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. In a 2006 survey, NIOSH said nearly 5% of U.S. businesses had an incident of workplace violence in the previous 12 months.

Perpetrators have included criminals, co-workers, customers and spouses. Their acts caused lingering fear among employees and reduced morale, NIOSH reported.

Employers also face financial consequences from lawsuits filed by victims and their families for workplace violence.

“The general trend of the law in this area…is to hold employers accountable,” said Randy Coffey, a partner in the Kansas City, Mo., office of Fisher & Phillips L.L.P., which specializes in labor and employment law.

While workplace homicides have declined, intimidation and bullying through electronic means is increasing, several experts agree.

“What we are seeing now, in the last five years, is more technological kinds of nastiness and incidents of behavioral problems in the workplace,” said Kenneth P. Baker, vp and violent crime consultant in Manassas, Va., for Academy Group Inc., a forensic behavioral sciences company.

The problematic behavior includes phone and text message threats, said Mr. Baker, who helps employers identify senders of and assess the danger level presented by anonymous threats.

Electronic threats are made against co-workers, supervisors and even company property, he said. The senders often are dissatisfied with certain workplace policies, job changes or facility closures, and their behavior can be a tip-off of worse actions to come.

About 85% of workplace violence perpetrators telegraph warning signs, Ms. Reiley said. They may first engage in “verbal blowing off,” or make threats that are not directed at any person in particular, Ms. Reiley said. That behavior may escalate into stalking, threats, harassing telephone calls and text messages directed at specific individuals. Finally, they act out.

Often, individuals who commit workplace violence are facing stressful, “deteriorating factors in their personal lives,” such as the illness or death of a spouse, Mr. Baker said.

As part of a prevention plan, employees should be trained to alert management if a co-worker engages in abnormal behavior that includes threats of violence or the mention of weapons, experts say.

Interventions can include counseling, anger management classes or disciplinary action such as a termination handled with dignity, they add.

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Avoidance techniques

To help mitigate workplace violence, risks experts say companies can:

Implement pre-employment screening and background checks.

Clearly communicate an antiviolence policy and disciplinary measures including termination.

Train managers and workers about warning signs, such as threats or violent statements.

Make it easy for employees to report potentially violent co-workers.

When possible, physically separate customers from employees.

Provide post-termination counseling.Once violence occurs:

Preserve the scene until police investigate.

Attend to physical and psychological needs of victims.

Assure the workplace is safe before workers return.

Meet with witnesses and victims to help determine how to prevent future incidents and improve policies.

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