Module 3 Business Continuity Planning

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Protecting Your Organization From Violence
2007 Annual CSIS Conference Presented by Peter
Martin C.P.O.
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Protecting Your Organization From Violence

• Introduction Difficulties in addressing the
  issue
• The issue of violence in the workplace is a
  complex one with many causes, an infinite number
  of variables and a complex array of solutions and
  options available to address it
• One of the difficulties in addressing the issue
  is there are few reliable statistics available to
  assist the process due to inconsistent
  definitions and disagreement as to what specific
  incidents qualify as a legitimate Workplace
  Violence Incident

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Protecting Your Organization From Violence

• Introduction Difficulties in addressing the
  issue
• According to Statistics Canada 2004 Study
• 17 of all self reported incidents of violence
  occurred in the respondents place of work
• Workplace incidents were more prevalent in
  certain employment sectors 33 of incidents
  attributed to Health care, 14 in Hotel or Food
  Services, 11 in Educational Services
• Physical assaults were the highest category
  accounting for 71 of all incidents

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Protecting Your Organization From Violence

• Introduction Difficulties in addressing the
  issue
• The Problem with Statistics Canada
• All Statistical analysis of workplace violence is
  based on 3 criteria only Sexual Assault
  Robbery Physical Assault
• To properly track, analyze and address the issue
  of workplace violence, you cannot only consider a
  physical assault an incident
• Incidents ,must be examined on a much broader
  basis to include

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Protecting Your Organization From Violence

• Introduction Difficulties in addressing the
  issue
• Threatening Behavior aggressive gestures,
  throwing objects, hitting inanimate objects
• Verbal / Written Threats any expression
  whatsoever of a persons intent to do harm to
  another
• Harassment unwelcome comments, intimidation,
  bullying, behavior that causes humiliation,
  embarrassment

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Protecting Your Organization From Violence

• Introduction Difficulties in addressing the
  issue
• Verbal Abuse swearing, insults, belittling
• Physical Attack hitting, shoving or or any
  uninvited touching
• According to a 1994 Canadian Union of Public
  Employees Heath Safety Survey
• 70 were victims of verbal aggression
• 40 had been struck at work
• 30 had been grabbed or scratched
• When analyzing the expanded criteria, incidents
  had dramatically risen

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Protecting Your Organization From Violence

• Introduction What is Workplace Violence??
• DEFINITION A specific group of negative
  behaviors and / or actions which have a
  significant and harmful effect on your
  organization and its peoples physical,
  emotional and psychological well being
• DEFINITION Any incident in which a person is
  abused, threatened or assaulted in circumstances
  relating to their work. The behaviors can
  originate from customers or co-workers, at any
  level of the organization. This definition will
  include all forms of harassment, bullying,
  intimidation, physical threats / assaults,
  robbery and other intrusive behaviors..

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Protecting Your Organization From Violence

• Introduction What is Workplace Violence??
• Once a definition has been established, you must
  recognize that this issue presents itself in
  various categories
• Directed at employees by criminals who have no
  connection to the organization
• Directed at the employees by customers, clients
  or any others that the organization provides
  service to
• Directed at employees by a present or former
  employee
• Directed at employees by someone with a personal
  relationship to the employee

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Protecting Your Organization From Violence

• Introduction What is Workplace Violence??
• Each category presents different challenges when
  identifying and addressing the issues however
  they have commonality
• Violence is a process and does not happen
  independent of other factors. Research
  definitively shows it is almost always the final
  act in a history of conflict or earlier issues
• The violence triangle has 3 key criteria that
  must be present in order for the act to occur
• The Initiator
• The Trigger
• Opportunity Setting that allows it

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Protecting Your Organization From Violence

• Employer Responsibilities Beyond Morals
• British Columbia Saskatchewan have specific
  workplace violence prevention regulations
• Alberta has a specific Health Safety code on
  workplace violence
• Quebec has legislation against Psychological
  Harassment
• Federal Labour Code identifies that it is the
  managements responsibility to prevent and protect
  against violence in the workplace

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Protecting Your Organization From Violence

• Employer Responsibilities Beyond Morals
• Ontario Under the Occupational Health Safety
  Act, all employers must take every precaution
  reasonable in the circumstances to protect the
  health and safety of their workers in the
  workplace
• Although not specifically mentioned, this
  includes protecting them against the risk of
  workplace violence
• Beyond the Occupational Health and Safety
  Legislation there are even bigger consequences
  for failure to protect your employees

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Protecting Your Organization From Violence

• Employer Responsibilities Beyond Morals
• In March of 2004, criminal code amendments were
  made to Bill C-45
• These changes established a new definition for
  the responsibilities of ALL decision-makers
• These changes are expressed in the duty of
  decision makers to take reasonable steps to
  prevent bodily harm toany person, arising from
  work

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Protecting Your Organization From Violence

• Employer Responsibilities Beyond Morals
• Summary of salient points in C-45 amendments
• The following apply to both individuals and
  Organizations
• 1. Criminal liability for acts of
  representatives is defined
•   A. Rules for attributing to organizations,
  including corporations, CRIMINAL LIABILITY
  has been established
• 2. A duty has been established which requires
•   A. All PERSONS DIRECTING WORK to ensure
  reasonable steps have been taken to
  safeguard both WORKERS and the PUBLIC

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Protecting Your Organization From Violence

• Employer Responsibilities Beyond Morals
• Critical Sections of the Code
• s.219.1 Everyone is criminally negligent who
• a. In doing anything or
• b. In omitting to do anything that is his
  duty to do, shows wanton or reckless
  disregard for the lives or safety of other
  persons
• Workplace violence programs and training
  education falls under the OHS legislation which
  is subject to criminal code enforcement

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Protecting Your Organization From Violence

• Preventing Violence Whos Responsibility Is It?
• The prevention of violence in the workplace needs
  a top down approach
• It also requires a multi-functional approach
• Security
• Human Resources
• Operations
• Finance
• Health and Safety
• Unions (if applicable)

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Protecting Your Organization From Violence

• Preventing Violence How Do We Do It?
• All plans and planning must be proactively
  centered. Prevention comes before Response.
• Plans must be centered around the reality of the
  current situation and the possibility of future
  situations
• All violence prevention and response programs
  should start with an audit and a review of past
  incidents

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Protecting Your Organization From Violence

• Preventing Violence Audits
• Audits
• Understanding of the existing issue
• Understanding of future concerns
• Shall always be conducted confidentially
• Shall identify all forms or violence including
  lesser ones that employees may not consider
  (bullying, verbal abuse) and include examples

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Protecting Your Organization From Violence

• Preventing Violence Audits
• Audits
• Should be disseminated to all employees in all
  jobs functions and shifts up to and including
  senior management (you may be surprised who the
  victims are)

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Protecting Your Organization From Violence

• Preventing Violence Previous Incidents
• Review of Previous Incidents
• Review incident reports, interview employees, and
  reference injury reports
• Allows for understanding of the existing issue
• Allows for trend analyses and pattern recognition
  
• Allows for identification of existing or future
  potential INITIATORS

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Protecting Your Organization From Violence

• Preventing Violence Policy
• Clearly state the purpose of the policy
• Clearly identify your definition of workplace
  violence
• Define who the policy applies to. Is it fellow
  employees only? Customers? Sub-contractors?
• Take into consideration any relevant legislation
  that provides specific directives

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Protecting Your Organization From Violence

• Preventing Violence Policy
• It should be succinct and to the point
• Explain the absolute necessity to report and the
  process and procedures for reporting incidents
• The process for investigating incidents and
  allegations
• Potential consequences for perpetrating an act of
  workplace violence (Be Careful progressive
  discipline up to and including termination etc)

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Protecting Your Organization From Violence

• Preventing Violence Policy
• A commitment to protecting victims and provide
  them the assistance they need to deal with any
  incidents or acts
• Key responsibilities of all employees including
  the frontline and management
• Include pre-employment screening commitments and
  develop an unwavering standard (everyone on the
  same page)

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Protecting Your Organization From Violence

• Preventing Violence Employee Education
• All employees including management must be issued
  a copy of the policy, be afforded the opportunity
  to ask clarifying questions and sign off
  confirming receipt and acknowledgment. A copy of
  this must be retained in the employee file.
• Employees also must be made aware of what
  acceptable and unacceptable behavior is and looks
  like. Dont assume everyone knows what
  constitutes verbal abuse etc.

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Protecting Your Organization From Violence

• Preventing Violence Employee Education
• All employees should be given training in how to
  avoid and resolve conflict appropriately. You
  cant talk about it enough
• Peer to peer relationships, dealings and peer to
  peer respect should be part of annual performance
  appraisals. It should hold equal value to other
  indicators such as attendance. This likely is
  completely overlooked
• Ensure all employees understand the issue and can
  articulate their understanding

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Protecting Your Organization From Violence

• Preventing Violence Employee Education
• Be consistent in your message
• Ensure that your management teams at all levels
  practice what they preach!
• Train employees to recognize the early warning
  signs or violence

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Protecting Your Organization From Violence

• Preventing Violence Identification
• Violence does not happen in a vacuum. In almost
  all instances, there are warning signs
• Warning signs can include
• Always blaming others Cant take criticism
• Recent Life Stressors job loss, death,
  relationship end
• History or alcohol / drug abuse
• Tendency for paranoia
• Intentional isolation
• Ongoing escalated confrontational behavior

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Protecting Your Organization From Violence

• Preventing Violence Identification
• Warning signs can include (contd)
• Irrational beliefs and ideas (CIA)
• Drastic change in belief system
• Lack of concern for the safety of others
• Feelings on constantly being victimized
• Expressions of hopelessness or heightened ongoing
  anxiety
• Sabotage / vandalism or violence towards
  inanimate objects
• Ongoing obsession with co-worker or supervisor
• Fascination with weapons
• Verbal / non-verbal written threats or
  intimidation
• EXPRESSIONS OF PLANS TO HURT SELF OR OTHERS

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Protecting Your Organization From Violence

• Preventing Violence Identification
• WHO DOESNT HAVE A BAD DAY!! True warning
  signs / behaviors will often start small and
  progressively get worse or escalate
• Behaviors are rarely singular and often appear in
  clusters

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Protecting Your Organization From Violence

• Addressing Violence Inc. Management Team
• Incident Management Team needs to be developed
  well in advance of an incident
• It should be made up of individuals from
  different functions and company divisions with at
  least one senior manager
• It is responsible for the monitoring of employee
  behavior in order to identify any potential early
  warning behaviors

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Protecting Your Organization From Violence

• Addressing Violence Inc. Management Team
• Incident Management Team will determine roles and
  responsibilities for managers etc in the event of
  an incident
• They are responsible for communicating
  potentially dangerous situations to the employees
  and determining training needs
• Also responsible for victim response and
  resolution communication

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Protecting Your Organization From Violence

• Addressing Violence Inc. Management Team
• Incident Management Team is responsible for
  development and maintaining the incident
  reporting mechanism open door policy, anonymous
  hotline etc
• The team will process the allegations / incidents
  and initiate the investigative process
• Responsible for determining the appropriate
  protective response to be initiated at the
  completion of the investigation

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Protecting Your Organization From Violence

• Addressing Violence Investigation
• Recognize the need for a threat management
  process and evaluation tools (CAUTION)
• Investigations into allegations must be
  undertaken by individuals professionally trained
  to conduct sensitive investigations
• Companies without this expertise should outsource
  to a company with experience in this specific
  type of investigation

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Protecting Your Organization From Violence

• Addressing Violence Investigation
• The investigator needs to analyze
• The context and tone of the behavior or threat
• The target
• The targets potential motivation
• The initiators (subjects) potential motivation
• Delivery system and ability to carry out
• Initiators background, previous history and
  behavior in the workplace, mental health,
  criminal history

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Protecting Your Organization From Violence

• Addressing Violence Investigation
• The information obtained by the investigator is
  used as the basis for the threat assessment
• The threat assessment is used to determine the
  threat level and the most appropriate and
  immediate protective response
• Low level issues can often be resolved without
  external assistance (dependant on size and scope
  of the company)

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Protecting Your Organization From Violence

• Addressing Violence Investigation
• Response to low level issues can include
  separation of employees shifts, warnings or other
  progressive disciplinary steps or attendance at
  an educational training session
• Higher level issues will often require the
  assistance of an outside firm or agency Law
  Enforcement, Security / Threat Management
  Consultancy, Surveillance, Employee Assistance
  individuals etc

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Protecting Your Organization From Violence

• Addressing Violence Investigation
• Remember, every investigation has an urgency to
  be resolved
• Investigative tools can include
• Interviews
• Surveillance
• Statement Analysis
• Response to medium / high level issues can
  include confrontation with warning, suspension
  and or termination, legal intervention such as
  peace bonds and / or arrest

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Protecting Your Organization From Violence

• Addressing Violence Response Plan
• Violence response plans should be an individual
  plan within every companies existing BCP or
  Emergency Management Plan documents
• It should include
• Notification responsibilities
• Plan of action Evacuate vs. Lockdown
• Communication plan
• Emergency services liaison and management
• Media response
• Post event employee assistance
• Business resumption protocols

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Protecting Your Organization From Violence

• Addressing Violence Response Plan
• The plan needs to be communicated throughout the
  organization
• The plan needs to be drilled and tested
• The plan needs to be a live document with
  immediate updates reflecting any / all changes to
  the business and maintained by the Incident
  Management Team

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Protecting Your Organization From Violence

• Conclusion Things that dont work
• Thinking your organization is immune to the
  problem or the It cant happen to me attitude
• Waiting for an incident to happen before
  establishing the proper preventative procedures
• A one size fits all approach
• An inflexible approach
• Passing bad employees to others!!!

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Protecting Your Organization From Violence

• Final Thought
• Individual commitment to a group effort... that
  is what makes a team work
• a company work
• a society work
• and a civilization work!
• Vince Lombardi (1913 1970)

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Protecting Your Organization From Violence

• QUESTIONS?