Violence in the workplace

Violence, intimidation and harassment are workplace health hazards that need to be addressed just as we do other biological and chemical hazards.

Three Main Sources of Violence in the Workplace

· Customers

· Strangers

· Colleagues

Customers

When your customers feel neglected, cheated or discontent with your quality of goods and services they may respond inappropriately.

Customers can feel neglected by poor customer service; delays of favouritism.

Customers can feel cheated by poor quality of goods and services.

Customers can be dissatisfied with the manner in which their grievances/complaints are handled.

Some customers may be easily angered or aggressive.

Strangers

Intruders mostly fall under this category. They don’t necessarily have any legitimate business bringing them to your organization. Retail outlets, banks, and entertainment venues are more likely to experience this form of violence.

Colleagues

When staff are stressed they can become aggressive.

When staff are unhappy or de-motivated, they throw caution to the wind and behave unruly.

When there is no organized and effective system of dealing with conflicts, staff may decide to “take the law into their hands”.

You may also have some staff with dysfunctional or anti-social behavior that have not learnt proper methods of dealing with difficult situations.

Consequences of not Dealing with Workplace Violence

1.      Your organization will have a bad reputation of being violence prone. Your customers will have to go somewhere “safer”.

2.      Anxiety and tension in the workplace will increase and lead to a drop in productivity and rise in staff turnover.

3.      All in all your business will suffer a setback because when your staff are not confident, customers not impressed and your environment not conducive, you are out of business.

Steps To Take In Dealing with Workplace Violence

1.      Your organization must state clearly a zero tolerance policy for violence. Place notices in your reception or front office of “zero tolerance for violence”.

2.      Reception and front office should be designed to protect staff and make them less vulnerable. This especially goes for those in Retail, Banking, and Hospitality etc.

3.      Panic/emergency buttons should be easily accessible to staff.

4.      Security personnel should be strategically positioned.

5.      Regular training should be carried out for managers, supervisors and other staff on: security procedures, handling complaints from customers, resolving conflicts and defusing violence.

6.      There should be a well monitored system for reporting and addressing violent incidents, and internal conflicts and grievances.

7.      Counseling services should be available for employees.

Remember, Workplace Violence has a ripple effect; you can never tell how much damage will result from one incident. The above steps will therefore be a useful guide to making your work environment safer and saner.