The Health & Safety Executive defines Work related violence as: “Any incident, in which a person is abused, threatened or assaulted in circumstances relating to their work.”
Abuse, threats and actual violence can occur in any interpersonal situation. Within the workplace this is most likely to occur in the many different types of jobs where workers come into regular contact with the public.
These will include:
Police, Court Staff, Prison Officers, Fire Brigade, Ambulance Personnel, NHS/Care Workers
Postal Worker, Retail Workers, Restaurant Staff, Landlord & Staff
Hotel Worker, Council Worker, Estate Agents, Call Centre Staff
Employers have a ‘duty of care’ to protect the health, safety and welfare of their employees whilst in the workplace. Responsibility for health and safety is shared by all employees. However, as a Manager, your company will expect you to ensure health and safety policies and procedures are followed, because to ignore or fail to act or take reasonable steps to deal with a situation could lead to legal action against the Company.
As part of the duty of care employers are expected to risk assess all activities and make arrangements to protect the health and safety of employees. This is a straightforward 4-stage process:
- Stage 1 Identify any risks
- Stage 2 Decide what actions to take to minimise risks
- Stage 3 Take actions to minimise risks
- Stage 4 Review and evaluate effectiveness of action taken and repeat the process as necessary.
This process should form part of the framework and processes laid down by your company. As a Manager it is your job to remind staff of the benefits of adhering to safe ways of working for their own and their colleague’s safety and protection.
Although relatively rare, violence between colleagues in the workplace does occur. Interpersonal conflict within the workplace for any reason can escalate if not managed effectively. It is therefore of paramount importance to identify and deal with harassment and threats of violence before they escalate. Your organisation will have policies in place to deal with incidents of abusive behaviour, threat and/or actual violence or other unacceptable behaviour. It is important you are aware of the relevant procedures to follow to be able to deal with the situation in a professional manner.
You should remember that following any incident of violence as well as the ‘actual victim’ there are likely to be other victims by virtue of the fact they may have witnessed the incident or tried to help. The effects will vary depending on what they witnessed and their ability to cope but it is possible they may suffer from the effects of trauma following the event. Please see the article on trauma in this website. Reactions to violence will vary from person to person and whilst some people can shrug off an incident (depending on the severity) another person dealing with a similar incident could be quite traumatised by it.
It is likely that your company will have protocols and processes in place to deal with most incidents that may arise, and this will include arrangements to support victims of workplace violence.
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