How Safe Do Your Employees Feel?

Recently, CareerBuilder.com released the results of a massive online survey in which 3,100 full-time workers described how safe they felt in their workplaces. While 94% of respondents said that they generally feel safe at their place of work, when asked about specific scenarios, many expressed concerns. In particular, a startling number of workers do not feel they are well protected from the physical threat of other people.

The Threat

30% of the survey takers did not feel they were adequately protected from a physical attack from another person. 40% said their company does not even have a plan for dealing with such an event.

That’s alarming. Although there is no indication of any increase in workplace violence recently, it’s still a point of concern for companies. Fortunately, there are ways to make your workplace significantly safer.

Solutions

Visitor Management and Security Systems: 80% of workplace homicides are perpetrated by people who have nothing to do with the workplace at all. That’s why having a good Visitor Management System (VMS) and access controls has the potential to be such an effective safeguard– especially if your office doesn’t need to be open to the general public. By restricting entrance to employees via biometric identification or key code, you can ensure that only people who need to be in the office are there.

If you do allow members of the public to walk in, a VMS system can be updated with a warning for people who should not be allowed access. This is extremely important, especially to women, who are disproportionately victims of violence from intimate partners in the workplace (for example, abusive exes).

Know The Warning Signs: While workplace homicides committed by employees are rare, there are always ways to make your office even safer. CNN has a good overview of warning signs that an employee could turn violent here. Make sure that your company has a good, trustworthy HR member or other designated employee who workers can report any threats or suspicions to anonymously.

Make Sure Employees Know The Drill(s): In the words of Rosemary Haefner, chief human resources officer of CareerBuilder, “keeping employees protected means not only putting measures in place to keep them safe, but making sure employees are aware of the policies and procedures they can protect themselves, too.”