You have your company’s workplace violence plan all finished. It’s loaded with all of the preventative and reporting procedures you think you need. You’re all prepared, but…

…for your people to protect themselves if something actually happens and they find themselves being violently attacked by an enraged attacker?

When I review a company’s workplace violence prevention plan, I find that they usually read more like any other policy. They’re filled with front-end, preventative policies and “rules,” and the company’s required back-end, reporting and disciplinary procedures. But rarely do I see a plan that fills in the center – the details regarding policies, procedures, action plans, and training – for how employees will deal with an actual attack. It’s this missing piece – this critical element of any emergency action plan – which is what a workplace violence plan should be seen as – could actually leave a company with the exact same liability and loss issues that the plan was originally written to avoid.

As I tell all of my clients, prevention is great and necessary. So, don’t get rid of your “zero-tolerance” statements, banned weapons lists, or employee interaction policies. Likewise, you’ll want to make sure that all of your hard work that went into developing those reporting procedures doesn’t go to waste either. But, let’s not forget why we bothered to create a workplace violence prevention policy in the first place. And that reason was…

…liability control, and loss management.

Isn’t that right?

Unless you’re in the habit of making up policies for your company just because you attended a seminar or read an article about it and some so-called expert said you needed it, your workplace violence management policy should be seen for what it is – a critical, potentially life-saving, part of your company’s overall liability-management systems.

The term, “life-saving,” may seem a bit strong but I mean it literally in the sense of a company’s financial life. Because a violent attack happening in your facility can literally destroy your company. But, when I say “life-saving,” I’m also talking about the lives of you, your employees, and anyone visiting and who might get caught in the cross-fire. The thing to remember is that, an assailant intent on attacking, regardless of whether he is one of your own or an outsider, doesn’t care about your zero-tolerance stance – isn’t concerned about whether he’s “allowed” to have the weapon he’s using, or what you’re going to do to him after he’s finished.

However, I can assure you that the new breed of lawyers who are standing by, waiting to represent any of your employees injured in a workplace violence incident, care about the same missing elements to your plan that I am. And these missing elements include:

* Training for escaping an area under attack

* Attack avoidance skills

* Assault prevention techniques, and…

* Physical self-defense skills

These are the elements that could make or break your company’s survival and future existence. The only elements that are designed specifically to save the lives of…

* your employees and managers – literally

* you’re business’ financial state, and maybe even more importantly…

* …it’s legal position should there be the threat of post incident action by injured employees making the company liable for not providing this type of training in the first place.

I’m sure your policy looks great. I’m sure it looks complete. But, the reality is that, most people charged with creating these plans – whether or not it’s you, a committee, or a specialist you brought in – lack the necessary experience in crisis management – especially with physical violence – to even begin creating such a policy. You owe it to yourself, your company, and the people who depend on you, to insure that your company’s workplace violence plan is more than just a “feel-good” policy that might instill nothing but a false sense of security.

Make sure that- when you need it the most – when you’re facing your worst nightmare in human form – it won’t leave you hoping you’ll survive so you can fill out those incident reporting forms!