Balancing Employee Safety And Being Open to the Public

We live in unsettled times. Watching the tv news can make people feel like they need to live and work in a fortress in order to be safe. 

Yes, there’s a time and place to create physical barriers to keep potentially violent people, especially from the community, from physically encountering your employees. A practice that’s referred to as “hardening the target”. 

But, customers, patrons, and clients, who are “invitees” to your workplace, won’t patronize a business where entering your workplace reminds them of the intro sequence from the tv show Get Smart, as Agent Maxwell Smart, progresses, one by one, through a myriad of steel doors to get to his workplace.

OK. That show aired decades ago, so some of you won’t be able to visualize what I’m describing. 

When it comes to workplace violence prevention, service businesses such as professional practices, retail businesses, and restaurants, need to strike a balance between employee safety, and operating openly to the public. After all, isn’t that what serving the public means.

So how do you implement safety practices to prevent workplace violence while being open to the public?

In this piece, I’ll discuss implementing workplace safety practices that keep employees safe for workplaces that are open and accessible to the public. 

California requires employers to “establish, implement, and maintain an effective workplace violence prevention plan.” But effectively protecting your employees from violence, requires small and midsized employers, to understand the reality and nature of violence, and the ways that it can happen to your employees. 

And that’s a real challenge when you have not experienced violence firsthand. How do you then, as an employer, know what works to prevent violence to your employees, when you aren’t yourself experienced with the reality of violence?

I spent 30 years investigating violence in the workplace and in the community. I saw firsthand how violence happens and the ways it can be prevented. And because my work often took place within some pretty dangerous locations, I learned to keep myself safe from violence so that I could effectively serve my clients.

For over ten years, I’ve helped people, from a wide variety of industries, keep safe while doing the work they love, including the staff of a United States Senator, judges, court administrators and staff, educators, religious institutions, law firms, medical professionals, restaurant managers, construction workers, and manufacturing companies.

I’ve created a workplace violence prevention checklist to help California employers who aren’t familiar with the nature of violence and how it happens, develop an effective workplace violence prevention plan, that keeps employees safer while meeting California’s requirements.  

Serving the Public

Most businesses serve the public directly. In the US, the service sector is responsible for over 75% of the GDP. 

And to be successful, service businesses need customers to feel welcome, or they’ll go elsewhere to get what they want. We can’t ask them to empty their pockets, walk through detectors, and submit to pat downs before entering our workplaces.

Yet, safety matters too. It’s important for our employees and for our clients, customers, and patients too. It’s an employer’s responsibility to ensure safety of employees and those we invite into our workplaces.

Failing to adequately ensure safety in the workplace risks:

•  Your employees’ safety. 
•  Employees feeling unsupported by their employer are more likely to quit, or miss work, decreasing workplace productivity while increasing employment costs. 
•  A significant violence incident can lead to costly lawsuits from employees as well as from the public.
•  A single violence incident can raise your insurance premiums and healthcare costs.
•  Damage to your community based reputation leading to a decrease in revenue.
•  And a substantial fine from Cal/OSHA.

Safety Without the Bunker

Workplace safety starts with recognizing where the safety hazards for your employees come from, training them in recognizing those risks, standardizing practices, and good communication.

Because your employees work everyday with the public you want to start developing your approach by interviewing them. 

•  What situations during work cause them the most concern? Your employees don’t have to have experienced actual violence in order to recognize which situations put them at greatest risk. 
•  Have them take you through the different work routines, such as opening and closing, as well as where they are positioned within the workplace when they engage with customers or clients. Have them breakdown those practices into steps so you can look at each element of the practice to better assess the process.
•  Do your employees know who to notify and how when they have a safety concern
•  Are they aware of the different ways to exit a situation? And ways to create separation, if necessary from a would be attacker.

Next, look at your staffing levels. There’s safety in numbers. Does your employee schedule create situations that isolate employees and increase their safety hazards? Employees who open or close the workplace, and those who arrive early or leave late are especially vulnerable to violence when they do so by themselves.

Assess those employee practices. Do they enhance employee safety? And if so how? If not, what should be changed to make the practices safer?

Exam the safety training you provide to your employees. Does it address the specific safety hazards they face? Do they have enough training to be able to switch gears should a specific safety approach not work? Do they have a way to automate what they learn so it becomes standard practice?

Employees working with the public should be trained in:

•  Recognize a potential safety hazard before it actually becomes a safety hazard.
•  Know how to position themselves safely so they don’t become physically trapped while working with an invitee.
•  Know to whom and how to communicate safety concerns.
•  Know how to dial down a tense situation.
•  Know where to go, and how to get there should a situation turn violent.
•  Know what to do if other actions fail and violence erupts. 

Workplace violence prevention is more difficult than preventing other workplace issues. It requires an understanding of violence, how it happens, and what steps are effective in preventing it. Send me an email at [email protected] and we’ll schedule a free 15 minute consultation to discuss your workplace violence prevention needs.