Co-worker Workplace Violence is the Easiest to Prevent. Here’s How

California’s workplace violence prevention law identifies four different source types of workplace violence. Of the four source types, co-worker on co-worker workplace violence is the easiest for employers to prevent.

That’s because, co-worker violence—unlike the other three source types which involve people who don’t work for the employer—involves people directly under an employer’s control.

As a result of this dynamic, a proactive employer can prevent situations that arise between employees from becoming violent.

In this piece, we’ll discuss steps an employer can take to prevent co-worker workplace violence.

California’s new workplace violence prevention requires employers to have an effective workplace violence prevention program. My free California Employers Workplace Violence Prevention Checklist will help you do that.   

Proactivity and Standardization of Processes Your Keys to Preventing Co-worker Violence

Being proactive, along with standardizing your communication approaches, and your complaint and investigation processes, are the best ways for employers to prevent co-worker sourced workplace violence.

After most every major incident of co-worker workplace violence, information comes out showing that prior to the incident, there were reports to the employer about abusive behavior, either committed by or targeting the employee, who later engaged in the violence.

And despite the employer being aware of those complaints, nothing was done to address them. Thus creating a vacuum that was then filled by violence.

Employees who feel that an employer doesn’t take allegations of bullying and harassment seriously are more likely to take matters into his own hands leading to violence.

Employers that have clearly defined processes, and communicate to their employees how to use those processes, and who also ensure accountability throughout those processes, are best able to prevent co-worker workplace violence.

Clarity is key to an effective workplace violence prevention program.

Employers should clearly identify, in their workplace violence prevention plan, the person to whom employees should report co-worker related incidents. Simply having a zero tolerance policy does not cut it. Employees must know exactly where to go, and how to report an issue involving a co-worker.

It’s important to remove workplace politics from this process. 

By that I mean turning a blind eye to the conduct of a long term employee simply because he’s been there a long time, or to the conduct of a person because that person makes money for the organization. 

Employers also need to remove from the reporting process any favoritism that arises out of workplace friendships. Connections should not interfere with addressing workplace issues that can lead to violence.

I’ve seen otherwise careful companies ignore blatant misconduct committed by an employee in each of these different scenarios.

Employers should standardize and centralize the reporting process. When incidents are reported to different people instead of centralizing the reporting process, each one of those people may treat the same incident completely differently due to their own perspectives and personality differences.

It’s also critical that the reporting process be done in writing. Doing so makes it easier to record them in the now required violence incident log, and to conduct any investigations that will be needed.

Employers must also standardize the investigation process. Investigations should be conducted by the same people trained in conducting a workplace violence investigation, whether that’s in-house or contracted out.  investigations that need to be conducted when there is a potential conflict of interest should have a standardized referral process that ensures that those investigations will be conducted in a neutral way.

Finally, employment decisions regarding incidents should be based upon the results of the investigation, so that any disciplinary action, is backed up by the factual information developed.

Terminating an Employee the Right Way

There’s a right way and a wrong way to terminate an employee. Even a problem employee. 

Empathy matters. Humiliating someone when terminating that person is a great way to generate resentment. And resentment is what drives those incidents of workplace violence committed by someone terminated from his job.

Helping an employee, as best as is possible, through this difficult process diffuses resentment.

Losing a job is stressful. Especially when it gets harder to find new work due to changes in the overall economy. And the emotional toll from financial stress that comes from being terminated can turn resentment into action.

Acknowledging that terminating someone can be life altering is critical to treating that person with dignity. Lowering the resentment level helps reduce the risk of a former employee resorting to violence.

California’s workplace violence prevention law requires employers to train employees in strategies to avoid physical harm from workplace violence. Learn more about the types of trainings in strategies that are effective at keeping employees safe from physical harm from workplace violence.         

Developing your workplace violence prevention plan? My CA Employers Workplace Violence Prevention Took Kit will take you step-by-step through everything you need to create your workplace violence prevention plan.