Corporate Security is a Luxury. Be Safe During Angry Times Without It

Two things of note occurred in the immediate aftermath of the tragic workplace violence shooting death of Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare.

The first received attention primarily from business oriented media.

Corporate security officers from across the Fortune 500, jolted into reality by the shooting, joined together in an emergency conference call to discuss UnitedHealthcare’s security team’s failures regarding Thompson’s death, and discussed ways to improve their own safety procedures.

Corporate security is a luxury. Most employers don’t have the resources needed to hand off their safety, and the safety of their employees, to a full time security team. 

The second thing of note, which received far more widespread media attention, was the public’s reaction to the shooting. Many members of the public, angry at perceived abuses by the healthcare insurance industry, literally cheered Thompson’s shooting as some kind of comeuppance for denying or delaying claims.

A truly sad commentary on our society. But, not a surprising one. 

Grievance based anger has helped fuel much of the violence we now see. And the risk of violence is not just directed towards Fortune 500 companies, as some of the media coverage made it appear. It can be directed at any organization regardless of its size, or the nature of its work. 

In this piece, we’ll look at how employers, who don’t have the resources for corporate security, can protect themselves, their employees, and their organization during today’s angry times.

I learned about violence, how it occurs, and how it can be prevented during my 30 years of conducting investigations into workplace and community violence. For over 10 years, I’ve helped employers implement effective workplace violence prevention programs that protect their employees, themselves, and their organization. 

California requires employers to implement an effective workplace violence prevention program. I created my California employers workplace violence prevention checklist to help employers, who lack direct experience with violence, to be able to do that. Download the checklist to help protect your organization from violence. 

Safety Mindset 

Thompson had a corporate security team assigned to him, but chose to walk to the conference by himself. But, the reality is, it’s unlikely his corporate security team would have been able to prevent the shooting even if they had been with him.

But, Thompson’s disregard for his safety is not unusual. Ignoring safety hazards, especially related to work related activities, is something many people do. It’s easy enough to do when the safety threats are not standing right in front of you.

But, when it comes to working safely, employers set the standard for their organizations. And adopting the mindset that safety matters for your organization, your employees, and yourself, goes a long way towards a safer, violence free, workplace. 

Incorporating a safety mindset into your organization’s culture starts a chain reaction leading to a variety of benefits. Including increased productivity, better team building and communication, reduced turnover and absenteeism, and a better bottom line.

Adopting a safety mindset provides benefits beyond the workplace too. It positively impacts your personal and family life too.

Once you’ve begun to focus on safety, the most important step is to assess where violence safety risks are most likely to arise from. No one wants to live in fear. And the best way to avoid that, is to focus on the most likely safety threats you, your employees, and organization face. 

Assessing Safety Risks

Nothing happens in a vacuum. Thompson was shot in the back without warning. There was no angry confrontation that preceded the shooting, and the shooter calmly cleared a jammed weapon before resuming firing. There were multiple scenarios regarding the why behind the shooting that surfaced following the shooting.

And that’s why when it comes to assessing safety risks, it’s critical to do so in the context of the four source types of workplace violence. Workplace violence can be caused by a member of the community engaged in a criminal act, by someone your company does business with or serves, by a current or former employee, or from someone connected through private life rather than work life. 

We tend to downplay safety threats. Violence happens to other people. But, assessing safety risks requires having your eyes wide open. Dismissing a safety risk because doing so makes you feel better about your organization, team, or your private life is a mistake. There is no pound of cure for violence once it happens. There’s only the ounce of prevention. So play it straight.

Thompson purportedly received many threats. And he and his security team either dismissed those threats, or let their guard down because of being in a different environment. Acknowledging the risk of safety threats, instead of dismissing them, keeps you on your toes, and at least provides some chance to keep safe. 

Dismissing safety threats for whatever reason, takes away the ability to recognize one when it surfaces.

Once you’ve Identified potential sources of safety risks you can implement safety strategies.

Automate Your Safety Practices

Safety comes from repetition. By doing things so often that they became automatic. It’s the only way to be able to take action without having to think about doing so. 

Once safety becomes a habit, it can be applied to any given situation. And when it comes to safety, less is more. Simple is much more effective than complex. And the perfect is the enemy of the good. Especially when you are under stress caused by a safety threat.

Anticipate Safety Risks

Foresight is the ability to predict something based upon the different types of clues you are receiving through your different senses. Being able to anticipate safety hazards is what creates the opportunity to keep safe. Anticipating a safety threat allows you to develop an exit strategy, and even a fall back exit strategy,, before you actually need to utilize one.

Your senses, especially sight and hearing, are the key to being able to anticipate. Whether it’s reading an aggressive person’s body language, or recognizing areas where a person can lay in wait for you. 

Keep your eyes moving. That allows you to see someone hiding behind a parked car who can step out and attack you.

The earlier you recognize a potential safety threat the better you can avoid it completely, or be able to counter it before it can harm you. Yes, some people have an innate ability to read the environment around them and the actions of people within that environment. But most people don’t. Observation is a learned skill. It takes a conscious effort to do so. You can learn it by describing your surroundings, including the people in it, obstacles, lighting, and exit routes over and over again until you can do it anywhere at anytime.

Plan for contingencies 

Circumstances can change quickly, and the unexpected can happen, including with violence. Contingency planning is not an innate skill. In fact, we tend to think of one thing and one thing only.

Learning how to plan for contingencies requires thinking ahead, and incorporating an if then thought process. If A happens then you do one thing, if B happens you do another thing. 

Violence is not linear, and can occur at any point during any interaction, and without warning. Developing contingency planning skills requires understanding how quickly things can change, and having the ability to recognize when a change occurs, and then adjusting your approach to in response to that change. 

The same three part recognition strategies, once learned, work well for safety.

Schedule a call to discuss where you are at with implementing your workplace violence prevention program.