Implementing Your Effective CA Workplace Violence Prevention Plan

There’s nothing passive about California’s new workplace violence prevention requirements. 

This new law requires employers to take specific actions to implement their prevention plan. And, it requires that those actions be effective. 

The word effective appears consistently throughout the new law, beginning with “an employer shall establish, implement, and maintain an effective workplace violence prevention plan.”

So, what must employers do to put their plan into practice? And how can an employer make sure those steps are effective?

In this post, we’ll look at implementing an effective workplace violence prevention plan.

I help employers develop, implement, and maintain, workplace violence prevention plans that keep employees safer, and comply with California’s new workplace violence prevention law.

I spent 30 years conducting civil and criminal litigation investigations where I saw, first hand, the tragic consequences from violence. Through this work, I learned how violence happens and how it can be prevented.  And, in order to be effective at my work, I had to learn to keep myself safe, while working in some very dangerous environments.

Get started working on your workplace violence prevention plan today by downloading my free CA workplace violence prevention checklist just click on the link in the description below. 

Active Employee Involvement

Most workplace polices and plans are top down. Employee input isn’t factored into creating and enforcing those policies.

Not so with California’s new workplace violence prevention law which goes into effect on July 1.

Employers must have “effective procedures to obtain the active involvement of employees” in “identifying, evaluating, and correcting workplace violence hazards, in designing and implementing training, and in reporting and investigating workplace violence incidents.”

For employers that means getting your employees involved in pretty much every phase of your workplace violence prevention process.

But that’s just common sense.

Employees know far more than their employers the safety hazards they face, and what it takes to remediate those hazards. They also have a better handle on what types of training will help them to be safe from violence. 

To be effective, your complaint and investigation process must be trusted by your employees. Employee involvement is crucial to developing the accurate information required to make personnel determinations that ensure fairness.

Employee Surveys

Conducting employee surveys is the best way to get employee involvement in identifying, evaluating, and correcting workplace violence hazards. 

But, for that to be effective, you need more than their input. You need to use the information they provide. Information is a powerful tool when it is assessed and applied. Especially to shape your violence prevention approach. 

The same is true for designing and implementing training. Under the new law, employers must train their employees in strategies to avoid physical harm from workplace violence and in other facets of workplace violence prevention.  

Employees know better than anyone else the circumstances that can lead to violence, whether that’s at your workplace, or in client’s workplace or home.  

Don’t just guess at what they should be trained in. Ask them. 

What skills do they need to avoid physical harm. Maybe it’s de-escalation. Maybe it’s self-defense. Maybe it’s threat communication. Incorporating questions about ways to avoid physical harm, must be part of your employee survey. 

Complaint and Investigation Process

California, in the new law, requires employers “as part of the employer’s responsibility” to clearly describe the process in which workplace violence concerns can be brought forward “without fear of reprisal”. And how employee’s concerns will be investigated.

Getting employee engagement in the complaint and investigation process is critical to its success. That starts with ease of reporting possible incidents of violence, protection from retaliation when doing so, and ensuring that those who have witnessed a possible incident feel secure enough to speak truthfully about what they witnessed.

You can do so through implementing a few important steps. 

• Preventing retaliation against anyone who brings forward a complaint or participates in the investigation process. 
• Providing confidentiality throughout the complaint reporting and investigation process, especially to employee witnesses. 
• Ensuring that there are clearly identified, and convenient methods to reporting a complaint. Especially when it’s necessary to bypass the typical chain of command due to a supervisor’s involvement.
• Ensuring accountability of everyone, from employees to managers, who are responsible for the complaint and investigation process.

It’s not enough for employers to have policies and procedures in place. They need to clearly enforce policies designed to ensure participation in the complaint and investigation process.

Training

 The new law also mandates that employers train employees in the workings of the workplace violence prevention plan as well as in approaches to safety. Training is also the best method for ensuring effectiveness of the components of your prevention plan. 

California requires that you determine if the procedures you have adopted are effective. And the training you provide your employees can help determine just how effective your approaches to safety are.

Training both educates employees on what they should do in a variety of situations, and serves as a dry-run that helps you judge if those practices are effective.

Employees must be trained in:

•  Recognizing workplace violence hazards specific to their jobs.
•  Effective procedures to respond to actual or potential workplace violence emergencies.
•  Effective means to alert employees about workplace violence emergencies.
•  Evacuation and sheltering plans.
•  How to obtain help from staff assigned to respond to workplace violence incidents.
•  How to seek assistance to prevent or respond to violence.
•  Strategies to avoid physical harm from violence. This training is critical for employee safety. Because it ensures employees are protected from harm even when other practices fail.

Hazard Inspections and Corrections

 Employers must also conduct inspections of employees’ physical work locations to identify and evaluate workplace violence hazards. Your inspection process must be designed to identify unsafe conditions and work practices.

Inspections should be conducted when your workplace violence prevention plan is first established, following each workplace violence incident, and whenever the employer learns of a new or unrecognized hazard.

Whether the hazard results from work practices, or environmental reasons, employers must also assess the hazards and develop approaches to correct hazards that are identified.

Each of these elements of a workplace violence prevention plan must be implemented. A written plan alone will not satisfy California’s requirements.

Get started today on your California compliant workplace violence prevention plan by downloading my free California workplace violence prevention checklist