Prevent Workplace Violence. Pt. 4. De-escalation & Situational Awareness

91% of small and mid-size businesses believe that workplace violence can happen to any business in any sector. And 1 out of 3 of them have already had a significant episode of workplace violence.

In this video, the 4th in our 5 part series, we cover how to keep your staff safe while they're out working in the community through implementing situational awareness and de-escalation techniques. Many organizations have staff that work in people's homes, or at other business locations putting them at risk for violence in a less familiar space.

Situational awareness is the single most important skill to develop to keep safe, as it permits your staff to AVOID engaging with a potential threat to their safety. De-escalation training helps your staff learn to keep a tense situation from turning into a physical attack.

I spent 30+ years working as a litigation investigator specializing in witness interviews. My job was to walk up announced to a total stranger's home, often in dangerous neighborhoods, introduce myself, and get them to talk with me about the experience with some type of uncomfortable situation. Situational awareness and de-escalation techniques were a necessary part of my skillset in order for me to keep safe while working out in the community.

Ready to start implementing a workplace violence prevention strategy. Download my FREE workplace violence prevention checklist here.

• Situational awareness involves assessing the environment around you and the people in it for potential safety threats.
• By seeing or hearing the potential safety risk early enough, you have the ability to develop and implement a strategy to AVOID that risk. So think about it as distance=early warning= options = safety.
• Situational awareness your focus needs to switch from your destination to having an exit strategy. And not just where you can go to keep safe, but the route you need to take, and the approximate distance.
• De-escalation techniques are about calming a increasingly tense situation before it can become violent.
• With de-escalation, you're involving listen skills--especially reflective listening, while using your words and body language to calm another person down.
• It is also critical for you to learn how to read the agitated person's body language too. It's critical to be able to make a quick decision as to whether a situation can be calmed down, or if you should gird yourself in preparation for an attack.

If you're ready to start the process of keeping your staff safe today, download my FREE workplace violence prevention checklist.