Should CA Employers Train Employees in Self-Defense as Part of Workplace Violence Prevention?

Should California employers train employees in self-defense as part of their workplace violence prevention program’s strategies to avoid physical harm?

Yes. Absolutely! 

In this video, the third in our series on strategies to help your employees avoid physical harm from workplace violence, I’ll cover why self-defense training is essential to helping employees avoid physical harm. And I’ll go over what elements of self-defense training are the most important to include in your workplace violence prevention program. 

Hi. I’m Mike Corwin. I help employers establish, implement, and maintain an effective workplace violence prevention program.

My approach to workplace violence prevention is based upon what I learned during the 30+ years I spent working as an investigator conducting civil and criminal investigations in some of our nation’s most dangerous areas. Keeping myself safe while working was essential to the effectiveness of my work. 

And I’ve combined that knowledge with what I learned from conducting many investigations into work related violence, its causes, and how physical harm to those victimized by the violence could have been prevented.

California requires employers to have a workplace violence prevention program in place by July 1, 2024. I’ve got a great tool to help you get started developing your prevention program. My FREE workplace violence prevention checklist. It is a road map you can follow as you develop a workplace violence prevention plan. Click here to download now.

Why Self-Defense Must Be Part of Your Workplace Violence Prevention Program

One of California’s goals with the new law is to make sure that employees are trained in how to avoid physical harm regardless of the source of the workplace violence. It’s about safety.

I’ve previously covered why training in situational awareness, and in de-escalation, should be the primary strategies for employees to avoid physical harm. Being able to avoid physically engaging in a potentially violent situation is always the best way to avoid physical harm.

But, there are times where, despite the best efforts to avoid, and de-escalate, a situation turns violent. And in those cases, self-defense and defense of others, become the only way to avoid physical harm.

California, recognizing that these times can occur, specifically exempts acting in self-defense, or in the defense of others, from acts of workplace violence.

What Self-Defense Is Not

To understand why self-defense training is critical to a workplace violence prevention program, you must first understand what self-defense is not.

•  Self-defense is not fighting. Self-defense is about creating the opportunity to exit a violent situation as quickly and safely as possible. The goal being to avoid physical harm. Fighting on the other hand, is about engaging for an extended time in a give and take with an attacker. Engaging any longer than absolutely necessary increases the risk of being harmed. 
•  Self-defense is not about perfection. An attack is incredibly stressful. Under stress like that, perfection goes out the window. So spending time learning defense moves that require perfect execution is a waste of time.  Effective self-defense is the opposite. Simple to learn, and effective without perfection. A punch that misses you by an inch, is as effective as one that misses you by a foot. 
•  Self-defense is not about power. Self-defense is not about knocking out your attacker. It’s not going to happen. Effective self-defense is really more about speed than power. Trying to generate power slows you down. And since an attacker isn’t moving in slow motion, what slows your response down increases your risk of physical harm.

Are you surprised by what self-defense is not? There’s a lot of misconceptions about self-defense, but when it comes to avoiding physical harm through self-defense or the defense of others, mindset matters.

Effective Self-Defense for Avoiding Physical Harm

So what should self-defense training to avoid physical harm focus on?

•  Taking away an attacker’s advantage. Most attacks are over and done in under 7 seconds. Attackers have a plan of attack. Usually involving the element of surprise, which gives them an initial advantage. This is true even if that plan is formed a few seconds before launching the attack. So a main focus of self-defense should be learning to take away an attacker’s initial advantage. And this is true, whether the attacker is armed or unarmed. I call this concept changing the dynamics of an attack. And changing the dynamics uses a variety of approaches to take away the attacker’s initial advantage making it easier to avoid physical harm.
•  Defending yourself requires you to be physically close to the attacker. Effective self-defense requires employees to be in close to the attacker. Especially if they have to defend against an armed attacker. The problem is that most of us want to be as far away from the attacker as possible. So to counter our normal instinct, self-defense training should help employees, to get in close to the attacker, and defend themselves from there, until they can exit safely.
•  Keeping your hands at the same height as the weapon. Whether it’s a fist, a knife, a chair, a firearm, or any other weapon, employees won’t be able to defend against it if their hands are down by their sides or held up high into the air. It takes too long to get your hands into position to defend against, or disarm a weapon from those positions. So training employees, in the “safe stance”, where your hands are held at the same height as the weapon, is critical to self-defense, and is easy to do. And as I’ve previously covered, the safe stance also works great for de-escalation.
•  Remaining calm during an attack. Because of the stressful nature of a workplace violence incident, it’s critical for your employees to learn to stay calm under physical threat. Focusing on simple techniques, like breathing, and speaking to the attacker, will help employees to remain calm, and clear thinking, during an attack.
•  Creating the opportunity to exit safely. Since self-defense is about creating the opportunity to exit a dangerous situation as quickly and safely as possible, self-defense training strategies should focus on teaching ways to create that opportunity to exit. The very best way to do that, is by turning the attacker into a defender. This can be done through learning some simple techniques, and then applying them continuously until able to exit safely.

Want to get started on developing the required workplace violence prevention program by the July 1, 2024 deadline? Download my FREE workplace violence prevention checklist. It’s a great road map for you to follow as you develop a workplace violence prevention plan. Just click on the link in the description below. (https://www.mikecorwin.com/workplace-violence-prevention-opt-in).

It you’d like some more help establishing, creating, and implementing the workplace violence prevention program required by the new California law, click here and schedule a free telephone consultation.