Workplace Violence Prevention VS Active Shooter: Which Program is Better for Your Organization

Two high profile workplace violence shootings in two weeks. On top of many more over this past year. Both shootings, one at a private school by a former student, and one at a community bank, by an employee show that workplace violence can happen to ANY organization.

These shootings show the futility of the belief that workplace violence only happens to others.

For an employer looking to keep its staff safe, these shootings raise the question, which is the most effective approach for organizations to use to train staff, workplace violence prevention or active shooter training.

I spent 30+ years investigating cases of workplace violence as part of the filing of civil lawsuits. In doing so, I got to see first hand, how they develop, what happens during the incident, and who is liable for the damage from the violence. I have spent over 10 years teaching businesses, nonprofit organizations, and governmental agencies how to reduce the risk of workplace violence.

If you’re looking for ways to increase workplace safety while preventing workplace violence, check out my free Workplace Violence Prevention Checklist. You can download it here. This checklist will take you through the basic steps to implement in order to reduce the risk of workplace violence happening to your organization.

WORKPLACE VIOLENCE AND ACTIVE SHOOTER DEFINED

According to OSHA, “Workplace violence is any act or threat of physical violence, harassment, intimidation, or other threatening disruptive behavior that occurs at the work site. It ranges from threats and verbal abuse to physical assaults and even homicide. It can affect and involve employees, clients, customers and visitors.”

According to the FBI, “An active shooter is an individual actively engaged in killing or attempting to kill people in a populated area, and recent active shooter incidents have underscored the need for a coordinated response by law enforcement and others to save lives.”

WORKPLACE VIOLENCE PREVENTION AND ACTIVE SHOOTER TRAINING PROGRAM DIFFERENCES

The goal of both workplace violence prevention programs, and active shooter trainings is to keep those in the workplace safer.

But their focus and; therefore, their approaches, differ. 

Active shooter training is laser focused on teaching staff what to do if a shooter enters the workplace. Workplace violence training is more holistic, and it also incorporates staff safety while they’re out in the community too.

There are some additional differences between the two. 

Workplace violence prevention programs focuses on REDUCING the risk of a workplace violence episode, AND what to do once an episode of violence begins. 

Active shooter trainings are narrower in scope. They are specific to addressing a shooter in the workplace, and are focused on teaching responses ONCE the shooting has begun. 

Active shooter trainings often try to recreate the sights (flashes of light), sounds (recordings of gunshots), and smells (smoke) that can exist during an active shooter incident.

ACTIVE SHOOTER TRAINING

Active Shooter Trainings focus on recognizing that an incident is underway, and how to run, hide, and engage. Trainers seek to introduce a level of stress into the training, as a tool for helping people trained to handle themselves as best as possible during he unthinkable.

Focus includes how to find hiding places, how to think about exits, and techniques on how to engage with a shooter. Trainings also provide tips on how to follow directions and commands issued by law enforcement especially on how to exit a building safely without being confused for the shooter.

Active shooter training is specific to the locations where the training occurs. The focus is on gaining understanding of the specific location in order to maximize using the location’s infrastructure to safely survive the shooting.

Active shooter training also focuses on hardening targets (making the workplace less accessible to someone seeking to engage in violence).

WORKPLACE VIOLENCE PREVENTION

Workplace violence prevention programs focus on a holistic approach to violence in the workplace that aims to keep an incident from happening in the first place.

Good workplace violence prevention programs focus on strengthening internal investigation processes so as to prevent inconsistent handling of complaints. The goal being to lessen the likelihood that someone “goes off” because of a failure to address complaints.

Workplace violence prevention programs also assess internal and external layouts, and physical security, in order to enhance internal movement patterns. And less about hardening the physical building since the harm can come from inside rather than externally.

Workplace violence prevention programs also focus on teaching communication skills including de-escalation techniques, and to alert management of a potential problem before it becomes a physical threat.

Both workplace violence prevention programs and active shooter programs teach some basic self-defense. But, the focus in active shooter trainings is upon disarms, whereas in a workplace violence prevention program, self-defense trainings focus on unarmed, as well as upon armed threats in both the workplace and the community settings making them much more valuable to staff.

In the next blog post we’ll discuss cases where workplace violence related lawsuits extend beyond worker’s compensation.

If you found this information helpful. Download my free workplace violence prevention checklist below.