Workshop Overview:

In this era of "entitled disgruntlement," current and former employees, taxpayers, vendors, customers, or even job applicants can bring their inappropriate behavior right into the office, facility, agency, or field situations. With personal problems and economic stress on the minds of so many employees, it’s no surprise that inappropriate anger, threats, vandalism, and attacks have barged into the work environment so frequently. This session will help managers and supervisors understand and respond to a complex subject: threats and violence in the workplace.

Workshop Outcomes:

Since workplace violence is less about homicide and more about threats (via frightening language, face-to-face interactions, written statements, email), this session focuses on managing employees' fears.

Since certain businesses and industries are more prone to this issue (retail, transportation, construction, high-stress and high-turnover jobs), this program provides materials and information on careful hiring and humane management of all employees, and especially high-risk ones.

Participants of the Session Will:

• Learn the realities and the myths of workplace violence as a management issue.
• Know when and how to respond to high-risk employee behavioral problems.
• Understand the HR, legal, and behavioral concerns for this issue.
• Work as a team, with HR, Risk Management, Corporate Counsel, Security, or Law Enforcement, to solve these problems in a synergistic way.
• Know how to hire, interview, discipline, and terminate various employees in certain situations.
• Receive a job-aide card to help them back at work.

Workshop Key Topics:

• Overview: What is Workplace Violence (and What Isn’t It)?
• Myths Surrounding Workplace Violence
• The Violence Equation
• Perpetrators and Acts
• The Power of Intuition
• Threats: "Hunters" versus "Howlers"
• Dealing with High-risk Customers or Taxpayers
• HR, Legal, Sheriffs, and Mental Health Responses to Workplace Violence
• Domestic Violence and Stalking Issues In the Workplace
• Self-Protection Skill-Building: Personal Safety and Personal Space
• The L.E.A.P.S. Model
• Last-Ditch Communication Tools
• The EAP Process
• Hiring and Interviewing
• Safe Discipline and Humane Termination Protocols

Workshop Length:

Four hours
Workshop handouts
Job-Aide card