managing domestic violence in the workplace

Managing Domestic Violence in the Workplace

W. Barry Nixon, SPHRWorkplaceviolence911.com

W. Barry Nixon, SPHR

• Executive Director, National Institute for Prevention of Workplace Violence, Inc.

• Creator of www.Workplaceviolence911.com (the leading source on the Internet for comprehensive information on workplace violence)

• The Workplace Violence Prevention eReport (published every other month; get free subscription)

• Contact Information: [email protected] or Telephone – (949)770-5264

Definition - Workplace Violence

National Institute for the Prevention of Workplace Violence, Inc.

• Acts of aggression or violence including assaults, threats, disruptive, aggressive, hostile, or verbal or emotionally abusive behaviors that generate anxiety, that occurs in, or are related to the workplace and entails a real or perceived risk of physical, emotional and/or psychological harm to individuals, or damage to an organization’s resources or capabilities whether intentional or not.

cpowicki

highlight beginning with "entail" people get confused about when it rises to a PTAG level. Do we incorporate PTAG process into this?

Violence in the Workplace 21st Century – more than 10,900 people murdered at work 21st Century – average homicides at work 779 per year

Five Year Average – suicides at work 259 per year

Annually over a half million people report violent victimizations while they are working or on duty

NOTE: Data from 2001 exclude fatalities resulting from the September 11 terrorist attacks.

SOURCE: US Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries, 2000-2010

See the 2013 Workplace Violence Fact Sheet at www.WorkplaceViolence911.com for statistics on workplace violence.

http://www.workplaceviolence911.com/

Why Should You Be Concerned?

• Domestic violence is increasingly becoming a foreseeable workplace risk.

• An incident on your premises will disrupt productivity, impact your firm’s reputation and distract management’s attention away from focusing on company goals.

• From a risk management perspective, inaction on this growing workplace issue will introduce unacceptable human risk and potential cost.

Women and Violence

• One in four women has been the victim of severe physical violence by an intimate partner.

• Approximately 42.4 million women in the United States have experienced rape, violence, or stalking by a partner in their lifetime.

http://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pdf/nisvs-fact-sheet-2014.pdf

http://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pdf/nisvs-fact-sheet-2014.pdf

http://www.ncadv.org/files/National%20DV%20Stats%20Sept%202014.pdf

Incidents of Domestic Violence in the Workplace

• 16 % of organizations had an incident of domestic violence in the past 5 years; 19% had an issue in the past year, and 22% did not know.

• Intimate partner violence resulted in 22% of the 648 workplace homicides among women at work in the U.S. from 2003 to 2008.

Source: National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and the Injury Control Research Center at West Virginia University (WVU-ICRC) Research

Domestic Violence’s Impact on Workers

• Disruptions at work are common for victims of domestic violence:– 96% report experiencing problems at work,– 74% are harassed at work by their abuser,– 56% are late to work,– 54% miss entire days of work, and – 28% leave work early.

Employer Liability for Workplace Violence. Crime Victims’ Litigation Quarterly, 2(4), 10-12. National Center for Victims Crime.

The Cost of Workplace Violence

• The cost of workplace violence is estimated at $121 billion per year in the United States, and non-fatal assaults result in 876,000 lost workdays annually.

Source: Business Insurance magazine, April 4, 2014

Businesses Costs to Ignoring Impact on Victimized Workers

• “The annual cost of lost productivity due to domestic violence is estimated at $727.8 million, with over 7.9 million paid workdays lost each year.”

• Wrongful death actions against employers who failed to address an employee’s risk of domestic violence on the job have cost up to $850,000.

NIOSH

Calculate The Cost of Domestic Violence to Your Organization

• The Domestic Violence Calculator was created to help you identify the potential cost of domestic violence to your organization.

Domestic Violence Calculator ©Texas Health Resources;https://www2.texashealth.org/dv/

OHSA Approach

Plan Prevent Protect

The NIX Model for Managing Violence Prevention

Plan Detect Prevent Protect

Copyrighted Materials: National Institute for Prevention of Workplace Violence, Inc.

The NIX Model for Managing Violence Prevention

• Plan – Management provides leadership; strategy, plan and resources; drives implementation

• Detect – focus efforts on understanding and discovering ‘at risk’ behaviors for individuals and violence prone trends for organizations.

• Prevent - anticipate and deal with possible problematic situations before they escalate into problematic behaviors or conflict actually erupts.

• Protect – implement measures to contain issues, resolve hostilities and activate crisis response plan.


The NIX Model: Plan

• Management Leadership:– Create Threat Management Team; assign key

personnel from Security, Safety, HR, Legal, Operations, Occupational Health, Finance, etc.

– Develop a comprehensive strategy and implementation plan

– Assign responsibility for implementation to C-Suite Executive

– Establish goals and objectives with clear reporting and management review process


Zero Incidents

The target of an effective workplace violence program is injury prevention. By focusing on reducing “at risk” behaviors and practices, organizations can attack and remove the root causes of injuries and intervene before incidents happen.

Detect Prevent ProtectPlan


Carrie

Plug PTAG

Cost of Doing Business

“Prepardedness is not a luxury; it is cost of doing Business”

The 9/11 Commission Report

Reduce Business Cost

According to OSHA, all the research and best evidence points to one conclusion:

"Employers that invest in workplace safety and health can expect to reduce fatalities, injuries, and illnesses. This will result in cost savings in a variety of areas, such as lowering workers' compensation costs and medical expenses, avoiding OSHA penalties, and reducing costs to train replacement employees and conduct accident investigations. In addition, employers often find that changes made to improve workplace safety and health can result in significant improvements to their organization's productivity and financial performance."

Business Continuity

• Business Continuity represents assurance that an enterprise has the ability to continually meet their commitments, i.e., “run the business” ……. no matter what.

• Business Continuity should be a part of an firms strategic and operational planning.

• Workplace violence prevention (including domestic violence) should be a part of your Business Continuity plan.

Ultimate Goal

• The ultimate goal is to eliminate incidents of violence.

The NIX Model: Detect

• Identification of vulnerabilities and risk• Organization policy, process, procedure and

management practices assessment• Bolster employee relations monitoring,

incident tracking (security violation reports, OSHA 300 logs, EEO/Employee complaints, etc.) and intervention processes

• Bolster employee reporting processes


Detect• Human Resources knows pulse of workforce, early detection

of problems, employee relations issues, complaints, etc.• Threat/Incident investigations and assessment geared

towards identifying underlying ‘root causes’ of issues and learning from incidents to continuously improve early detection.

• Enlist employee support to enhance employee reporting • Monitor employee relations issues, complaints, EAP reports

for patterns, trends, hot issues, etc.• Implement ‘hot line’ or other anonymous means

of reporting key information


cpowicki

add bullet point at top - HR Assessment as HR does not do Risk Assessments at AEGON add PTAG to "Risk Assessment"

Past Behavior Provides Powerful Insights Into Potential Future Behavior

• Drug Testing

• Employment Screening

• Reference Checking

• Pre-employment testing – integrity, honesty, violence prone

Threat Assessment Begins Before You Hire an Employee

• Jan 2011 Police and the Montgomery County State's Attorney's Office report that Keith D. Little, a Suburban employee who reported to Brockington, was charged in his murder. Brockington was Little’s direct supervisor, and that had reprimanded Little on several recent occasions and his performance appraisal denied Little a raise.

• Police uncover court records indicating that Little was charged in 2005 with murder of a co-worker inside a secured facility in Washington, D.C., though he was never convicted. Court records described the motive for the murder as the victim accusing Little of stealing tools from the workplace.

Source: http://gaithersburg.patch.com/articles/murder-at-suburban-hospital-timeline-of-events-2

Copyright 2011 - National Institute for Prevention of Workplace Violence, Inc.

Infinity Screening

Post hiring screening can help identify threats to the organization during the employment life cycle of an employee.

Carrie

delete slide

The Headline You Never Want to See!

Employee of XYZ Company Charged With Knocking out his Girl Friend in Elevator in Hotel (and a video of the incident goes viral.)

Carrie

delete slide

“Workplace Violence Prevention is Everybody’s Business”

• Organizations need to focus on addressing the factors that deter employees from reporting threats or acts of violence and engage them in being part of the solution to preventing workplace violence.

• Invest organization resources and time on increasing employee awareness of importance of reporting threats and incidents.

• Ensure reporting procedures and contact information are clear and are widely understood.


Carrie

HR needs to help train mgr adn supervisors on this

Why Invest in Improving Reporting?

• It’s quite simple. You will never be able to hire enough security people to effectively secure the work environment, consequently, you have to engage the rest of the organizations’ personnel to become part of the extended security force.

Workplace Violence Prevention is Everybody’s Business!

Threat Intervention

• Organizations must establish an array of possible interventions to address identified ‘risk:’

Pre-identification Risk Assessments Supervisor has dialogue with employee HR has dialogue with employee Referral to EAP Fitness for Duty Assessment Formal Threat Assessment Contact Law Enforcement


There are Hundreds of Eyes at Your Firm.Engage All of Them.

IF YOU SEE SOMETHING, SAY SOMETHING.

Tell a Supervisor, Call HR or Security or Police.

Source:NYC Metropolitan Transportation Authority

Recognizing Early Warning Signs

Copyright 2011 - National Institute for Prevention of Workplace Violence, Inc.

The NIX Model: Prevent• Human Resources • Anger management coaching and counseling• Proactive use of EAP• Stay Safe @ Work plan• Law Enforcement or Security Consultant meet with potential

aggressor to assess level of danger and to put the person on notice• Termination and other adverse action planning• No Contact/Restraining Orders/No Trespass Orders – individual and

workplace • Education and Training (warning signs, staying calm, taking reports

seriously)• ‘Think About It’ Time-off• OffBoarding


Prevent

“ If you can anticipate it, you can plan for it”

Security Conscious Culture

Cultural expectations and patterns of behavior guide what people consider to be appropriate conduct and they guide what people do.

Burill, C.W., & Ledolter, J., Achieving quality management through continual improvement, John Wiley & Sons, 1999.

Prevention Outweighs Reaction

• People and organizations are reactionary by nature• Organizations have to find ways to override this

natural state so that their people will think and act differently

• Organizations also have to come to grips with the reality that HR, Security and Safety Departments have historically been reactionary. This means they have to change how their people think and act before they can really help the organization to change.

Its Bigger Than Your Company!

University of Western Ontario researched showed that the level of violence in the surrounding community does predict workplace aggression at the organization.

There is a direct correlation.

National Council on Compensation Insurance, Inc., based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Data

Enlightened Self Interest

• Develop community based program that focuses on and will influence the reduction of violence behavior.

• Work with Sales, Sales Support, Customer Service, Community Relations, etc. to get local input and to define ‘what’s in it for me.’– Able to recruit better candidates for positions– Enhance client relationships– Contact with prospects for non selling activity that develop

important relations– Create positive reputation for firm

Multi-Functional Effort

• Security to conduct periodic risk assessments and ‘what if’ drills.

• Security focus on creating a ‘security conscious work environment and culture.’

• Facilities Management implement CPTED.• HR drive policy creation, implementation and on

going communications• HR drive periodic training• HR implement support programs, e.g., EAP,

background screening, fitness for duty process, etc.Copyrighted Materials: National Institute for Prevention of Workplace Violence, Inc.

Carrie

How does this tie back to HR role?Bullet 1 - does this mean work with Security on an "active" issue?We have security conscious work environment. What is CPTED? No cite??

Holistic Approach Using CPTED

Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design • An approach to reduce opportunities, real or perceived, for

threats that are often inherent in the structure of facilities, the layout of buildings, and those who use them, public or employees.

• A combination of strategies that integrates security as part of a holistic business strategy rather than just a singular independent focus.


Carrie

explain to Barry we are working on this

The NFL is Not Alone

What Ray Rice and other players who batter do is wrong. And the NFL needs to figure out what to do about the issue. But given the prevalence of domestic violence, so does every other workplace in America.• According to BLS survey over 70% of U. S. employers have no

formal program or policy that addresses workplace violence. • Of the 30% of workplaces in the US that have some sort of

formal workplace violence policy, only 44% have a policy to address domestic violence in the workplace.

• Only 4 % of all establishments train employees on domestic violence and its impact on the workplace.


Study of Male Batterers• 29% of respondents contacted their partner while at work to

say something that might have scared or intimidated her; 40% of supervisors were aware this type of contact occurred at work.

• Participants lost a total of 44,515 days of work — equivalent to 22 years of full time employment — because they were in jail as a result of domestic violence.

• 83% of supervisors were aware of why respondents took time off of work due to their domestic violence offense; however, only 32% of supervisors gave any response to the employee about his domestic violence incident, his behavior, or his relationship in general.

A survey of male offenders enrolled in batterer intervention programs in Vermont, November 2011


Are We Solving the Right Problem?

As companies have adopted explicit policies aimed at protecting victims, such as victim assistance programs, flexible schedules, and leave time in the aftermath of violence, it remains uncommon for employers to have explicit policies regarding batterers.


Supervisor Should Confront Employees that are Batterers

• 59% of respondents (batterers) suggested it would be helpful for supervisors to confront an employee whom they suspect is abusive toward their intimate partner. – Confronting the abuser includes: offering counseling,

resources, help and support, and warning about the consequences of domestic violence.


Why Firms Don’t Provide Domestic Violence Training

• What are the main reasons that organizations do not offer training on domestic violence? – The most common reason given is that the topic are

covered in sexual harassment training or other training (53%).

– Thirty percent indicated that their organization had too many other priorities or no time, and

– one-quarter (26%) expect their employee assistance program (EAP) to take care of these issues.


Training Should Cover:

• Recognize - be aware of signs of domestic violence for potential victims and abusers

• Respond - appropriately address changes in behavior that are affecting performance

• Refer - know who to call if a situation of domestic violence becomes known

Training should also include issues of privacy and confidentiality.

Predictive Management

Predictive management prevents bad outcomes before they occur, focuses management on the means to achieve key performance indicators, saves time and better uses resources. “It will almost always be cheaper and easier to prevent a problem, or to minimize a problem, than it will be to fix it.”

Steve Minter, Editor-in-Chief, Industry Week.


Emerging Proactive Approach

Preemptively implementing preventative measures to reduce the likelihood of conflicts, policy violations or incidents occurring thus, reducing the risk of violence and/or injuries.


Paradigm Shift

• A reactive management style quickly solves problems and are able to get the people and/or machine quickly back to work and productive again.

• Predictive management focuses on reducing the number of problems that require reactive management. The more problems that can be prevented through predictive management, the fewer problems will need to be solved through reactive management.


Can You Handle the Truth?

The cold truth about workplace violence is that with serious ‘what if’ planning and diligent application of proactive measures we have the capability of preventing most incidents.


“That couldn’t happen here”

• Anticipating your organization becoming a target of violence is not wishful thinking, but instead it is prudent and good business decision-making.


Prevention

“Stop it, before it begins”

The NIX Model: Protect

• Activate ‘active shooter’ plan• Synchronized emergency and crisis response

plans• Crisis communications plan in place• Critical Incident Response Plan• Understand Law enforcement and other first

responders ‘active shooter’ tactics• Integrated with Business Continuity Plan


Protect

• Notify threatened employee of potential danger.• Maintain surveillance of potential perpetrator.• Intervene with intent of disrupting the ‘Cycle of Aggression.’• If trouble starts, notify Security to intervene immediately,

contact Threat Management Team, implement law enforcement protocol (remember in active shooter situations shots are generally fired in the first 5 minutes; plan accordingly).

• Have Crisis Response Plan prepared and ready to put into action.


Carrie

There is a difference in our company of how an active situation is treated and taking proactive measure because we have PTAG to deal with proactive adn Security with active. Should we discuss? We see protect in a couple of ways - protect employees from a potential violent act vs an active violent act - we need to distinguish thesebullet 2 - this will be done if the perpetrator is an ee

Crisis Response Plan

• Focus is to reduce the impact on people and business resources

• Mass communication process in place to reach off site and onsite employees, supervisors, clients, community, etc.

• Prepare for meeting the press ahead of time• Communication plan with ‘First Responder’ community • Have an ‘Active Shooter’ plan (recognize it is different

from other emergencies because of the human element)• Training and practice


Preparedness

“A popular myth is that when faced with danger, a crisis or catastrophe that people will rise to the occasion, the truth is that more often than not people will rise to their level of preparation.”

Remember:“Fate favors the prepared mind”

Louis Pasture


Summary of Key Messages• Make it clear Prevention is your goal• Conduct Organization and Site Risk Assessments• Implement Workplace Violence Prevention (including

Domestic violence) policy by effectively communicating, training and enforcing

• Considering threats of violence as a serious issue and take proactive action to prevent escalation

• Listen to employees concerns• Understand the Crisis Response plan and your role in

implementing it.


Carrie

bullet 3 - we have a Workplace Violence Preventiaon policy - PTAG is an assessment group and is training people - we are working on thiswhat is meant by "Crisis Respons Plan" what level?punctuation

Workplace Violence Can be Dangerous to Your Health!

• Don’t dismiss it as not being possible where you work.

• Don’t gamble with your own and other peoples lives.

• Be prepared and have a plan.

Violence Prevention is The Possible Dream

Remember, most violent events in the workplace are preventable, if we are willing to invest in proactive strategies that identify potential risk, implement preventative actions and take swift targeted actions to reduce ‘conflict’ and resolve issue(s).

Resource Center• www.Workplaceviolence911.com

– Workplace Violence Fact Sheet– The Ultimate Workplace Violence Prevention Policy Maker Software

(includes section on Domestic Violence)– The Workplace Violence Prevention eReport

• www.CAEPV.org (Corporate Alliance to End Partner Violence)• Workplace Responds to Domestic and Sexual Violence

http://www.futureswithoutviolence.org/content/features/detail/1596/• Texas Health Resources

– Domestic Violence Calculator; https://www2.texashealth.org/dv• U.S. Office of Personnel Management- “Guidance for Agency-

Specific Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault, and Stalking Policy”– http://goo.gl/qETGr5

http://www.futureswithoutviolence.org/content/features/detail/1596/

http://www.futureswithoutviolence.org/content/features/detail/1596/

Important Information:Copyrighted Material

This document may not be reproduced by any means or used for commercial purposes without written permission from the National Institute for Prevention of Workplace, Inc.

Disclaimer

The National Institute for Prevention of Workplace Violence, Inc. has made an extra effort to ensure that all the information presented is accurate, however, we strongly encourage recipients of this material to independently verify all information. Also this document is not intended to provide legal advice and we strongly encourage you to seek competent legal council regarding any content and the efficacy of taking any action based on the information contain in this document. The implementation of any ideas, thoughts or suggestions are solely at the discretion of the reader and we make no representations regarding the effectiveness of any information contained in this document.