The workplace violence policy that you’ve been working on for your company is finally done. You made sure to add all of the prevention policies and reporting procedures you could think of. You’re ready to submit it and make it part of the company’s SOP, but…

…for your people to protect themselves if something actually happens and they find themselves being violently attacked by an enraged attacker?

When I review a company’s workplace violence prevention plan, I find that they usually read more like any other policy. They’re filled with front-end, preventative policies and “rules,” and the company’s required back-end, reporting and disciplinary procedures. But rarely do I see a plan that fills in the center - the details regarding policies, procedures, action plans, and training - for how employees will deal with an actual attack. It’s this missing piece - this critical element of any emergency action plan - which is what a workplace violence plan should be seen as - could actually leave a company with the exact same liability and loss issues that the plan was originally written to avoid.

The truth us that, prevention is great and certainly necessary. So, a plan’s “zero-tolerance” statements, banned weapons lists, or employee interaction policies should be included in a well-designed one. Likewise, you’ll need to make sure that your reporting and disciplinary procedures are there to cover your company and to comply with some government rules and regulations. But, a good plan will be focused on the reason that we bothered to create a workplace violence prevention policy in the first place. And that reason is…

…liability control, and loss management.

True?

Unless you’re in the habit of making up policies for your company just because you attended a seminar or read an article about it and some so-called expert said you needed it, your workplace violence management policy should be seen for what it is - a critical, potentially life-saving, part of your company’s overall liability-management systems.

The term, “life-saving,” may seem a bit strong but I mean it literally in the sense of a company’s financial life. Because a violent attack happening in your facility can literally destroy your company. But, when I say “life-saving,” I’m also talking about the lives of you, your employees, and anyone visiting and who might get caught in the cross-fire. The thing to remember is that, an assailant intent on attacking, regardless of whether he is one of your own or an outsider, doesn’t care about your zero-tolerance stance - isn’t concerned about whether he’s “allowed” to have the weapon he’s using, or what you’re going to do to him after he’s finished.

However, I can assure you that the new breed of lawyers who are standing by, waiting to represent any of your employees injured in a workplace violence incident, care about the same missing elements to your plan that I am. And these missing elements include:

* Escape and evasion tactics during a violent attack

* Attack evasion tactics

* Assault prevention training, and of course…

* Self-Defense skills

These are the elements that could make or break your company’s survival and future existence. The only elements that are designed specifically to save the lives of…

* your employees and managers - literally

* your company’s financial standing, and perhaps even more importantly…

* …it’s legal position should there be the threat of post incident action by injured employees making the company liable for not providing this type of training in the first place.

Honestly, I bet your workplace violence prevention policy “looks” great. But regardless of whether it was put together by you, a committee, or an independent consultant, you owe it to everyone who will be affected by it, to make sure that your new workplace violence plan is more than just a “feel-good” policy that you can brag about.

It’s up to you to make sure it won’t fail when you need it the most!