Virginia Tech Violence: A New Wave of Concern for Employers?

By BLR Founder and CEO Bob Brady

We join the nation in grief over the violence and mayhem at Virginia Tech this week. As the parent of a recent college graduate, I can’t imagine the pain that those parents, family members, and fellow students are feeling. It is truly horrible.

I suspect that every reader of this column reacted as we did here at BLR. First and foremost, outrage and sympathy, but also, “Are we at risk in our workplace? What should we be doing to evaluate and prepare?”

On the community forums of our subscription website, HR.BLR.com, HR professionals are invited to ask questions and share views, and there have been numerous posts from members.

There were calls for greater security, but also an awareness that there are limits to what can be done. We are not going to install metal detectors at every entrance to every building. We are not going to inspect every package. We are not going to give up too many of our freedoms and allow others to invade too much of our privacy. As a result, we will always be vulnerable.

“My kids were in high school when Columbine occurred,” wrote one poster. “For a few weeks afterward, the school administration locked all except the main lobby door. Students were not allowed to have opaque back packs or purses, but only clear plastic bags (pretty embarrassing for the teenage girls). A policeman looked over the bags as students entered.

“I don’t think this lasted 3 weeks,” the poster continued. “It was just too time-consuming and caused too much inconvenience for the risk.”

Employers in a better position to identify risk

Another post made the point that employers are in a much better position to identify potential risks than educational institutions. In the workplace, there is the expectation of hierarchy and discipline. Expectations of privacy are more limited. As a result, it is easier to see risks.

“I don’t know the first thing about providing security for a campus of 26,000, but I think that what happened there can serve as a reminder to us to look for the warning signs of an employee who may be prone to violence,” this individual noted. “We should take this opportunity to review our policy on workplace violence and train employees to look for the signs – and REPORT them to HR (or whomever else we designate).”

Some tools to help you do so

Monitoring employee conduct and taking steps to counsel and/or remove employees exhibiting warning signs is something that we have to do. BLR has numerous checklists and training materials on this subject. Some are normally on our pay-for-view websites, but we’re now making them available free-of-charge to any and all employers. They can be found at the following links:

Violent Employees Risk Asessment Checklist
Workplace Violence Warning Signs Training Outline
Workplace Violence Warning Signs Training Quiz
Defuse the Violence (Workbook)

Domestic Violence

One final word: In talking about this column with several HR experts, they reminded me that  most workplace violence is domestic in origin. The workplace is sometimes the only place that an abuser can find a spouse who has fled. Employers should be especially sensitive to the need to provide security for employees in these situations.

Forums

Several of the comments in this column were submitted to the Forums on HR.BLR.com. I would urge you to add your thoughts to these. The forums are located at http://community.blr.com/hr/forums Or you can share your views directly with me at Rbrady@blr.com.