No employer wants to think that there is potential for violence in its workplace, but workplace violence is a disturbing fact of life. According to the Department of Justice National Crime Victimization Survey, there are almost 2 million assaults and threats of on-the-job violence each year. Common assaults are the most frequent, and aggravated assaults, rapes and homicides are also on the rise. When workplace violence does strike, the results can be devastating, and can include not only harm to employees and/or customers, but also negative publicity, workers compensation costs, OSHA charges and lawsuits.

Obviously, not all incidents of employee violence can be predicted or prevented, but companies today are expected to take reasonable measures to keep informed of potential threats to the health and safety of employees and customers. Employer liability is most likely to arise when the company has failed to take the appropriate measures to recognize the warning signs in present employee behavior that may foreshadow potential violence; act appropriately to analyze these signs and take reasonable steps to prevent violent behavior from occurring.

Recognizing the Warning Signs

While there is no comprehensive list of predictors that an employee or group of employees is about to turn violent, some common indicators can include:

Except in situations involving specific threats, you cannot always tell whether an employee who exhibits one or a few of the above characteristics is likely to become violent. After all, everyone becomes angry sometimes, disagrees with decisions or breaks the rules-- and an occasional display of this conduct does not mean that an individual is dangerous. As a rule of thumb, though, the more often and intensely the employee exhibits these behaviors and carries out these patterns, the more closely you should watch this individual.

Confronting the Issue

As uncomfortable as management may feel in confronting an employee who exhibits the warning signs discussed above, you cannot afford to ignore the problem. While there is a chance that the conduct will “go away by itself,” the risk is much greater that the problem will escalate into a more dangerous situation. Direct threats should be dealt with immediately, under company policy. In all other situations, observe the following guidelines:

Communicate with the employee. Sit down with the employee and discuss your concerns about the behavior. It is important to keep the conversation focused on objective, observable aspects of the specific behavior rather than subjective or speculative thoughts. For example, if the employee has been having attendance problems or nodding off to sleep at the job, discuss these behaviors rather than asking, “Are you on drugs?” Let the employee know that this is not acceptable behavior in the workplace.

Document this meeting in writing. This will help you in the event that you have to eventually terminate this employee, and if this behavior escalates to violence at some point, it will help to prove that as an employer you recognized and attempted to deal with the problem.

Provide Assistance to Troubled Employees. Be prepared to refer the individual to outside help, whether this is a formal Employee Assistance Plan (EAP) or other outside counseling source. If you do not have an EAP, you can find an outside counseling provider through your benefits or workers compensation insurance provider. Employers are not trained to diagnose and deal with the multitude of complex problems that its employees may face, nor are they qualified to determine whether an individual has the potential to become dangerous.

Keep investigations confidential. As you investigate and deal with an employee’s high-risk behaviors, it is critical to keep all information learned from any source completely confidential, and not to share any details with anyone who does not have a need to know. Do not encourage gossip or speculation about the employee.

No matter how vigilant you are in spotting and dealing with potential trouble situations, there is no way to eliminate all workplace violence. With the help of attorneys, trauma and security experts and human resources professionals, develop a comprehensive safety plan for dealing with incidents of workplace violence. This plan should identify emergency crisis procedures, employee-counseling resources, steps to re-establish a secure workplace and a public relations team for internal and external communications. The way in which you, as an organization, respond in the face of an emergency will be critical in re-establishing a feeling of safety among employees and generating goodwill from the community as a whole.