One in Seven Americans Don't Feel Safe at Work

Roughly one in seven Americans do not feel safe at work – demonstrating the need for more workplace violence education, prevention and training, according the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM).

The data comes during a period of heightened workplace violence awareness in the USA – a workplace shooting that left five people dead and several police officers injured in Aurora, Illinois made national headlines last month.

The survey found nearly half of HR professionals said their organisation had at some point experienced a workplace violence incident—up from 36 percent in 2012. Of those who reported workplace violence, over half said an incident had occurred in the last year.

SHRM CEO Johnny Taylor said companies and HR should, and must, do more to make employees feel safe at work.

“This data shows we have a lot of work to do in terms of security, prevention, training and response.”

Worryingly, approximately one-third of American employees, and approximately one in five HR professionals, are unsure of what to do if they witness or are involved in a workplace violence incident.

“The goal for employers—and this is something we address in our toolkit—is making your workplace a ‘difficult’ target for violent offenders and being prepared to react quickly,” Taylor explained.

“If you make the investment in security and preparation, your employees will feel safer and respect you for valuing their safety.”

And while the majority of HR professionals say their organisation already provides workplace violence training to employees on how to respond to an act of workplace violence, more than one-third do not provide such training to employees.

Additionally, while almost all say their company has a process for identifying employees with a history of violence, over half are unsure whether they have a workplace violence prevention program.

According to the research, Americans understandably feel safer when employers provide prevention and training response programs. Additionally, more employees know how to react if their organisation already has a workplace violence prevention and/or employee response training program.

“Education has to start from the top down, and often that starts with HR,” Taylor said. “There’s naturally a lot of fear when people think of workplace violence. But preparing and providing employees with hands-on training helps empower them to react and take action in the event of a worst-case scenario.”