Security Planning and Assessment Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3750 words

Security Planning and Assessment - Assignment Example A very real, clear and present danger lurks just beyond the consciousness of people who work together eight to ten hours a day, five to seven days a week. It is the potential for violence to occur in workplace. Increasingly, the Human Resources function is both the target of these threats of workplace violence and the organization's first line of defense for the prevention of workplace violence. Homicide is the second leading cause of fatal occupational injury in the United States. Nearly 1,000 workers are murdered and 1.5 million are assaulted in the workplace each year. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) National Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI), in additional information about workplace violence, there were 709 workplace homicides in 1998. These accounted for 12 percent of the total 6,026 fatal work injuries in the United States. Of these 709 workplace homicide victims in 1998, 80 percent were shot and nine percent were stabbed. According to the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), 2 million assaults and threats of violence against Americans at work occur annually. The most common type of workplace crime was assault with an average of 1.5 million a year. There were 396,000 aggravated assaults, 51,000 rapes and sexual assaults, 84,000 robberies, and 1,000 homicides reported. These figures likely fall short of the actual number of violent acts occurring in workplaces as not all acts of workplace violence are reported. The news media tend to sensationalize acts of workplace violence that involve coworkers. In sensationalizing incidents of workplace violence, they remove the emphasis from the most important targets for workplace safety programs. In fact, the most common motive for job-related homicide is robbery, accounting for 85 percent of workplace violence deaths. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) provides information that illustrates anyone can become the victim of a workplace assault, but th e risks are greater for workplace violence in certain industries and occupations. The taxicab industry has the highest risk, nearly 60 times the national average for potential workplace violence. A good first step for prevention in all workplaces consists of a general assessment designed to evaluate the presence of any specific risks of violence, both from within and outside the organization. Such an assessment will help the organization to fully understand the particular safety and security needs of the workplace - information that will help shape its prevention efforts. Often, forms of behavior that signaled the violence to come have preceded a violent act. If those signs had been recognized and appropriately addressed, the violence might not have happened. A prevention program will include a ''No Threats, No Violence'' policy that is clearly communicated to all employees. The policy will state the employer's commitment to provide a safe workplace, free from violence or the threat of violence. It will also set forth a code of employee conduct that clearly defines unacceptable behavior and prohibits all violence and threats on-site and during work-related off-site activities . A workplace violence program further includes an interdisciplinary team created and trained to manage any violent incidents or reports of troubling behavior made under the