California. Chicago. Texas. The U.S. deadliest shooting incidents have left everyone in shock. Sadly, everybody is at risk. Gun violence can literally happen anywhere. According to neurosciencenews, Americans are 10 times more likely to be killed by gun violence than people in other developed countries.
There are some basic steps we can take to handle this situation. Investigators from Northeastern institutes indicate that there are around 265mn privately-kept guns in America. According to time.com, in a country with so many privately-possessed firearms, we need transformation in our viewpoint as eliminating firearms is not a practical solution. Plus, it’s also noticeable that many companies are bringing their best products into the weapon market including (Beretta) Tikka T3 Rifles and SIG Sauer P365 that are giving more control to the shooter while reducing the gun-associated mishaps. All in all, it’s also important that you pay attention to your overall security measures.
Especially, the workplaces need to take particular measures to provide safety and protection to their workers. However, controlling this worst-case scenario isn’t as easy as it may sound. Here, the role of CEOs is crucial as they are the ones responsible for enforcing policies and ensuring safety by adopting better communication means and encouraging accountability.
In this post, we’ll look at the ways organizations can play their role in reducing the risk of gun violence in the workplace.
The Leadership Role
ALICE Training
Businesses should opt for the ALICE training program to educate their workers. This specialized program is also beneficial for schools, churches, etc. This program comprises of five basic steps including alert, lockdown, inform, counter and evacuate.
Although, such stuff may be creepy for your workers in the beginning, but it still gives a sense of empowerment and confidence to your staff.
Mention Your Policy Clearly
You should have a solid policy in-hand regarding the prevailing gun violence issues in your state. Making it clear to the staff that weapons are strictly prohibited in an office area is a great move. However, there are states in America that still allow workers to take guns into their offices. In that case, make sure to forward your personalized company policy that guns and any other form of weapons are not allowed.
Send a Personal Note to Staff
Even if your company hasn’t been affected by any gun-violence incident, it’s still important to let your workers know you care. You can do this by sending a personal note stating your worker’s safety is your topmost priority.
Arrange a Meeting
Sending a letter is a great way to show your commitment and care towards your employees. However, after doing that, you need to reengage them via verbal communication. Arrange a town hall meeting to talk about your commitment.
Conduct a Survey
Commutation is a two-way process. Not only do the company heads need to convey their concerns regarding this issue, they should also invite workers to give their feedbacks and opinions. To do this, an anonymous survey should be conducted in which you can ask your staff to share innovative ideas about how to make their workplace more safe and protected. Ask questions like, ‘What improvements they want to see in the security system of their office?’ As a company owner, you should pay attention to their concerns.
Take Complaints Seriously
Although shooting suspects generally do not have any direct involvement with the company, the risk is always there. Which is why the Human Rights department should take each and every complaint seriously. The issue is, people usually show reluctance while talking about their fellow employees, so they require an undisclosed discussion panel or a podium where they can trigger awareness about any probable threat. Being the CEO, your role would be to follow-up those discussions, make proper investigations and take on-time actions.
Invest in a Corporate Violence Expert
Handling a possibly alarming worker is a difficult job, and you may require to go beyond your internal sources to deal with the situation. You can hire a professional violence expert for your company who can do thorough assessment of the interviewee’s behavior during job interview.
What Should the Workers Do?
Be Attentive
Being an employee, it’s your responsibility to keep an eye on your surroundings. Watch out for a worker who looks unusual, has problem mingling with others and shows signs of anger. Any alerts that the person might be undergoing some sort of emotional or mental distress should be immediately reported to the concerned authorities.
Report Abusive or Threatening Behavior
It’s definitely not very easy to openly talk about your bad experiences with anyone. However, it’s important that you should let your upper management know if you’re experiencing any sort of abuse, anger or misbehavior from your peer within or outside the workplace.
Use EAP (Employee Assistance Program)
Organizations acquire many resources to assist their staff with such problems. A professional counselor is generally accessible 24/7. Usually companies offer 8-10 counselling sessions to their workers that they can avail in-person or by a telephonic conversation.
According to vox.com, poor enforcement is the biggest problem with American gun and ammunition laws. Hence, it’s crucial that companies take sound initiatives by enforcing strict gun laws inside their workplace premises.
