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  ASIS Guideline Tackles Workplace Violence in Flow Chart
      (Staff Writer, Corporate Security, June 30, 2005)

The latest proposed security guideline from ASIS International/Alexandria, Va., seeks to reduce one of the most high-pressure, frequently emotion-laden situations a security professional confronts – responding to an actual or potential incident of workplace violence – to a corporate flow chart.

However, CS wondered: Can prompt and effective response to what could become a melee really be expressed within the confines of a series of boxes and arrows?

Experts told us, yes, a flow chart can be an ideal tool for security professionals and others on a company's workplace violence team. Why? Because companies potentially will need to show a jury that every sign of emerging violence was handled in a uniform way, explained Bruce Blythe, CEO of Crisis Management International/Atlanta. And few tools promote consistency like a flow chart.

Blythe and others think the reputation of workplace violence as spontaneous is misused, that what seems like unpredictable events actually can be anticipated and prevented or handled through a very rational process.

That said, Blythe would add a few new elements to the ASIS flow chart. For example, he suggested adding a second section directing whichever employee receives the first expression of concern about potential violence (there really should be only one gatekeeper, preferably a security professional, he said) can decide independently whether immediate action must be taken.

He also suggested the flow chart include a new section on "purposeful disengagement" – meaning, the workplace violence team should, once the situation is resolved, inform the potential victim that the case could be opened immediately if she or he desires, by calling a team member.

Steve Millwee, CCP, president and CEO of SecurTest Inc./Tampa, Fla., also likes the flow chart approach because "it gives a large picture overview of how the incident management team can respond." He also recommends using standard list of questions (his company has one with 260 different questions at www.securtest.com) to assess the level of risk, assuming there isn't a clear need to act more immediately.

Examples of pertinent risk-assessment questions are "The person has made a direct threat" or "The person is always voicing an objection to a rather benign exchange in workplace policy." Workplace violence teams can gauge the overall risk to an employee's safety by determining how many of these statements apply to a particular co-worker, spouse, acquaintance, etc.

ASIS' proposed workplace violence guideline can be found at http://www.asisonline.org/guidelines/guidelineswpvdraft.pdf. It is open for public comment until Aug. 7, 2005.

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