Preventing Workplace Violence Starts with a Plan

When I think about a safe workplace, I think first about systems to protect people from accidents. I think about PPE, lock-out tag-out systems, fall-protection harnesses, railings, guards, and all the various innovations attached to formidable machines that keep manufacturing workers safe and their fingers attached every day. But there’s another, more sinister threat to safety that doesn’t spring to mind immediately: workplace violence.

According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, violence at the workplace is actually the second leading cause of fatal workplace injuries in the United States. As of the beginning of July, the California State OSHA has begun requiring companies under its remit to establishing and implementing a written Workplace Violence Prevention Plan — comparable to the Injury and Illness Prevention Programs already required elsewhere.

For California, the regulation is inspired by local tragedy: In 2021, a mass shooter at the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority opened fire, killing 9. The shooting pushed State Senator Cortese to spearhead the passage of State Bill 553, which was signed in 2023 and came into effect July 1, 2024.

While Cal/OSHA’s requirements only apply to companies operating in California, workplace violence happens all over the country. According to the latest available data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were 849 fatalities in the 2022 workforce caused intentionally by another person, up substantially from 718 in 2021.

According to Scott Bullock, an HR, recruiting, safety, and risk management consultant with Optima Office, Cal/OSHA’s latest requirement is unique in the country, but welcomes the spotlight it puts on a preventable problem for businesses. “As far as I know, no one [else] has created an enforceable standard strictly for workplace violence,” he said in an interview with IndustryWeek.

California’s State Bill 553 requires businesses to create a Workplace Violence Protection Plan, or WVPP, that includes assigning responsibilities and keeping a lot of violent incidents and investigations.

Bullock, who has worked with several small- to medium-sized companies on workplace violence protection programs, emphasizes that, as with other workplace safety issues, a suitable culture of safety is a primary focus.

“A lot of companies still have that focus where people will just lie about getting hurt because they’re afraid they’re going to get in trouble, or they don’t report it if there’s a near miss,” he notes.

While working with industrial equipment often involves one kind of safety training, workplace violence protection training often involves softer skills.

“Part of the training is things like how to defuse a hostile situation,” Bullock says. “How to look at someone at work whose behavior becomes unusual and, you know, pay attention to it. Because a lot of times we just ignore it and then something happens, or we have a bully who keeps threatening people, but we don’t tell anybody about it. So a lot of times it’s the process of eliminating those folks from the workforce.”

Employee-on-employee violence is one of four different kinds of workplace violence defined by OSHA. Type 3 violence involves “Workplace violence against an employee by a present or former employee, supervisor, or manager.” Types 1, 3, and 4 each deal with violence committed against an employee by, respectively, an outsider to the company, customers or clients, and people with a personal relationship to an employee. Bullock pointed out that many of these violent incidents are precipitated by preventable hazards.

“Traditionally, we look at ‘hazards’ as, you know, an extension cord with frayed ends, a power tool that’s not properly grounded, or a ladder that’s not being used correctly,” he said. “Those are, you know, job site hazards, but there are violence hazards as well.” Security issues like failing to secure restricted areas, leaving doors open, and failing to maintain security cameras, Bullock says, could leave employees vulnerable to sometimes-random acts of violence.

At present, Bullock says, the requirements are more of a framework for a WVPP, but it does require that companies establish and maintain such a plan as well as train their employees on it annually. That training, according to Cal/OSHA, should include how to get a paper copy of the WVPP; how to report workplace violence incidents to employers or law enforcements without fear of retaliation; and how to respond to “actual or potential workplace violence,” including how to evacuate or take shelter in an emergency like an active-shooter event.

If other states follow Cal/OSHA’s lead, more state governments may require workplaces to establish and enforce WVPP. But even if a plan isn’t required, the potential for workplace violence should always be considered a relevant feature of any comprehensive safety policy.